In 1977 I was an 8 year old kid growing up in Northern California. The rise of what I have come to call ‘Big Organic’ (a ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ marketplace dominated by a handful of retailers and where even the likes of WalMart have a stake) was still some 10 to 15 years off. The organic food movement was in its infancy and I remember remarking to my mother while we were in the grocery store one day: ‘why would anyone pay extra for such awful looking vegetables.’ That same year, 1977, Chuck and Carla Conway were living and baking in Warren, Vermont and were looking for a space into which to move their organic bakery.

Today, traveling across Vermont from the east on I89 towards Burlington you cover an improbably beautiful state. Crossing the Connecticut River from New Hampshire you start the long climb up the Green Mountains which run north-south through the state. Once over the ‘Greens’ you rapidly descend toward Lake Champlain. On your drive it would come as no surprise that Vermont has a long agrarian tradition and is home to many craftspeople engaged in work which draws heavily from the land. Even today, ‘Big Organic’ is hard to find.

30 years ago, as they looked for a space, Chuck and Carla thought they wanted to move to Burlington where they could have a retail space. After looking at one particular location, (which Ben and Jerry, of ice cream fame also looked at, but decided instead on the now famous gas station.) they were offered a space at Shelburne Farms (just a few miles south of Burlington on the shore of Lake Champlain) which in 1972 began transitioning from its origins as private agricultural estate built by William and Lila Vanderbilt into what it has now become: a membership-supported, nonprofit environmental education center whose mission is to ‘cultivate a conservation ethic.’ From their arrival in the new space O-Bread’s organic baking has been an integral part of and contributor to Shelburne Farm’s mission of environmental stewardship. The farm in general and the bakery in particular illustrate an ‘organic’ ethic that we are at risk of losing as ‘organic’ has moved from it’s beginnings as a reaction to Rachel Carlson’s ‘Silent Spring’ and into the mainstream.

O-Bread has always baked organic breads. For Chuck and Carla the bakery was an extension of their commitment to healthy and sustainable living. They began by only producing whole grain loaves from organic grains that were milled on site at the bakery. Their loaves were naturally leavened using a ‘desem’ starter. Of the early years of getting O-Bread started Chuck said: ‘organic was a “meaning” in search of a definition, whereas now it is a definition in search of a meaning.’

12 years ago (1995) Chuck felt he needed to get out and see what else was happening in baking. Traveling around California was a revelation. He found bakers making loaves using a wide array of preferments and natural starters. The doughs were wet, and were baked in hearth ovens. Upon his return white flour (organic, of course) was introduced into the bakery and ushered in a period of new breads: light crusty French loaves, and ciabatta among others. Of course the whole grain loaves were still present but they took on a lighter texture as different leavens were used.

Even though plenty has changed over the years much of what they do at O-Bread remains the same and true to it’s original intent. They are still in the same space where they started, set on the ground floor amidst the stone foundation of the huge ‘farm barn’ as their particular building is called. Most of the work is done by hand. Mixing is done in a huge Artofex (‘diving arm’) mixer: the slow downward motion of the dual arms gently mixes the dough, resulting in mix times of around 20 minutes but the result is a beautifully mixed dough with no oxidation damage. The dividing is done by hand and the loaves are all baked in a hearth oven. They sell a few breads to visitors of the Farm but they really never did get the retail space they set out to find 30 years ago. Most of the breads are delivered to stores and restaurants in the Burlington area with the rest going by courier to a few natural food stores around Vermont.

Recently O-Bread was challenged by some of their ‘local-vore’ customers to come up with a bread made with ingredients sourced from within 100 miles. They found an organic mill in Canada that lay within the 100 mile radius and delivered a real, local bread.

O-Bread is truly one of my favorite bakeries. The setting is spectacular. And the bakery is staffed by great people, which include not only Chuck and Carla, but also, at various times, any one of their three kids and other bakers from the area. But, it is also their continued commitment to organic baking and sharing this commitment with not only their customers but also with visitors to the farm.

Of course commitment and ideals are one thing but, given the cost of organic ingredients, are organic breads just as profitable as conventional? Given that O-Bread has been at it for 30 years I would venture to say that they are but let’s work it out. Take a simple baguette formula of flour: 100# (100%), water: 68# (68%), salt: 2# (2%) and yeast: 2# (2%). Let’s say that a 50# bag of conventional flour costs $12.00 and an organic sack, $20.00. Water is free (sort of) and lets say that your yeast is $0.75/# and your salt is #0.15/#. Neither of these ingredients needs to be organic for inclusion in our organic bread so their cost will be the same for either formula. The total cost of our conventional dough is $25.80 and the organic $41.80. If we divide each dough into 14 oz pieces we end up with 114 loaves with the conventional loaves costing $0.22 each and the organic $0.36 each. Only $0.14 more for the organic loaves! Obviously production costs are the same whether you are making conventional or organic loaves, so if your price to your customers can cover the additional $0.14 per loaf then you at least break even. The reality is that organic loaves often sell at a premium of a $1.00 or more over their conventional counterparts and thus can be quite profitable.

I’ve been to O-Bread many times over the last several years and as I was saying good bye this last time Chuck was at his desk, presumably paying bills or something and another day’s baking was just about done. The increasing consumption of organic foods is a good thing, but it is also nice to know that in places like O-Bread, a bakery that was there at the beginning, the original intent is still in practice.