North Fork Journal (Broadway, VA) - April 23, 2008
Author: Florence Barrett ; STAFF WRITER
BROADWAY - Soon after Staff of Life BreadCompany owner Abbey Whetzel arrives at the Downtown Harrisonburg Farmers' Market, eager customers buy every loaf of her homemade bread.
"Last summer I was doing about 175 loaves," Whetzel said of her maximum production. "I would sell out before the market would close."
On Saturday, Harrisonburg resident Barbara Graber arrived at Whetzel’s booth a few hours after the market opened. The large wicker bread baskets were almost empty.
"I buy what's left," Graber said good-naturedly. "Oh my goodness, it's fantastic. Fantastic."
Staff of Life breads have delectable names such as Grecian almond and fig, cinnamon raisin walnut, seeded sourdough, rosemary potato and whole wheat with nine grain. There's Jewish rye and pumpernickel - popular with New Yorkers; Pane alla Ricotta, ethereal Tuscan bread; cheddar beer sourdough, a dark malt, generous with cheese; churek, a Rhodesian eggless challa; kamut, ancestral golden-color wheat that's high in nutrients; Pane alla Cioccolatte, a chocolate bread; and alpenbrot, a German many-seeded bread.
"Brot is German for bread. Basically, the bakery that I got the bread from is in the Alps," Whetzel said. "I have a ton of bread books. I like European breads."
Staff of Life breads are also sold at Red Front Supermarket and Downtown Wine and Gourmet, located at Court Square next to Cally's and Court Square Theater.
Best Ingredients
Whetzel bakes throughout the week at her Broadway home. The kitchen has a tall wooden-top worktable, 30-quart commercial mixer and bins of flour and spices; in the dining room, there's a shelf of supplies, a container of starter dough, loaf pans and stacks of banneton baskets for proofing bread. Four ovens, tall cooling racks, and a well-stocked pantry of flour, spices, nuts, grains and dried fruit are in the finished basement.
"There’s so much physical labor into making bread, it'd be hard to be a chunky baker," Whetzel said, noting the time she spends lifting, carrying and transporting trays of breads up and down stairs, and transporting huge bags of flour.
Wearing a flour-smudged black apron, Whetzel added ingredients to flax rye dough on Thursday. The flax rye bread has been a stand-by since she started it, she said.
Her recipes are kept in plastic folders so she can check off each ingredient with a magic marker and wipe the plastic clean when she's done.
"I learned from making mistakes," she said, smiling.
Whetzel uses King Arthur and Wheat Montana, two brands of unbleached flour.
"Bleaching takes out nutrients and flavor," she said. The bromates in bleached flour, Whetzel explained "are carcinogens and are banned in some countries.
"That's why I've been really shopping around for flour. I won't use crummy flour. ... I always use the best quality ingredients I can buy."
She starts her breads with a sourdough culture.
"It prolongs the life of bread and it's better for you, I think," Whetzel said, noting she uses the mixer sparingly. "The less time in the mixer, the better. You have more flavor that way."
Feeding People
Wanting to work from home, Whetzel started the business two years ago with a 20-year-old kitchen mixer and a home oven.
"I wanted something food related. I always feed people," Whetzel said. "This was a way to feed people and it's nice my kids can come home to me."
Her mother, Barbara Bowman, helps with sales at the farmers' market and manages the business' Web site.
Whetzel chose the name Staff of Life for her company, she said, because bread for people in the past "was nearly the only sustenance. It's something very simple and sacred. In Hungary, if you dropped bread on the ground, you would have to kiss it, because it was something so sacred to them in their culture."
Whetzel likes baking bread, she said, because she feels connected to many past generations who have made bread.
"I don't know how I can do the same thing over and over again and be thrilled about it, but I am."
Staff of Life customer Debbie Driver suggested this story.