Coming Soon: weekly bread

Announcing the next step in the life of this micro-bakery

Hey Friends! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and is enjoying some rest at the end of a rather exhausting year. 

The reason for this email is to share the exciting news that I’m finally going to do something that many of you (at least those of you in Madison) have been asking me to do. I’m going to be offering bread for sale on a weekly basis.

Please allow me to acknowledge why my family is willing to turn our home into a micro-bakery. 

As I’ve written about before — though I did start baking sourdough bread in 2020, there are two reasons why I don’t consider my baking to be a pandemic hobby. First, because I actually started baking sourdough before COVID… but more importantly… because my baking only truly got serious as I turned it into a way to channel the passion for bread making into a vehicle for activism. The first time I sold my bread was to be a part of a #BakersAgainstRacism bake sale. After that I held a couple more specific fundraisers in conjunction with this group to further support organizations combating racism and injustice in our society. To be honest though, I didn’t have any dreams of doing more than these one-off bake sales. 

Throughout this year my bread making transitioned from a hobby to a practice of self-care. Then I turned it into a fundraising project in an attempt to address the pain and fear that I (and most every person of color I’ve ever spoken to about the topic) feel when trying to figure out how to safely navigate a society where my life and liberty are repeatedly shown to be undervalued. Ultimately, an overlapping passion for making excellent bread, and for actively building a more just society for my kids to grow up in are what compels my family to make this commitment.

I’m starting a purpose-driven bakery business under the same name as this newsletter. 

Bread & Justice is a micro-bakery on a mission. 

With the support of this community, Bread & Justice will be donating 100% of the profits from the sale of every loaf of handmade sourdough bread to an organization working towards a more just society. To date, our bake sales were raising funds for the ACLU of Wisconsin and Black Voters Matter. Going forward, we’ll be selecting a different nonprofit each month to support with the proceeds from your purchases of bread. 

Speaking about the bread – I’m so eager to share this bread with you! Although the ingredients are very simple (flour, water and salt) a loaf of sourdough takes over 24 hours from start to finish. After hundreds of loaves of practice, I’m very proud of the quality of results that we are consistently putting out. Furthermore, I’m excited that I’ve begun revolving my bread around locally grown and regeneratively farmed wheat flour from Meadowlark Organics, a family farm located in Ridgeway, Wisconsin. The texture and flavor of this bread has really become remarkable, and I can’t wait to share it with you. 

Heads up: we’re going to be starting off baking small batches of bread each week. So now is a good time to share this newsletter with any friends who may want to be among the first to get instructions on how we’ll be handling pre-orders for bread. 

Thank you!
Mo