Good morning bread friends,

As I mentioned last week… there will be no pre-orders for bread this week. I usually take pre-orders Tuesdays for pickup on Thursday – but I’m taking off this Thursday and will be back next week to fill all of your artisan sourdough needs. 😎

Consistent with my light week this week, I’m going to also keep today’s email to two short topics. First a celebration of our community, and then a note on appreciating a people by their food.

As you know, each month we select a different nonprofit to donate 100% of our profits to. Often we’re donating to a nonprofit that is local/regional, and sometimes we donate to a national nonprofit. March was the first time that we donated to an international nonprofit. As I wrote about on March 1st, decided to donate to World Central Kitchen as they worked to provide food for families fleeing Ukraine amidst the wildly unjust war that Russia was waging on that country.

This Bread & Justice community is really an amazing group. In addition to many notes of encouragement and solidarity, some members of the community contacted me to share that they were matching our donations for the month. I wrote a couple of weeks ago that with the profits of all bread sold we were donating $411 to World Central Kitchen. In addition to that, thanks to the generous matching contributions of Britt & Adam Ryan and Gracie & Andrew Foxwell, this community contributed a total of $1,347 to World Central Kitchen last month. Of course, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that more of you felt moved to give to WCK (or some other awesome and worthwhile cause to support the people of Ukraine) but these are the ones that I know about.

While I was in DC last month I sought out a lovely new Ukrainine bakery in the Adams Morgan neighborhood to eat lunch. This delightful little shop called D Light Café & Bakery is run by sisters Vira and Anastasiia Derun who are immigrants from Ukraine.

While I was there I learned about an amazingly rich dish called syrniki. When I asked for a recommendation of something to try they smiled really big and suggested that if I was up for trying something new I should definitely try their savory syrniki meal. Here is a picture of the syrniki inside of a forest mushrooms cream soup, covered with tender gravlax (salmon), and garnished with parsley.

When I asked one of the sisters how the syrniki itself was made, she said it was essentially a cheese curd pancake… but made with more cheese than flour. Wow! This blew my mind and really spoke to my cheese-loving heart. I’d really encourage you to try these if you ever have the chance. They were wonderful.

I admit that I felt a little sheepish walking into their cafe, knowing that the war in Ukraine was what prompted me to seek to try Ukrainian food for the first time. But the huge smile on their faces when I humbly asked what food I might try that would be authentic to their culture was transformative. It was a reminder to me of how much people just love to share their story with others. And a reminder of how very much food can be how we share our story.

❤️

Cheers,
Mo
the baker

Bread & Justice

WCK Matching Donations (more than 3x)