Former documentarians turn to wood-fired baking.
This piece first appeared in The Vermont Standard.
When Doug Freilich and Julie Sperling started their business, Naga Bakehouse, seven years ago, it was a trial by fire, literally. The husband and wife team were neophytes who loved the concept of the wood-fired oven that became the foundation of their bakery, but neither had ever actually used one. Now, they’re producing baguettes, flatbreads, and loaves five or six days a week, which they sell at Farmer’s Markets in Woodstock, Rutland, Londonderry, Dorset, Burlington, and Middlebury. “You try to do something, and you have no idea where it’s going, and then it just grows,” says Freilich of Naga’s success.
The former film documentarians hold graduate degrees in Environmental Science from Antioch College New England. Both enjoyed the fruits of their work with non-profits, but were feeling mutually ready for change when they hit on the idea for their own business. They were drawn to the community-centered history of the wood-fired oven, and by the idea of doing something rudimentary but essential. Basics like sour dough baguettes and loaves with whole wheat and rye anchor their product line, but they bake sophisticated varieties too. At last Wednesday’s Woodstock Market on the Green, Naga’s offerings included black olive and cheese stuffed baguettes, flax, sunflower seed and sesame seed bread sticks, and two flat breads, one topped with mozzarella and herbs, the other with pears, cheddar, and maple syrup.
The oven is the crux of the enterprise. “It’s the fire that makes what we do special and unique,” says Freilich, “It’s the only reason we bake. We’re not interested in baking in a high tech convection oven.” Their oven took about two years to plan, finance, and construct. Finding a site was the first challenge. After friends agreed to allow Freilich and Sperling to build on land in Middletown Springs, they began accumulating the necessary materials. Finally, a technical assistance grant from the Vermont Community Loan fund allowed them to engage renowned oven designer, the late Alan Scott, for a construction workshop.
At about eight by ten feet inside, the finished oven could “sleep four comfortably,” says Freilich. The fire begins with kindling at the front of the oven and burns back through long, slender logs. When the wood has been reduced to glowing coals, the embers are either raked out or pushed aside, and the door is closed to allow the heat to equalize. The oven’s thick vermiculite and pearlite lining retains heat for hours or even days.
To learn baking, Freilich and Sperling completed in a course taught by Certified Master Baker Jeffrey Hammelman at the King Arthur Baking Company. Once their business took hold, the couple began to work on their larger objective, to grow or produce almost of the ingredients they use in their baking. Their own garden, for example, is the source of greens for their popular kale and garlic stuffed baguette. And although Vermont’s unpredictable and sometimes very wet weather makes growing wheat difficult, they’ve begun to grow some of their own grain, an enterprise they are working to expand. “We’re working from literally the ground up,” says Freilich, “to do something completely holistic.”
Naga Bakehouse is the Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) Challenge featured vendor for Wednesday, October 6. Doug Freilich and Julie Sperling will demonstrate bread-making techniques and offer samples at Woodstock’s Market on the Green.