What does “Fermented” mean?
It means we take our time making the bread. While the bread made in most bakeries takes 2 to 4 hours ours takes 2 days. We use what are called pre-ferments. We mix a small amount of dough the day before and let that sit and rise up very slowly for a day. That dough is then mixed into the main dough, bringing with it enzymes that occur naturally in the flour, enzymes that normally don’t have time to do their work. We make bread the way it was made for centuries.

Are all your breads fermented?
Yes, all of our breads are fermented. We are big believers in slow, old world methods.

I noticed that almost all of your ingredients are organic
but the bread isn’t certified organic, why?
This was a hard decision on our part, and it came down to a couple of ingredients. So while the  flour and oats and almost everything else is certified organic, the honey and eggs are not.  Our choices for honey were:  do we get raw honey from a small local beekeeper who we can visit and see that he’s doing things the way we like, or do we get pasteurized certified organic honey shipped to us from Argentina? We opted for the former in the belief that this was better for your body and better for the planet. We get the eggs from right here on the farm, where the chickens stay out in the fields and are fed organic feed in addition to whatever they can catch...In fact, our name was inspired by one rooster in this flock.

How many of your ingredients are local?
We try to get as many things locally as we can. Our bags and labels are made right here in Grand Rapids. As for the bread ingredients, Michigan doesn’t have the right climate for growing wheat that’s good for bread. So we get our flour from a small mill in Kansas owned by the farmers who grow the wheat. Many of the other ingredients we get locally, the percentage of local ingredients is as follows:
Fermented 100% Whole Wheat— 50%
Fermented Multi-Grain— 43%
Cinnamon Raisin— 29%                              

Where are you located?
We are located on Lubbers Family Farm which is about ten miles west of Grand Rapids.

Do you sell the bread at the bakery?
No, unfortunately we are a little off the beaten path so we just sell it to stores, co-op’s and restaurants. Click here for a list of the stores where you can buy our bread.