Back in the days when I operated my bakery from the space that now serves as my writing and photo office, this place was humming with activity as my three ovens worked hard to bake a pile of homemade artisan bread loaves.
It was an ideal place to bake bread, as I had plenty of room to mix the four ingredients, ample space to let the formed loaves rise to the proper puffy height, and a place to slice, bag, and label the final products. Then out the door they went to customers at a series of local stores from Lyme to Littleton.
There is nothing quite like the aromas of fresh-baked bread. It is something that I endured for the 12 years I operated my bakery (I sold it to a friend). I never tired of the wonderful smells the breads emitted.
Interesting too, because those smells being sent into the air, both inside the bakery and outside, attracted our furry bear friends. They would traipse down to this area and lurk, wondering what those delicious-smelling foods were and where they were located.
One time, while speaking with a New Hampshire Fish and Game Sergeant about bears and their keen interest in my baking world, I was told that a black bear could pick up the scent of my bread from as far as two miles away.
So, it was no wonder that on many occasions a bear or two would come snooping around, wondering who was creating those delicious odors. One day, I had a rush order for five loaves for a local restaurant. I finished baking them, placed them on a rack in an open window, left them there to cool so they could firm up a bit, then I sliced them and dashed them up to the restaurant.
When I went to retrieve the bread, I noticed they had been moved around, and three of them were missing. I knew immediately that a bear had come to the window, torn away the screen, grabbed three of the loaves, and hit the dusty trail.
Not an unusual move for a bear that spends its life cruising for food and struck a Mother Lode of bread just waiting to be taken away and munched. It never happened again, but because they figure maybe it might happen again, they come by looking around at any hour of the day or night.
During mud season, when they emerge from their dens and are always very hungry, I can see bears standing on the rear legs at the downstairs bakery door, looking in the windows, slopping mud on the door, and leaving their footprints. Now you know why we have never left a door open at our home to let a cool breeze in.
Every once in a while, a loaf or two might explode in an oven, and I would remove them from
would come by for their handouts.
I go out to that area with a loaf or two. They put out the call, and soon, five or six large black birds are waiting their turn for free bread. I did that perhaps three times, and from then on, they would come and park themselves in that area waiting for me to come out. They would never flee; they knew that the guy who comes through that door right over there and heads this way has a couple of very nice bread loaves he will leave for us.
Sourdoughology (my word) is not sorcery. It is science, chemistry, and the love of good food. It is the blending of certain elements, such as salt, flour, water, and active dry yeast. These parts of the formula are mixed, blended and patted into a substance that has life to it.
You can work it to get fat and puffy, or thin and flat, round or square. Your dough is totally compliant and will go a long way to work with you and be helpful to cover up or hide some of your errors.
What you create with your dough is up to you. I was fortunate to study the world of breadmaking under some of the country's best bakers right there in the King Arthur Education Center in Norwich, Vermont.
There were students, bakers, educators, and others at the center taking the same classes I took. Oh, how envious they were when they found out during initial introductions that I was from a small nearby town 30 minutes away.
Many of the students were from away, here on their annual vacations from their jobs in California, Nevada, Connecticut, or wherever. If there had been a "Traveled the least distance to get here" award, I would have been the winner each time.
I found the entire bread-building time exciting and fun. It took me a while to catch on to the wonderful world of sourdough and bread-baking technique and science, but once it clicked, my training kicked in, and off we launched, making superior products every time.
But let me warn you. I have 25 bear stories. None of the bears ever caused problems beyond being a nuisance. The experts who taught me to bake said, "If you bake superior breads, they will come."
They were right. The customers did come, and so did the bears.

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