Biscuit Baking Challenge

On NSB's Chocolate Babka

"Toasted, with a little bit of butter...It's sort of like crack cocaine." - a customer.

Lil' Farm: The Sweetest Thing

Every year since I started the Berenbaum's Bakery, we have tried to collaborate with George O'Neal, proprietor of Lil' Farm.  Last year, we did a Lil' Farm to Fork pop-up dinner at NSB, and this year, we have been sourcing more veggies from George for the Cafe.  This year was the second that I got to spend a day out at the farm to walk his fields and talk plants, breads, and foodie-ism in general.  I arrived on a hot day with my two-year-old son Elijah at the tail end of strawberry season (about a month ago).  Those late season berries, water hungry, were like sugar on the vine, literally jam in berry form.  It had to be the sweetest thing I'd tasted in a long time.  Shouts to George for doing his thing again this season, with help from his crew: Lily, Eric, and Dominique.  His farm expanded this past year with a large hoop house where cucumbers and tomatoes are growing from floor to ceiling held up by tethers.  We wish him the best and please please visit the man the next time you go to the Durham Farmer's Market, and tell him the appreciative folks at NSB sent 'ya.

The Baker's Way

I have a friend who recently told me he is feeling a lack in his life. He is a successful person by any standard measure (college educated, employed, partnered), yet his life and work leaves him unsatisfied.

For those like him that are searching, I offer this: find that which brings you to a state of immanence, or total immersion in the act.  For someone like Mark Zuckerberg, it might be the act of writing program code.  For Ed Espe Brown and others like myself, it is bread baking.  Aside from the zenlike motions of kneading dough by hand, baking is an infinitesimal art of degrees, where small changes in a recipe can influence the end product dramatically.  Bread baking feels like endlessly opening a Chinese box, a nested structure where there are no dead ends, only endless doors to open, giving one the sensation of always being on the cusp of something, like the crest of a wave.

So to my friend the searcher, I say to him find your Chinese box and endlessly open it.  It may not be something that you ever master, because you will be continuously mastering it.  To achieve mastery is to steadily decrease the residual, the remainder that is beyond reach.  But in that remainder is the aleph, the kernel of the idea that brought you to the problematic in the first place, that attracted you and compelled you to open the first page.

Beekeeping, Honey and the Plight of the Honeybee in 2014

At Ninth Street Bakery, we primarily use natural wildflower local honey as a sweetener instead of sugar for our breads (and have been since the 1980's).  As the North American bee population has experienced severe dieoff, the price of honey has skyrocketed by nearly 30%.  I hear all the time from Heidi Pirtle Moore, our honey purveyor, how difficult it is becoming to source good honey, and wanted to share with you her trials and tribulations, hopes and fears for the bees and the future of honey, the newest luxury good.  From Heidi:

Hi Ninth Street Bakery Fans!

June marks my 20th year of selling local honey to Ninth Street Bakery.  I am a broker that buys mostly from local beekeepers and sells to local bakeries and natural food stores.  I’ve seen a lot of changes since 1994.  First of all back in the early years, my beekeepers (I had 5 back then) seemed pretty confident about treating the two different mites (the tracheal and the varroa) that plague the honeybee.  Second, my beekeepers always had a surplus of honey every year.  And third, the price of honey could either go up OR down.  In 2014, speaking now to my one and only beekeeper, he is not at all confident about controlling the mites; they have become resistant to most of the treatments available.   Also, we have not had a surplus of honey in at least 6 years.  During the past 5 years, we have contended with severe weather that has made it hard for the honeybees to gather nectar and make honey.  As a result, there have been years we have not made it through with enough local honey to serve all of my existing customers.  And finally, prices have risen so dramatically that honey is now becoming out of reach for many people to buy.  (I have not seen a price decrease in at least 12 years.)   Being a beekeeper is an expensive, labor-intensive job to have.  And despite his hard work to keep his bees healthy, my beekeeper loses a substantial amount of bees every year and more this year than in previous years.  Because the mites are resistant to the treatments and the losses of bees each year is substantial, beekeepers have a hard time making a living off of making honey.  

So why such changes over the last 20 years?  I’m not an expert on honeybees, but I have been following the research.  No one knows the exact cause of why bees are dying at such an alarming rate.  But the research suggests a complex set of factors that together create an overwhelming burden on the honeybee (and other pollinators).  Those reasons include:  the increased use of pesticides, changes in weather patterns that may be related to global warming, and the loss of natural habitat for enough good food for bees to eat.

Here are some sites if you are interested in more information on  Colony Collapse Disorder and the plight of the honeybee:

Dan Rather Reports - Buzzkill - YouTube

‎www.nrdc.org/wildlife/animals/files/bees.pdf

http://www.pollinator.org/honeybee_health.htm

http://www.weather.com/video/weather-really-matters-to-bees-49164?collid=/news/staff-picks

http://home.ezezine.com/1636/1636-2013.07.24.17.00.archive.html

What can be done?

First, I think it’s important to see yourself as part of the natural world.  Everything that happens to our planet, we as humans will be affected by as well.  Considering that honeybees pollinate one-third of the food we eat (blueberries, watermelons, almonds, broccoli, beets, cabbages, peppers, papaya, oranges, lemons, coffee beans, cantaloupe, cucumbers, squash, carrots, sunflowers, apples, avocados…), we are highly indebted to them.  

With that in mind here are some things I have been doing to help honeybees and other pollinators:

-Support local beekeepers by buying their honey and local businesses that use local honey in their products!  Ninth Street Bakery has been doing this for over 30 years!

-Support organic farmers by buying organic produce.  They keep their plants pesticide free for honeybees and other pollinators to stay healthy!

-Plant honeybee and other pollinator foraging plants: 

  ‎spikenardfarm.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/BeeForagePlants.pdf

-Encourage your community to keep un-mowed, wild spaces available for bees to forage!

-Take a beekeeping class with your local Ag-Extension office and keep bees!

Below is a picture of my beekeeper with his son Christopher:

Weekend Update

Thanks to everyone who came out Saturday Night for Berenbaum Grills Out.  We had a fun time sparking the grill all day and as one customer said, the al pastor tacos were "effing amazing."  We probably won't do an all-day grill out like that again anytime soon, but it was a fun one-off.  Special big ups to Marybeth, KB, and the Scotts for coming through.  Next week, I think we are going to bring it all back home with everybody's favorite, Pizza.

Track of the Weekend:

NSB in Transition

I never thought I would find a work colleague who would like Kendrick Lamar, Earth Wind and Fire, and Hall and Oates, not to mention UGK and Galt MacDermot.  Chef Matt Props and I first met the Summer of 2012, and collaborated for over a year doing Saturday Night Pop-up dinners as well as other events.  Together, we helped to transform Ninth Street's cafe, adding more daily vegan options.  So it is with a sizable dose of sadness and nostalgia that I say that Matt is going to reduce his time at Ninth Street to focus on another job.  Here he is in his own words:

When we started our Pop-Up concept with an ode to the humble Ramen noodle, we had no idea how far it would take us. Over the past 14 months we have crafted menus based around every cuisine that intrigued us… some personal to us, some new and exotic, all intended to nourish and delight. Our customers have become our friends in that time and we've routinely solidified those bonds over many a plate of food. Durham has supported us in a way that leaves us feeling blessed and amazed and we will be forever grateful for the love we've received from y’all.

As bittersweet as it is to say, this Sat (6/14) will be the final installment of our Vegan Pop-Up series. I've accepted a position as the Healthy Eating Specialist with Whole Foods in Cary and while I'll still work with the Bakery in a production role, I'll no longer have the time or energy to continue the Sat dinners. Our café will still feature many of the (Vegan) foods you've grown to enjoy (if not more than we currently offer) and future (periodic) events are definitely a possibility.

All in all, the collective ‘we’ would just like to thank everyone who ever attended a dinner. Your patronage and friendship allowed us to push ourselves creatively and gave us a platform to showcase our nerdy Foodie interests. You helped us create a truly unique experience that we will always cherish.    -- Matt

Though Matt will no longer be at the helm on Saturday nights, he will always be family at Ninth Street, and we wish him the best.  With his help we will continue to produce his signature items, the Falafel, the Thai Curry, the soups, etc. We thank all the customers, vegan and otherwise, who have supported our crazy culinary ideas, who have come and tasted food inspired by the farthest reaches of international cuisine.

So please come out to your last two special meals prepared by Matt, Chef's Choice on Saturday Night and Vegan Brunch on Sunday.

For Matt:

John Wooden on Proper Preparation

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs080/1101703621719/archive/1102765393436.html

Weekend Update

As we move into Summer, changes are afoot at Ninth Street: Our floors and walls have been painted, and we are now selling tee shirts from Runaway (better known as DURM brand).  We are now exclusively selling Bean Traders Coffee, and are looking forward to selling pound-size bags as well in-store Downtown.  At our local Harris Teeter supermarkets, shoppers can now find our Chocolate Babka, Brioche Loaves, and Brioche Hamburger Buns.  In our cafe, we just sold out entirely of a great Thai Noodle Salad - we need to make more of that!  Matt has been coming correct with great menus - look out for his Native American theme this Saturday.  We just added on a new wholesale cafe customer - Honeysuckle Tea House out by Mapleview Farm in Chapel Hill.  In sad news, Katya, our sous-chef, will be leaving us for the summer for a teaching gig in Italy! 

Tracks of the Weekend:

 

Little Man Rolling Matzo

 

Photos by Val Jarrett

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Weekend Update

This weekend we had stellar sales at our Farmer's Markets, a delicious Vietnamese dinner Saturday Night, and an enterprising addition to the Brunch game on Sunday.

Chef Matt's Vietnamese menu was great - standouts for me were Matt's pickles and Katya's dessert, the Banh Cam (a banana and cinnamon filled deep-fried rice ball rolled in sesame seeds).

Sunday, the newest addition to our kitchen crew, Nick, came correct with Chocolate Babka French Toast, Quiches, and other fun Brunchy foods.  Looking forward to doing this again!

Veggie Quiche

Nick with Celebration Challah

Track of the Weekend:

Falafel: Five Hour Energy

We have an employee who I will keep anonymous who we affectionately call "Five-Hour Energy".  He tirelessly works through some of the most physically demanding jobs at the bakery.  I'm continually in awe of his work ethic and stamina.

When I need five hours of hunger-free energy, I use Chef Matt's Falafel.

Under the guise of the humble ground garbanzo bean, Matt's falafel is a energy bomb of proteins, complex carbohydrates, and fiber.  After that sandwich drizzled with tahini sauce and the requiste amount of crunch from fresh lettuce -- all packed into a hummus-schmeared pita, I feel like my workday is now completely powered up.

Events

Recently, we have been programming events to diversify the audience and purpose of the Ninth Street Downtown space.  We have had baking contests, academic discussions, dance parties, rock shows, and maybe even a little bit of theater upcoming.

What would you like to see at Ninth Street?  How do you think our prime Downtown location should be used to benefit the community at large?  How can we be giving back to more organizations that do good works locally?  Do you think there is an audience for our cafe and bar area to be open every night instead of just Saturday nights?

Gastronomical Intensity

At the bakery, we are often in dialogue of what makes food taste good, especially when making comparative judgements ("Why is this wine better than that wine? Why is this falafel better than that falafel?").

I would argue to use a new perspective for this purpose adopted from Gilles Deleuze called intensity.

The best way that I could define intensity as Deleuze uses it to emphasize its properties of dimensionality. With a good wine, (multiple) dimensions are encurled such that infinite space can exist within a droplet of alcohol. Conversely, one might say that a poor wine is flat or monodimensional or "one-note".  Perhaps that is too simplistic but that is the heart of it.  When your palate searches for taste in a food, it can either open up or close off experience. Tastes like umami are something like pure intensity - the fermentation process has turned a common salted soybean into an addictively satisfying gold.

Deleuze speak of the contents of an egg as containing intensities - all the genetic code and nutrients necessary to form a chick are contained within the shell, but in the early goings of incubation, there is nothing discernably chick-like if you were to crack it open. Thus, all the dimensions which will uncurl to create a chicken (or a snake, or a dinosaur) are enfolded microscopically within what appears to be absolute uniformity/consistency.

As Deleuze says, the egg is "defined by axes and vectors, gradients and thresholds, by dynamic tendencies involving energy transformation and kinematic movements involving group displacement, by migrations: all independent of accessory forms because the organs appear and function here only as pure intensities."

Deleuze

Weekend Update

- We got poured on at our Farmer's Markets this weekend - thanks so much to our stand sellers Stu, Sammi, Amanda, and Sonoe - y'all are the green berets of our of our local food economy.

- Our Rosemary and Olive Oil Matzo was a huge hit - can't wait to make more of this next year.

- Katya put together a delish Mac & Cheese (vegan) that was extremely popular in-store - can't wait to see more of this.  Mac & Cheese pancakes next?

- Getting ready to repaint the floors in the next couple of weeks - get ready for a whole new sheen!

Brunching With the Ladies of Ninth Street: Katya, Amanda, and Kristi

Tracks of the Weekend:

The New Gastronomy

Via SMW, from: https://medium.com/p/f7ab43f210ee

A Clean Slate

I've wanted to repaint the cafe walls since we took over 6 months ago.   We finally got to it last weekend (big ups to KA, CS, and SMW for helping!).  Hopefully everyone can see the difference.  Floors are next!

   

Our Next Baking Contest: April 25th