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Welcome to Beck's Bakery Where Whole Grains are a Way of Life

Please email us at info@becksbakery.com with any questions not answered below.

Where, locally, is the grain grown?

John LaBoyteaux and Lisa & Laurence Hindley of Hindley Ranch are our primary sources for local wheat. John grows wheat at Camp Grant Ranch in Redcrest (Humboldt County, CA) and at Clover Crossing in Upper Lake (Lake County, CA). The Hindley’s have been growning in the Mattole Valley (Humboldt County, CA). Doug Mosel of the Mendocino Grain Project in Ukiah (Nelson Ranch) has grown rye for us in the past. Grain does well in rotation with cattle and farmers have been encouraging ranchers to consider putting in a couple acres of grain in their grazing rotation. We’re hoping for a grain resurgence in Humboldt! It use to be grown here 100+ years ago. Updated: 2/21/2016

Should stores be storing the 100% Whole Wheat bread in a refrigerated area, with the milk ingredient?

Bread is pretty dry and low risk for food born illness. It is not a problem to hold it at room temperature for days, even bread made with milk. With that being said…Beck’s bread has no preservatives nor dough conditioners and will get moldy in about 4-5 days. We suggest slicing your bread and storing it in the freezer (wrapped in a Zip Loc or other plastic bag) and taking slices out as you need them. You can zap them in the microwave for 5-10 seconds, pop them into the toaster on your lightest toast setting or just let them sit out on the counter to defrost. The refrigerator is the worst place to store bread! It accelerates staling (6 times faster than room temperature)…please don’t store bread in the refrigerator. Google “bread retrogradation” for more info about bread staling. 10/28/2012

Does my bread have mold on it already?

We use flour to prevent sticking on our proofing baskets and couches (special linen fabric for proofing shaped dough). Unfortunately, a few people have tossed perfectly good loaves of bread by mistaking this flour dusting for mold. The early stages of mold can look like flour, but mold often has a distinct moldy aroma. We date our bread with a “baked on” stamp…if the bread has been stored properly, is under 4 days old, and doesn’t smell moldy…it is most likely just flour. 2/22/2015

Who is your source for the compostable bags?

We’ve been getting our compostable bags from Pac-Sel, in Portland OR . These cellulose bags were designed to breakdown in municipal composting facilities where they get shredded into fine pieces and “cooked” at hot composting temperatures. At home, in your backyard compost bin, you’ll need to cut the bags into small pieces to compost effectively (remove the label first). Adding a good layer of grass clippings will help to get the pile hot enough to decompose them faster.

One problem with these cellulose bags is that they have rather high air exchange and are not suitable for storage in the freezer – items wrapped only in this compostable bag will get freezer burn and dry out (We recommend covering with a second reusable bag like a Zip Loc for the freezer) We stopped using compostable bags for our crackers & granola. These items have a longer shelf life & were going stale too quickly in the breathable bags, so we switched to regular cellophane bags and resealable plastic pouches. Our new labels are made mostly of paper and our friend Marlon says they compost just fine! Updated:9/28/2016

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