Burlington (Vermont) Free Press - August 2, 2007
Ferrisburgh bakery rises to challenge
By Ashley Matthews Free Press Staff Writer
FERRISBURGH -- Erik Andrus could've chosen a smoother ride through his pasture on a sunny afternoon, but there's a reason the 35-year- old farmer chose to harvest his wheat using Civil War-era technology.
The jolting journey is just part of Andrus' dream to create European artisan bread that's as old-fashioned as his equipment -- a reaper- binder pulled by Molly and Star, his powerful Percheron horses.
"To me, it feels like driving a Lamborghini 120 miles per hour on the freeway because it's such a rush," Andrus said of his trek through the field. "I feel about those horses the way many people would feel about a sports car."
Andrus and his wife purchased the 110-acre Boundbrook Farm in 2005 and, after preserving the land through the Vermont Land Trust, they launched Good Companion Bakery in April.
Last week, Andrus moved closer to his goal of creating all organic, local bread made from his own flour when he circled the field of gently swaying wheat perched in a precarious seat atop the reaper- binder he purchased for $1,100. Andrus estimates the tool he's using was built in the 1940s, and he believes his is the only business in Vermont using such technology for commercial purposes.
As the black horses lurched through the field, Andrus and a friend took turns in the machine's two seats, one directing the horses and the other using levers to adjust the reaper's blades just high enough to miss the low tangle of green weeds but collect the golden stalks of wheat.
The severed stalks collapsed onto a canvas conveyor belt and fed into the binder, where a complex series of twirling wheels and spinning implements bunched it, tied it with green twine and spit the bundle into the field. As the horses plodded along, they powered the machinery, which Andrus joked is solar powered, since Molly and Star eat grass nourished by the sun.
It's true that it would be easier for Andrus to use modern equipment -- a fuel-powered tractor or a combine -- but it wouldn't fit his business model, which is to produce local bread using as little fuel as possible. It would also be easier and less costly for Andrus to purchase pre-made flour, but Andrus doesn't measure cost in traditional terms.
"I don't consider labor part of my cost. I consider it a benefit because it's a pleasure to do my work the way I do it," he said. "Would it be better if I did the work in five minutes and spent the rest of the day playing Xbox?"
It took about six hours for Andrus to harvest the five-acre field, which he believes will produce enough flour to last his bakery 25 to 30 weeks, assuming he makes 400 loaves a week.
He still needs to thresh, winnow and mill the flour, and he hopes to use it in his operation this fall, which is also when Good Companion Bakery will launch its 25-week winter bread CSA, or community supported agriculture. Because the bulk of the bakery's sales are made at the Bristol, Hinesburg, Middlebury and Vergennes farmers' markets, Andrus said the CSA will guarantee customers a steady supply of bread throughout the year, and he also plans to begin baking pies and cobblers using local products.
Wednesday morning, Andrus prepared bread for the Bristol Farmers' Market later that day. As rustic Italian ciabatta bread baked in the oven, Andrus formed loaves of French batard bread, and butter for croissants softened on the counter, in the light of the sun. Crusty baguettes and rolls cooled on wire shelves near the oven.
"There's nothing that can duplicate real, fresh bread," Andrus said. "I can't get tired of it. In Europe, having fresh bread every day is a basic part of your quality of life, and that's how I feel about it. Having real, fresh bread improves people's quality of life."
Andrus recently became a baker by taking classes from King Arthur Flour in Norwich and "trial by fire." In college, he majored in Arabic studies and for years before he bought Boundbrook Farm, Andrus worked as a restoration carpenter in St. Albans. Even with little training as a farmer or a baker, Andrus said his operation has prospered in its four months.
"According to conventional agricultural economics, there's no way a farming operation like this can succeed," he said. "We're making insignificant quantities. We do so many things that we're not supposed to acquire any proficiency at any of them. We have almost no market reach, and we're using outdated technology."
He built the oven, a retained-heat masonry oven in the bakery's kitchen, located in an old pole-barn at the farm. From one window, Andrus can see the home he shares with his wife and two young sons and a spread of green pastures. Another window displays the barn that houses the farm's livestock, and behind that lies the wheat field where Andrus recently completed his harvest.
As chickens strutted through the yard outside, Andrus began bagging the baguettes he'd just baked using only four ingredients: organic bread flour, water, yeast and salt. It's all part of his goal for Good Companion Bakery at Boundbrook Farm to be "more than just a production bakery on a dirt road."