Author: Brooke Lucy

For Mazama Store owner Missy LeDuc, it’s all about keeping things fresh and lively. From the produce to the pastries to the housewares to even the employees themselves, everything and everyone in the iconic Mazama cafe and general store seems to be infused with an internal bit of pep. Missy herself is no exception and is, in fact, quite likely the origin of the Mazama Store’s positive buzz of energy.

It’s hard to put your finger on it, but there’s a certain feeling you get when you walk through the doors of the Mazama Store. It’s an air of possibility, a hint of the unexpected, a whiff of indulgence, and mostly, a sense that whether you’re a daily regular or you’re stopping in for the first time, you are welcome in this place. This neighborly atmosphere is no accident; at the Mazama Store, it’s tradition. From its humble roots as a tiny 1920s way-station at the end of the road to its current iteration as an intimate marketplace with a surprisingly broad selection of food, beverages, kitchen implements, and gifts, the Mazama Store has for nearly a century been a watering hole in the hinterlands, a gathering spot for Mazama locals, and a place where, as the store’s motto promises, you can get “a little bit of everything good.”

When current owners Rick and Missy LeDuc bought the Mazama Store in 2007, it was with the specific intention of carrying out the Mazama Store’s tradition of providing quality edibles and hard goods in a community environment. Missy had worked at the store as an employee for the better part of a decade and “really loved the community feeling”; it’s partly what motivated the LeDucs to buy the store. Missy says that prior to the purchase, she took some time away from the store and “felt lonely in the community.” She continues, “you really do get a connection to Mazama by working at the store. In Mazama we can all just get isolated down our own driveways unless we get involved in things.”

Missy’s other incentive for owning the store was, of course, the food. “I just really love food,” Missy says without apology, voicing a sentiment shared by–oh, basically every living creature. “I really appreciated that so many of the products in the store were homemade,” she says, “and I was interested in exploring the food aspect of things at the store.” And explore she has, in the form of expanding the bakery, offering a wide selection of soups and sandwiches daily, and keeping the display cases full of irresistible pastries and breads, from rustic loaves to fruit pies to bagels to sel de mer baguettes. Everything in the kitchen is made from scratch, using the best ingredients Missy can source. For grains, naturally, Missy turns to Bluebird Grain Farms, not just because the Mazama Store’s chief baker is Polly Lucy, Farmer Sam’s sister, but also just because Bluebird’s grains make the freshest and best-tasting whole grain flours available. “Our Emmer Loaf is one of our most popular rustic loaves,” says Missy, noting the bread’s heartiness and nutty flavor derived from Bluebird’s organic emmer flour.

Missy is such an advocate of Bluebird’s grains that she says “We wouldn’t even do a whole grain bread if we didn’t have Bluebird flours.” She continues, “You can taste the difference. It’s very obvious. You use a whole grain flour from somewhere else and it just tastes dead; Bluebird’s flours are fresh and lively. You can’t compare anything else to Bluebird.” Missy notes that the Mazama Store sells a lot of whole grain bread, all of which is made using Bluebird flour. “People really look forward to it and reserve it ahead of time,” she says. “We truly feel that using Bluebird products makes a difference to our customers.”

Other things that make a difference to Mazama Store customers? The inviting atmosphere, check! The fresh locally-roasted java from Blue Star Coffee Roasters, check! The impressive selection of beer and wines, of gifts, of bulk food items, of Husky ice cream, check! The summer pizza nights on the patio, check! But it’s the employees who really give the store its character. “They’re really lovely people,” says Missy. “I enjoy working with them so much.”

Missy continues, “I want my employees to have the best pay they can get. We want to keep them; they’re part of our family.” But she acknowledges, “It’s still so hard to make a small business pencil out. We are constantly working to keep the business profitable while paying our employees a living wage.” This concern feeds into what Missy refers to as “the 3 prongs of sustainability”: longevity of the employees, longevity of the business, and longevity of the planet. To address planetary issues, the Mazama Store has taken a close look at the waste it generates. “We look at how things come to us and we try to minimize packaging,” says Missy. “When you own a store you really see how things arrive. We make many ordering decisions based on not just the quality of the product, but also the amount of packaging involved.”

Where the store has really been able to make a difference is its approach to food waste. First of all, employees strive to minimize, if not eliminate, true food waste. “We are very creative,” says Missy. “With the bulk items, we don’t like to let them sit in the bins too long before we incorporate them into the kitchen. Same with produce–we only want the freshest things out in the store, then we take the older items back into the kitchen to be made into soups. Fruit is made into pies, or apple butter, pear butter, or pastries.” It’s the reason there is no published menu at the Mazama Store; the kitchen needs to have the creative freedom to look at what needs to be used and design menu items around those ingredients. Food scraps are composted by locals who pick up buckets of food waste; someone else picks up leftover milk from the espresso machine and feeds it to her pigs. “It’s very rare that we throw anything out,” says Missy.

Mazama Store employees hold regular sustainability meetings, coming up with solutions for reducing waste. One employee idea resulted in the store re-using shipping boxes to send customers’ groceries home with them; another employee came up with the system of using canning jars for to-go soups, instead of disposable containers. “We don’t even think about those things anymore,” says Missy, “we just do them. And then we’re on to the next idea. It’s creative for everyone–it keeps us energized.”

The Mazama Store gracefully dances the line between folksy and sophisticated, with a carefully curated selection of clothing, mugs, glassware, gifts, and toys augmenting food offerings that would rival those in a chic urban market. Both the store’s shelves and its website promote the work of Methow Valley artisans and growers. This is important to Missy. “The quality of what we offer would decrease if there weren’t local and regional growers out there being successful,” she says. “We feel proud and notice the difference in taste, we see the difference in quality.” Missy believes that more collaborative promotional efforts amongst local providers would benefit everyone; it’s why she devotes a significant amount of website space to other local businesses. “We should all be doing this in the valley,” she says.

Despite a solidly upscale range of products, the store retains a comfortable character. It’s not just the scuffed floors, battered by ski boots. Nor is it the fact that the employees seem to greet nearly everyone by name. It’s more just the atmosphere that comes only from an independent business–a mom-n-pop store, where you know that mom and pop (and in the LeDucs case, most of their children) actually work there and care deeply about the business.

For the LeDucs, the Mazama Store is truly a family business, with Rick, Missy, and their 4 children all working at the store at various points. Although their youngest daughter, Sylvie, is in China, the other 3 LeDuc adult children all work at the store, as well as being involved in the community. Missy manages to find a balance between home life and work life by getting outside whenever possible, and taking little trips out of the valley with Rick here and there. (“Although when we travel I am always looking at other general stores, getting new ideas,” she admits.) But much of Missy’s energy is derived not from being away from the store, but from being right in the thick of it. “I have to put a lot of time into the store,” Missy says. “It’s like an organism that’s changing and growing. I need that, otherwise I wouldn’t enjoy it.”

Missy says that customers, too, feed her energy. “We have really wonderful customers,” she says. “We have our locals who we know and love, who come in to visit and talk about things weighty and trivial. And then we have our part-time customers. The part-timers work really hard in their other lives to be able to come here, so when they’re in Mazama they’re in a really good mood. They want to say hello at the store, they want to enjoy the outdoors.” She continues, “We don’t seem to be just a convenience store for the part-timers. They know our employees by name. They want to get to know the locals. It’s really special for me to watch.”

Missy appreciates the Mazama Store’s customers in the bigger picture as well, because they are choosing to support a family-owned independent business. “In this world of WalMart, Amazon, and Costco,” she says, “you need to value your small businesses. If you don’t actually physically go and support them, they will disappear. New laws don’t favor small businesses. You need to go to your local store, get to know the people there, and support them.” This is no selfish request, motivated by personal gain. Missy reminds us that small businesses like the Mazama Store allow employees to earn a living locally. “These small businesses are supporting the people in our community,” she says. “Our employees–this is our community. We’ve seen other places where small businesses close and people have to move out of the community to find work. We see it back east. To me this is a big blinking red light–you need to cruise your towns and support your local stores.”

For more information about the Mazama Store, visit their website or stop by Mazama Junction and experience the Mazama Store for yourself.

It’s fitting that Bluebird is featuring Ecliptic Brewing on this first full day of winter. The Portland brewery and pub unites Oregon craft brewing icon John Harris’s two passions: brewing and astronomy. The centerpiece of the pub is a massive light fixture in the shape of the Analemma (the figure-8 that depicts the sun’s path in the sky through the year) and much of the brewery’s beer and food are in constant change throughout the year. In fact, the seasonal menu rotates every 6 weeks according to the old world calendar: on the solstices, the equinoxes, and Samhain, Brighid, Beltane, and Lammas.

The mastermind behind Ecliptic’s menu is executive chef Michael Molitor, a native Pacific Northwest resident who came to Ecliptic after attending Scottsdale Culinary Institute and cooking at several Portland landmark restaurants, like the Heathman Restaurant and Pazzo Ristorante. As a teen, Molitor cooked in Italian restaurants in and around his hometown of Boise, ID, but hadn’t really considered cooking as a career until many years later. “I was chipping away at a political science degree during the day,” he says, “and working the line at an Italian restaurant at night. I always enjoyed cooking, but then I started to get into restaurant culture. The work really appealed to me: the fast pace, the stress, the people, the controlled chaos…it was all very exciting.”

The transition from political scientist to executive chef was an evolution–one that confirmed Molitor’s eventual career path. “I learned a lot about myself over those couple of years,” he says. “I realized that my future belonged in restaurants.”

Although Molitor comes from a strong background in Italian cooking, at Ecliptic he uses that background as a footing, rather than an anchor. “A good working knowledge of Italian cooking is an excellent foundation to build upon,” he says. “I use that foundation to help build future menus. I respect the Italian sensibility of using a handful of seasonal ingredients, doing very little to them, and letting the food speak for itself.”

When designing the Ecliptic menu, Molitor says he wants to have fun, but also provide consistent items that people come to expect (“although with a twist,” he says). “I have divided the menu into essentially 2 halves,” he says, “one of which is fairly reliably the same, the other changes every 6 weeks. If you come in and are craving a burger, you will not be disappointed. Our burger is consistently ranked one of the best in the city.” The “twist” in this case, is the option to vary from the brewery’s traditional burger and savor the Ecliptic burger, which is made with beef, pancetta, and gruyere, served with Russian dressing on a potato bun.

Molitor says “the versatility of the rapidly changing menu allows me to explore different cuisines and flavors. If you want something seasonal, maybe a little more whimsical, I want to offer that.” Molitor’s exploration into different flavors led him to Bluebird Grain Farms‘ organic whole grain emmer farro, which he discovered through Provvista Specialty Foods, which seeks to provide Portland restaurants with the best quality food products at a fair price. Molitor was familiar with Bluebird’s other products and “was impressed with the quality,” he says; the farro was a natural fit with the Ecliptic menu. It’s important to Molitor to have a vegan option on the sandwich/burger side of the menu, and the farro burger satisfies both vegans and carnivores. “The farro burger is one of our most popular items,” he says. “I have changed the style of the sandwich over the years, but the farro patty remains the same.”

“Farro is a grain that works well with many different cuisines,” Molitor adds. “And I enjoy dipping my toe in the water of different cuisines at Ecliptic. I think that is an outlook on cooking that transcends geography.”

When Molitor eats out, he says he wants restaurant staff to care. “I want someone to acknowledge my presence when I walk in. I want the server to be engaged with our table. I want the cooks to care about executing the menu.” This attention to the quality of the customer experience is something Molitor thinks about as he designs and facilitates the Ecliptic dining experience. So whether Ecliptic customers are families with young children or couples looking for a night out, Molitor and the other staff at Ecliptic focus on reading each individual situation and adjusting the service to accommodate. “We are just looking for genuine effort and quality,” he says.

Ecliptic’s delivery of effort and quality is matched by the caliber of its beer and the standard of its food. “We are not just a brewpub,” says Molitor. “We have amazing beer and some pretty damn good food to go with that beer.”

Along with “damn good” consumables, Ecliptic also offers tours and events both public and private. To learn more about Ecliptic Brewing, visit their website or check them out on Facebook and Instagram.

Chef Dave Miller of Portage Bay Cafe has jokingly commented that in his family, his career choices were entering the service or restaurant work. He’s only half joking. “I’m the first male in my family not to join the military in 7 generations,” Miller says. “Growing up I thought I was in boot camp.” He adds–again, only partly in jest–“The first half of the movie ‘Full Metal Jacket’ was just like my childhood.” Military life did not call Miller, but fortunately his family’s restaurant ties did. “I got started in [my father’s restaurants] at the age of 11, washing dishes and bussing tables. Through the years I worked on my knife and line position skills to where I could branch out and away from the family restaurant and learn from someone else.”

By high school Miller was quite certain that he wanted nothing to do with the military, but he still wasn’t sure if he would make a career out of cooking. So he moved to Seattle in the late 1980s, intending to attend dive and underwater video/photography school. He needed to pay for school and he landed a job at Ray’s Boathouse (still an iconic Seattle seafood eatery), which is where, Miller says, “Something happened there that made me realize what my true calling was. I never did attend the dive school.”

Food was, indeed, in Miller’s blood, he discovered. With the transient life of a military family, food provided a stable presence for family life. “We moved every 18 months on average,” Miller says, so being in a new and different environments was the norm. “We were stationed in several states, and overseas,” he says. “Cooking was always the way to bring the family together.”

Living internationally also cultivated in Miller an adventuresome palate. “I grew up eating foods from whatever region we were in, always a little different,” he says. “One of my favorite places we lived was Panama, my time there made a lasting impact on me. Both of my parents were great cooks, and they were always using the local ingredients no matter where we lived.” He credits his parents’ cooking for his inventive style: “I’m sure that’s where I got my creative spark.”

It is also, quite possibly, how Miller developed an interest in regionally-sourced ingredients. Although Miller is quick to note that it was Portage Bay Cafe’s original owners, Amy and John Gunnar, who “were truly on the forefront of the local, sustainable, and organic dining” movement, it’s a commitment that Miller has adhered to during his time at Portage Bay. He says, “It has been very exciting for me to work with so many small farms and local producers. We really take local, sustainable, and organic seriously.” So seriously, in fact, that the Portage Bay menu section’s listing of local producers is called “Eat Like You Give a Damn.”

Given this commitment to quality foods, Portage Bay Cafe and Bluebird Grain Farms are a swell match. Still, Miller happened upon Bluebird quite by accident. “Portage Bay was using Bluebird products long before my time here,” he says, “but my first experience with Bluebird Grain Farms was years ago while whitewater rafting in the Methow Valley. It seemed every restaurant in the valley was using Bluebird flours or grains.” Miller was already sold on Bluebird’s products, but “the fact that Bluebird is local and family-run adds to the attraction of the products.”

Portage Bay’s famous pancakes are made exclusively with Bluebird Grain Farms Pasayten Hard White wheat flour, says Miller. “We also feature the Emmer Farro on our Greens and Grains salad, along with other weekly specials.” He continues, “The customer response has always been fantastic. It makes our job easier to work with great products like Bluebird Grains.”

Portage Bay Cafe has been said to have “the best brunch in America.” Miller says, “Breakfast/brunch customers can be fickle. Some will eat their favorite dish every time, others look for a little more variety.” Portage Bay’s goal, says Miller, “is to be consistent with our standard menu items for those who want their go-to favorites, as well as being creative with our specials to entice someone to try something new. It can be a challenge to keep everyone happy, but that’s what keeps them coming back day after day.”

When Miller dines out, he looks to see what his peers are doing. Creativity always catches his eye. “It’s easy to fall into the mindset that everything’s been done before,” he says. “I really look for what’s next with food. Some call it a trend, but I call it menu evolution. Almost every chef has the same product that’s available, it’s what they do with it that counts.” With 4 Portage Bay locations in the Seattle area, Miller has his hands full, but also has the opportunity to exercise his creativity. That’s why you might find on the brunch menu both a Classic Benedict and a Dungeness Crab Cake Benedict; Shrimp and Grits; Oatmeal Cobbler French Toast. Familiar items, yet with a twist.

Portage Bay Cafe is turning 20 this year and to celebrate, each of the locations will be doing a pop-up 3-course dinner in December. Each location will have a different menu created by the cafe’s chefs. “It will be a fun night for all,” Miller says. Check Portage Bay’s website and Facebook pages for upcoming details.

Miller’s professional life has centered around food, and his philanthropic side leans that direction as well. 17 years ago Miller got involved with Fare Start, a non-profit that provides solutions to homelessness, poverty, and hunger by providing job training and real-world restaurant and catering work to those who struggle with finding or maintaining stable employment. “It’s a program that’s near and dear to my heart,” says Miller. “I’ve been blessed to be able to contribute my time, experience, and skills to them. It is truly rare to have an opportunity to give back to the industry that has given me a career, and to directly see the change you can make to an individual.”

Fare Start students work in restaurant jobs, catering, catalyst kitchens, and mobile meals. Every Thursday, Fare Start offers a 3-course meal for $29.95 at the Fare Start Restaurant. Working under guest chefs such as Miller, John Sundstrom of Lark, and Adam Hagen of Alderbrook Resort, Fare Start students prepare and serve meals with menu offerings as sophisticated as chicken terrine, as comforting as lobster mac and cheese. Of Fare Start Miller says, “It is one of the best things I have been involved with in my life.”

Visit Portage Bay Cafe at one of its 4 locations: Roosevelet, South Lake Union, 65th, and Ballard.

On a foggy day last February after skiing the Echo Ridge Loppett, my kids and I stopped at the Lake Chelan Artisan Bakery (LCAB) to fuel ourselves up for the drive home. My friend, the owner and chief baker of LCAB, Lindsay Evans, was not at the bakery that day and I didn’t know the employee on duty. As we selected pastries, the employee began–entirely unprompted–singing the praises of the flours and whole grains used by LCAB. “It’s a small family farm up in the Methow Valley,” he told me. “They’re organic, which is enough reason to use their products, but the main reason is that their flours and grains actually taste so good! They’re just so delicious.”

I listened and smiled, and reminded myself to later tell Lindsay about the excellent service and salesmanship of the employee and to tell Brooke and Sam Lucy of Bluebird Grain Farms about this unsolicited endorsement. The employee had no way of knowing that I wrote for Bluebird; nor did he know that I’m a friend of Lindsay. He was simply an employee proud of the quality of products he was selling and eager to share ingredient sourcing information.

The thing is, the employee was spot-on with his endorsement of Bluebird’s freshly-milled organic flours and whole grain emmer farro and einka berries; they really do taste great. That’s why Lindsay uses Bluebird’s products to make LCAB’s daily supply of buttermilk wheat sandwich bread, whole wheat sourdough loaves, multi-grain breads, and farro salads. “I love to use as many local ingredients as possible at the bakery and when I knew I was opening my own bakery I was very excited to use Bluebird products,” says Lindsay. “Not only are Sam and Brooke my Methow Valley neighbors and friends, they product some of the most nutritious and delicious whole grain products available anywhere.”

Lindsay emphasizes the importance of quality, freshness, and nutrition in baking. “Bluebird products are superstars on all fronts,” she says, citing LCAB’s use of Bluebird’s hard red wheat flour and dark northern rye flour. She also uses the whole Einka Farro in her fresh grain and vegetable salads.

Bluebird is just the tip of Lindsay’s efforts to source local ingredients. Local and regional growers and farmers provide her with seasonal fresh fruit and vegetables. Her own parents’ home garden in Chelan sends fresh herbs, kale, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, raspberries, and other produce straight into the bakery. Blueberries for pies and pastries come from Blueberry Hills Farms in Manson, and she serves coffee and espresso from Blue Star Coffee Roasters in Twisp. “The fact that my business gets to help support my friends’ businesses is amazing,” says Lindsay, who sees the economic impact that buying locally and regionally has on her hometown, as well as on the community where she lives in the Methow Valley. “Buying local is important to me to support my local economy and reduce excess shipping energy.”

Lindsay enjoys baking seasonal delicacies year-round, but it’s hard to compete with the bounty of summer. “My favorite things to make at the bakery are things that feature fresh, locally-grown, in-season fruit,” Lindsay says. “This includes our fruit Danish [nectarines, peaches, or raspberries], fruit pies [cherry and strawberry-rhubarb are particular favorites], and our cherry almond tart.”

Since she opened the bakery, Lindsay has balanced the menu with familiar items and new offerings. The response has been positive. “I have received tremendous positive feedback about our salads that feature Bluebird’s whole einka farro,” she says. “Einka was a very new thing to our customers but once the salads caught on we heard many customers express their love for the chewy heartiness of the grain, especially paired with crunchy veggies and our homemade dressings.” Apparently farmer Sam recently suggested to Lindsay that she try the einka in her homemade soups, so stay tuned on variations on old favorites when winter comes.

Lindsay grew up in Chelan and understands the important role a small bakery plays in community life. Quiches and sandwiches nourish the body, while time spent lingering with friends and family over a cup of coffee nourishes the soul. Lindsay calls the bakery “a casual and inviting space to gather with friends,” but it’s more than that. First, it’s a business that was a team effort from the start, with Lindsay’s family, her staff, and even local community members pitching in to help launch the bakery and make it a success. “I’m so proud of my staff and so thankful to the local community and my family for helping me every step of the way,” says Lindsay.

The bakery is also a place where Lindsay’s love of baking is evident in every product in the cases. Lindsay says, “I’ve always loved to bake for my family and baking for my community members is an extension of that.  I get satisfaction knowing that my treats are part of an enjoyable experience for locals and visitors alike.”

For more information about Lake Chelan Artisan Bakery, visit their website or stop by the bakery, located at 246 West Manson Hwy, along the Chelan-Manson highway in Chelan Plaza, between Safeway and the Lakeview Drive-In.

Fewer work days start earlier than those of a baker, and the bakers at Winthrop’s Rocking Horse Bakery are no exception. In order to stack the cases with yeasted loaves like the Stehekin Seeded bread or the Sawtooth Sourdough, those working the ovens need to begin by dawn. By the time the bakery doors open at 7am, the air is rich with the scent of the breads, pastries, bagels, pizza, and other savory items that will soon be devoured by Methow Valley residents and visitors. Coffee is brewed, the counters gleam, and the Rocking Horse Bakery is ready for another day serving as a hub for sustenance, summits, and socializing.

Rocking Horse Bakery was already a popular downtown institution when Steve and Teresa Mitchell bought it in 2010. At the time, the Mitchells were living in Vermont, but were exploring options for moving back west. When the Rocking Horse Bakery went up for sale, the Mitchells knew it was a good fit. Both had spent time in the Methow Valley throughout the 1980s-1990s and loved the outdoor recreation possibilities in the valley. The bakery was already viable and had good growth potential. Equally compelling were the demographic makeup of the valley and the opportunity for the Mitchells’ children, Kavi and Neela, to attend the Methow Valley Community School.

The Mitchells’ yin/yang skill set enabled them to hit the ground running when they took over the bakery. “We just dived right in,” says Teresa. Although Teresa’s background is in education, she was no stranger to the culinary world, and even owned a small business selling her own spice blends. In contrast, Steve has experience at every level of business, from manufacturing to retail sales. Their diverse but complementary backgrounds led them to the division of responsibility they currently enjoy at the bakery. Teresa manages the ordering, the baking, the books, the menu creation, and human resources, while Steve takes care of the front of the house, the equipment, and the building infrastructure.

In the seven years since the Mitchells bought Rocking Horse Bakery, they’ve intuited which aspects of the bakery’s former life were important to retain, and which could be enhanced. One of the key relics from the previous owners is the sourdough starter, now 17 years old; it’s a component of many of Rocking Horse’s products. Another holdover is the use of Bluebird Grain Farms products. The bakery’s previous owners had used Bluebird’s freshly milled flours in several of their breads, and at the time Bluebird was the only locally-sourced ingredient in the bakery. Teresa preserved that tradition and has worked to incorporate Bluebird products into many of the bakery’s other mainstay menu items: pizza crust, bagels, and breads. “It has improved the quality of our products significantly,” says Teresa.

Bluebird products are also retailed in the bakery, along with 20 other local vendors. “Bluebird was our first,” says Teresa, “and it remains at the heart of our resale business.”

Teresa addresses the decision to fully commit to using Bluebird and other locally-sourced products. “It reflects our personal values,” she says, “using resources that are close by.” Teresa also recognizes that the local clientele–who sustain the bakery even when 2 out of 3 roads into the valley are closed–values local ingredients. “A lot of our menu development is specifically for the locals,” says Teresa, noting the adventuresome eating habits of local customers. “They’re very food savvy.”

Noticing what locals like has led to further development of the bakery’s savory menu. A number of the bakery’s savory recipes use Teresa’s custom spice blends, and she’s always looking for new ways to make the bakery’s popular soups and sandwiches. She has also developed new recipes around Bluebird’s whole grains, such as the bakery’s emmer biryani, a South Asian-inspired grain dish using Bluebird’s whole emmer-farro instead of the traditional rice.

Although Teresa is the chief baker in the family, Steve’s influence on the menu is apparent in the whoopie pies, whose origins, like Steve’s, are in New England. “We even import the fluff filling from New England,” Teresa says.

Longtime visitors to the Methow Valley may recall Rocking Horse Bakery in its former location, one door north of its current venue. “We used to look through the window of the current space when it was a real estate office,” says Teresa, “and covet it.” Serendipitously, that space became available in 2013 and the Mitchells built it out and moved in. “We only closed for 2 days for that move,” says Teresa.

With its high ceilings and fun, funky decor, the “new” bakery space is not just a place to fill your stomach, but it’s also the site of countless meetings, planning sessions, impromtu reunions, board recruitment functions, and even job interviews. On slower days, some locals are known to park themselves at the bakery and work remotely all day. “We love all the different ways our customers use the bakery,” says Teresa (although secretly I wonder what she thinks of the occasional visitors who plant themselves at a table and stream movies for hours, taking up bakery bandwith). It’s a comfortable space, with great light and good acoustics; it’s no wonder Rocking Horse is one of the valley’s preferred gathering spots.

The bakery has been somewhat of a family venture over the years, with the Mitchell’s oldest, Kavi, working at the bakery counter since he was 14 and his younger sister, Neela, helping with big events and some of the artistic aesthetic of the space. Still, despite the year-round demands of the bakery, the Mitchells get out on fantastic trips with their kids. “We prioritize travel,” says Teresa. “Our kids [both adopted from India] are products of the world, and we want to expose them to the great wide world and different ways of living.” Teresa expresses gratitude that through international travel, her kids have cultivated a passion for art and culture.

Along with travel, the Mitchells somehow carve out time for other passions, such as Steve’s photography business, Mitchell Image.  Kavi graduated from high school in early June, so they’re taking him to start college in Colorado in the fall. Oh, and their head baker is on leave. “It’s crazy times,” says Teresa. “Luckily we both have good endurance.”

Visit the Rocking Horse Bakery next time you’re in Winthrop, at 265 Riverside Ave.

When I call Bob Bird and introduce myself he commands me to “Say it like an Italian!” Startled, I introduce myself again, this time with the proper accents and flourish, “Mi chiamo Ashley Lo-DAH-to!” My name is Ashley Lodato. Then he starts rattling away to me in rapid-fire Italian. All I can do is repeat myself, “Ho dimenticato quasi tutto,” I have forgotten almost everything.”

I may have lost most of my Italian, but Bob Bird most certainly has not. The product of a wartime romance between his Italian mother and his Wisconsin father in the 1940s, Bob Bird remains decidedly connected to his Italian heritage. Which seems a bit unusual, when you consider the fact that he was raised in the Midwest and has resided in southern Alaska for decades; neither place is exactly a hotbed of Mediterranean culture. But most of Bird’s family back in Italy never learned English, he says, “So if I wanted to talk to my saintly beautiful grandmother I had to learn Italian.”

The Italian language was not the only gift Bird’s grandmother gave him; she also imparted to him a love of baking bread. “My grandmother made bread every day,” says Bird. “It was white bread, Tuscan style. I wanted to do that.” Tuscan bread is unique, and often requires a knowing palate to be fully appreciated. It’s dense and unsalted, and is typically used to accompany the main meal as a vehicle for mopping up sauces. The bread has little flavor of its own, instead absorbing the flavors of whatever food it complements. (When it’s fresh from the oven, however, Bird’s wife, Rosemary, comments that it’s “as good as dessert!”).

Bird had been baking Tuscan bread for years, along with homemade pasta and gnocchi (dumplings), when he had a stroke and was told to give up grains from his diet. “My health advisor [Rolfer Mark Hutton] told me that I had to scratch some things permanently from my diet–grains, potatoes, rice–I told him ‘You can’t possibly tell me that bread is off the list!'” That is indeed what Hutton was advising, however. But he threw Bird a lifeline, telling him, “When I really want to make pancakes or waffles, I get grains from this place that does not have the growth hormones and other additives they’re putting in grains these days.” And that was Bob Bird’s introduction to Bluebird Grain Farms.

Bird placed an order immediately and a few days later made a batch of bread with Bluebird grains–the first of the hundreds of loaves he has made since. “I like to bake six loaves at a time,” he says. “I make small loaves and freeze them, so they don’t get moldy.” The neighbors, it seems, can’t get enough of Bird’s twice-risen bread, so Bird supplies not only his own household but also those around him who are clever enough to just happen to drop by on baking day.

Despite a military background, Bird doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to stick rigidly to routine, and his Tuscan bread reflects this free spirit. “I put salt in my Tuscan bread,” he says unapologetically.” Poppy seeds and sesame seeds on occasion, as well. He also experiments with different blends of flour. “I get the best compliments when I use the Red Wheat and the Emmer for the flavors,” he says, “but I also love the Pasayten Hard White.” Bird also uses Bluebird’s farro pasta flour to make gnocchi (with white sauce and shrimp) and acknowledges that he sees the value of using Bluebird’s pancake and waffle mix, but prefers making his own from scratch using that beloved Pasayten Hard White.

Pizza, too, is a staple in the Bird household. “I’m constantly improving my technique,” says Bird, referring to the process of letting his crust (that Pasayten Hard White flour again!) age in the refrigerator for 2 days without rising before pre-baking the crust at 500 degrees (“I wish my oven went above 500!” he laments), adding toppings and pesto, and returning it to the oven for 5 more minutes. “I take college kids in the Alaska League Baseball program into my house every summer,” says Bird, “and they love this pizza.”

If you’re thinking that all this time for baking means that Bird is a retiree, think again. True, he is retired from 40 years of teaching public school. But he still teaches at Kenai Peninsula College as an adjunct faculty member, instructs a local homeschool program, coaches youth hockey, hosts a radio program with KSRM, and, if internet photos are any indication, enjoys hunting and fishing trips. (“I have a cornucopia of activities,” says Bird.) Oh, and he also ran twice for the US Senate, in 1990 and 2008. “I don’t flinch from being in the hot seat,” Bird says.

It was while he was on a radio talk show discussing political issues that Bird was offered his own program. “After one of my political appearances they said to me, ‘We’d like you to create your own show.'” A homeschool student came up with the name–The Bird’s Eye View–and Bird comes up with the content. Characteristically, he does not limit himself to one genre. “I talk about politics, art, religion, and all things Alaska–plane crashes, bear attacks,” says Bird. The Bird’s Eye View, which has a listening audience of 50,000 airs from 3-5pm Alaska Time, Monday through Friday.

In February 2017, Bird interviewed farmer Sam Lucy on The Bird’s Eye View and shared with Sam his own health successes with Bluebird’s grains, despite advice to quit bread. In March, Bird says, another listener called in saying, “I heard your show about that grain farm and ordered some.” The caller was very appreciative, notes Bird.

It’s conversations like these that intrigue Bird, for they help him forge connections with listeners from around the state and across the country, and which help determine his path forward with The Bird’s Eye View. ”

I’m still learning,” Bird says, “but it’s a lot of fun.”