Bites at the Round Table by Henry McFetridge
My local bakery is King Arthur Flour, in Norwich, Vermont. This place is really unique. The bakery campus is huge! The campus includes a baking school, a gift shop, an inside seating area with a skylight, the counter where they sell baked goods, drinks, and lunch items, and chairs and tables outside on a beautiful patio —
where I once saw a giant turtle moving from the small marsh on campus to a bigger pond across the street.
King Arthur Flour has a free program where schoolchildren can learn to make bread from scratch. I haven’t participated in the program, but I know kids who have. Kids in grades 4-7 are taught that they need skills like math and reading in order to follow a recipe. Then they bake two loaves — one to keep at home, and one to donate to a community organization for distribution to people who need food.
I go here every week because my brother’s piano lesson is across the street. This only gives my family 30 minutes to pick what we need from the bakery. Luckily, there are so many good things to choose from. Unluckily, the place is so popular the wait can take up the entire half hour. I usually choose, depending on how hungry I am, the “almond cloud” cookie. This cookie is my empty-stomach choice, but the “Caprese Sandwich” is my starving-to-death choice. The fact is, I would eat both every time whether or not I was very hungry because they are both so good.
My parents buy Ciabatta buns or baguettes for sandwiches, which my family sometimes serves at dinner, and use the leftovers for French Toast for breakfast. There usually aren’t leftovers, though.
Of course you can also buy King Arthur Flour here, which is great for baking and cooking. Here are some great recipes that can include flour from King Arthur Flour, which is available at most grocery stores:
Apple-icious Oat Bars
Cranberry Orange Walnut Bread
If you can take the heat, stay in the kitchen!
Henry
Henry McFetridge is a member of the ChopChop Kid’s Advisory Board.