From oven-making to bread baking

And just yards from where teens are jumping into the Kennebec River, about a dozen barefoot participants are squishing and smearing clay and sand that eventually will be rolled into balls and used to make a wood-fired earth oven. The clay play is sweaty work, especially on a day that is alternately muggy, rainy, and sunny. But by late afternoon, a wood fire is burning in the newly built oven and soon after, workshop teacher Stu Silverstein is passing around strips of freshly baked flatbread.

Home bread maker Vincent Falco of Dunstable is one of the oven builders. He traveled to central Maine “to get away from work, which has nothing to do with baking,’’ he says, and because “I want to build [an oven] at home.’’

Other workshops and lectures for the 125 attendees included “The Magic & Mystery of Slack Dough,’’ “Firing the Wood-Fired Oven,’’ “Bagels From Scratch,’’ “Sharpening Mill Stones,’’ and “The Economics of Growing Grains.’’ An artisan bread fair capped the activities on the weekend.

What makes this conference unusual, says one of the founders, is its emphasis on including the farmer, miller, oven-builder, and baker. Amber Lambke, chairman of the planning committee, says all of them are integral to the bread baking process. Registration has grown each year, and Lambke estimates that 30 percent of attendees return because “people can’t possibly take it in at one time. And one of the things we hear from our presenters is that they learn so much here.’’

Ciril Hitz, department chair of the International Baking and Pastry Institute at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, gave a morning class called “Pre-Ferments Basics’’ and “Creative Shaping Techniques.’’ After lunch, he listened in as Michael and Sandra Jubinsky, owners of Stone Turtle Baking and Cooking School in Lyman, Maine, showed how they make best use of heat from their wood-fired Le Panyol oven as it slowly cools from pizza-baking temperatures (750-plus degrees) to the 300-degree range. The Jubinskys roasted tomatoes and baked granola, rolls, and two tarts.

Questions flew from participants. What temperature is best for cooking baguettes? How long does it take for the oven to cool to that temperature? It was similar in other workshops and in some lectures, and the key word from teachers was “experimentation.’’ Ovens are different, grains are different.

Although wheat acreage is increasing in Aroostook County, the local grain movement in Maine is in its infancy. A $1.3 million federal grant will help determine what varieties of wheat grow best in various locales, and educate farmers and create infrastructure for the seed-to-bread process.

Patience Heenan traveled from Jacksonville, Fla., to combine the conference with a family get-together. A pastry chef at Ponte Vedra Inn & Club, Heenan says, “I do pastries and cakes and the sweeter side of stuff. I fill in on breads when the baker’s gone, but I’m not on my A game there.’’

Heenan notes that chefs often get stuck in a niche. “If you want to try something else, you just have to do it,’’ she says. To that end, she sat front and center at Hitz’s class and attended a session on making bagels. Around 5 p.m., as she was juggling her dinner plate of wood-fired pizza and a salad of locally grown vegetables, she says she has had a great day. “I’ll definitely be back.’’