Fervere Bakery -- Zen and the Art of Bread Making

Fervere Bakery is a throwback to another place and another time. A time when baking bread was about more than just getting something good to eat. Communal ovens and bakeries were also vital gathering places and important hubs of early society. Don't Mind Me TV did this one for KCPT last summer. Here's the publicity blurb from the station: Fervere, (fur-vair'-ay) is the Latin root word for "passion" and "fermentation" -- essential ingredients for great bread. Fervere's oven is fashioned after the communal ovens of ancient Europe, when families in villiages took turns feeding the starters, stoking the fires and baking bread. Traditionally the fire was built on the baking surface (hearth), allowed to heat the mass of the oven, then swept clean. Fervere uses an electric heat source. The burner is pulled out of the oven chamber before baking. Because the baking chamber is also the heat chamber, heating and baking do not occur at the same time. Fervere's slow and gentle mixer imbues the crumb with a tenderness and sweetness unique to hand-kneeded breads. All of Fervere's flours are organic, as are all other ingredients, whenever possible. - - - - - - - And here's the overly long intro script I wrote. I don't think they used much of it. But I'd rather over-deliver than under-deliver any day of the week. Especially when it comes to something as relatively simple as writing. Not that I'm saying the writing is necessarily good or bad. Just that for most of us, the physical act of typing is a relatively easy thing to do, and is something that involves no painfully long render times. - - - - - - - - "It's easy to take for granted... but bread is indeed the "staff of life." It could be said that civilization began when ancient mankind stopped foraging and began cultivating wheat. Baked bread allowed us to store food so we could build towns and form modern society as we know it. The earliest evidence of flour goes back at least 30-thousand years to the upper palaeolithic period in Europe. Mummified loaves have been found sequestered in ancient Egyptian tombs. And public ovens in Greece and Rome were the mantles of early society. If you stop and think about it... whatever it's shape, size, or name... bread is a defining element of nearly every culture, country, and religion in the world. This sense of history and community... not to mention making handcrafted bread as an art form... is the very essence of a small bakery located in Kansas City's "Westside" neighborhood. Located at 1702 Summit, Fervere is open only three-days a week: Thursday and Friday from 11 a-m until the bread is gone — usually around three p-m. and on Saturday from 9:30 in the morning until it's all gone. The bread sells out fast... so you may want to get there early ... or call ahead to reserve your loaves. The number is 816-842-7272. You can also learn more by logging onto fervere.com " - - - - - - - Not for nothing, it won a 2011 Telly Award. I credit the content. I tried to learn from the bakers and make this one as simple as I possibly could. Thanks for watching. Do yourself a big favor and remember to reserve your loaves ahead of time.