Suzanne Slomin is a very committed woman. She’s committed to building a sustainable bakery in rural Vermont and keeping it small and intimate. She’s committed to making long fermented, naturally leavened bread. And she’s committed to treating her employees well. This is not an easy road to travel but Suzanne is doing everything she can to make things work.
I got introduced to Suzanne through author and podcaster Douglas Rushkoff, who upon meeting Suzanne, was blown away by the complexity of baking great bread. While it’s no surprise to the baker community, the average eater still doesn’t know how good bread is a completely different product than the average commodity loaf at the Mega Mart. Suzanne is truly ‘one of us’, making the good stuff and sharing it with the people.
And yet, it can still be a struggle to make ends meet. We talk about the challenges at length, but also celebrate the crazy situations that we get ourselves into, be it dealing with staff defections during the holidays or moving a four deck oven from the gravel approach road to the barn on top of a hill. (OK, maybe Suzanne is unique in that regard.)
This was one of my all time favourite conversations and I’m so glad I get to share it with you now. Check out the show using the player below, or if you can’t see the player (it doesn’t transfer via email), you can find her show page here.