Something happens around a wood-fired oven. Every year we notice the same thing. People gather, eat bread, and tell stories and in doing so restore some ancient calling to hearth and soil. Bread, grains, fire, soil, sun: the most elemental of pleasures, threading together the talks and workshops that made up the 2009 Conference. As Albie Barden remarked in his keynote address, bread brings people together in ways that ignite tradition, fertility, invention, and community.

Day One of the Kneading Conference rolled in on a wave of heavy rains. About 180 presenters, participants, and volunteers munched their way through the downpour, enjoying the best bread on the planet, hand-made and baked in wood-fired ovens. As we found out, until the sun came out there was no better way to lift spirits and downsize the impact of a soggy day. Participants came from 17 states and 3 countries, including Belgium. They overwhelmingly cited the quality of the presentations, the opportunity to immerse in hands-on learning, the easy camaraderie, and the delicious locally grown food at every meal as reasons why the Conference was “the best”.

While the canopy of a large event tent saved us when the rains came, and again when the sun came out, we did learn that the ability to hear presenters amidst neighboring workshops in close proximity was difficult.  Correcting acoustic overlap will be at the top of the list for 2010.

Topics ranged from Ellen Mallory’s research on improving soil fertility to Jim Amaral’s experimentations with sourdough bread and seaweed, a surprising, delicious, oceanic mouthful. Two bakers, Noah Elbers and Randy George, described with humor and candor the sometimes pot-holed roads that led to their unique and successful bakeries. Rick Kersbergen, Matt Williams, Will Bonsall, Mark Fulford, and Gabe Clark brought experience, observation, and tales of risk-taking to their presentations on various innovative methods of grain cultivation, and Roger Jansen demonstrated the nearly-extinct skill of mill stone sharpening. Dan Wing, the late Alan Scott’s co-author of The Bread Builders, laid out the business of mobile ovens, and Richard Bessey defined, and tweaked, Alan Scott’s classic masonry oven designs.

Keynote speaker Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills talked of the significance of heirloom grains and why he cares enough about them to travel the country, like Johnny Appleseed, planting seeds of ancient wheat and corn. Regarding bread, the masters – Ciril Hitz, Richard Miscovich, Michael Jubinsky, Allison Reid, Stephen Lanzalotta, Dusty Dowse, Doug Brown, Jonathan Rubenstein, and Dean Zoulamis – gave away their tips on dough-construction and shaping, and managing wood-fired heat. The proof of prowess was in the delicious samplings as the loaves, rolls, pastries, challah, and bagels peeled forth from the ovens.

Another highlight of the Conference, the one that turned grown-ups into barefoot, mud-splattered overgrown kids, was Kendra Michaud and Stu Silverstein’s earth oven project. And for everyone, Stu’s workshop, Pizza with Kids, brought the next generation fully into the good times. Clad in the handsome aprons sewn individually by Nancy Kerner, the children rolled, dressed, baked, and devoured their own pizza masterpieces. According to one serious 5-year old, it was the best pizza he ever made. Perhaps a finger in the dough turns real food into favorite food. Remembering fingers in the dough and toes in the mud, we are inspired to plant seeds, grind grains, stoke the fire, and break off a handful of warm bread with friends.