Kneading Conference West 2011
Hello,
I just attended Kneading Conference West 2011 in Mount Vernon, Washington, which was held September 15-17.
What a wonderful gathering of farmers, millers, researchers and bakers! I met a lot of very nice and interesting people!
The whole experience was fantastic - meeting so many people and seeing a few people I'd met before, attending the seminars and lectures, the beautiful setting in amongst the gardens and orchard, and the food was delicious!
I had the pleasure of meeting Farine-mc at the conference, along with another Vancouver Island food writer, Rhona McAdam.
They have both posted really nice write-ups about the conference:
http://www.farine-mc.com/2011/09/back-from-kneading-conference-west-2011.html
http://reallygoodwriter.com/kneading-conference-west/kneading-conference-west-day-1/
http://reallygoodwriter.com/cheese/kneading-conference-west-day-2/
*Edited to add:
http://reallygoodwriter.com/uncategorized/kneading-conference-west-over-and-out/
*Edited to add:
I also really enjoyed meeting Teresa of Northwest Sourdough. Teresa has also written about Kneading Conference West, and included some great photos and video! in her post:
http://www.northwestsourdough.com/discover/?p=2444
These ladies have written about the conference far better than I ever possibly could, so I will stop writing now and just share pictures of ovens, and breads and pastries brought and made by the instructors and attendees! :^)
Wood-firing bagels (note the charred bagel board!) 
...bagels were flipped once dry enough 
Beautiful breakfasts! kindly provided by BreadFarm and Macrina Bakery and Cafe
BreadFarm's lemon-berry danish was exquisite! 
... Macrina's pumpkin bread was fabulous!
...and Macrina's beautiful bundt cake: 
Some baking from the conference classes
Professional Baking class taught by Jesse Dodson and Michael Eggebrecht
Professional Baking class - Boule - wow!
Large Ciabatta - Professional Baking class 
fresh, moist, delicious...the cheese was great too
Barley breads (instructors Andrew Ross, Leslie Mackie) 
...and tasty barley pretzels also!
Morning Buns from Andrew Meltzer's Laminated dough class (beauties!)
...a lovely scoring pattern on this loaf, wood-fired and made with freshly milled flour and instruction from Larry Jansen
An assortment of extremely delicious breads brought by Cliff Leir, of fol epi bakery in Victoria, BC
(slightly blurry shot, trying to get my camera to go quicker than that knife coming in on the left!)
...and a couple of ovens, the oven on the right constructed on site! (instructor Kiko Denzer)
A tour of the BreadFarm Bakery was offered, and what a display of gorgeous breads. I've tasted the Roasted Allium bread and Sour Cherry Lemon bread - incredibly flavorful :^) Here are just a few of their lovely breads!
I am so happy I got the chance to meet and talk to so many amazing people, to learn lots of new things, and taste so much good food and bread at this Kneading Conference!
:^) from breadsong
Comments
wish I would have been able to make it...
Hi Pat,
I think we were at the same seminar in Vegas last September, but I didn't know it.
It would have been great if you were at the conference.
I hope our paths cross again one day - maybe at next year's KCW?
:^) from breadsong
maybe at the upcoming Coupe? Must get the schedule worked out... I really thought hard about going to the kneading conference this year, but had another high priority on the "wish list..."
Happy Baking.
Pat
Pat,
I've never been to France and would love to go someday.
If you get the chance to attend the Coupe - merveilleuse! - and I hope you have a wonderful time.
Happy Travels!
:^) breadsong
They are so evocative! Thanks for linking to my write-up. It was so much fun meeting you and discovering your gorgeous breads. What you don't say in your post is that you brought a rye loaf to the Conference and that Master Baker Jeffrey Hamelman found it so perfect that he passed it around for everyone to see. In my book that's a medal of honor. You should definitely post a picture of the bread.
MC, Thank you for your very kind comments and for your encouragement!
It means an awful lot to me as I admire your baking and respect your knowledge and talent so much!
I was so relieved that Mr. Hamelman liked the rye bread. Here is a picture:
(This was an 80% SD rye with a rye-flour soaker, formula based on that in Mr. Hamelman's book, Bread.)
MC, thanks so much once again for your compliments. I so enjoyed meeting you and getting the chance to talk to you about bread baking; there were so many wonderful things going on but meeting you was definitely one of the highlights!
:^) from breadsong
It's beautiful. How did you get that patterning? I don't think I've ever seen that before. So when will we hear that you are teaching classes and/or opening your own bakery? I think your family and friends shouldn't be the only ones to benefit from your talents and baking passion. (Of course, us TFLers get to enjoy it remotely.) Sounds like the class was a great experience. Thanks for posting the great pictures. -Varda
Thank you so much, Varda.
hansjoakim talked about the shaping method for his gorgeous boules in his post here:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/13507/sourdough-rye
This boule was proofed seam side down & baked seam side up.
I used flour on the seam side and tried to get the flour down into the natural seams that occurred while shaping.
Just having been in the company of so many incredible teachers and talented bakers at this conference, makes me appreciate their wealth of knowledge, how much skill they have and how hard they work; as a home baker I felt more than welcome but at the same time very inexperienced...so will keep working away here on a small-scale in my kitchen :^)
I am so glad you liked the photos!
:^) from breadsong
I am going to try it but you have set a very high bar. -Varda
That is a work of art, Breadsong. Thanks for the photos and the write-up.
Glenn
That looks so wonderful.
I really wanted to attend but with everything else going on at work and home I couldn't fit it in. So sorry, because it looks incredible.
-F
Floyd,
Thank you, and I hope you can make it to the conference next year. I'm sure you would love it.
It was quite a gathering of people, in a great setting, with lots of interesting subjects/lectures/seminars.
I am looking forward to what may be offered at next year's conference!
:^) from breadsong
Why don't we have something like this at all in UK?
I'm sooooo jealous!! :p
Thank you so much for sharing the experience with us, breadsong. Lovely collection of beautiful photos. :)
.........wish I were there...........
lumos @ breadyenvy
Wonderful Meeting, Breadsong! I wish i were there, too. And your boule is exquisite, breadsong!
Sounds like a fabulous conference and the pictures you've shared are mouth watering.
That loaf of rye is spectacular - no wonder Jeffrey passed it around for all to see.
Nice bake and thanks again for sharing with us,
Larry
I wondered why you had been a bit quiet on the forums lately. Now I know why: you have been busy pleasing the master himself with your beautiful breads. What an honour and what a beautiful boule.
All the best,
Syd
Thanks for sharing, breadsong! I very much enjoyed all your photo's and hearing about the great time you had at the show.
I can't get over your gorgeous loaf, it's cracked into the most interesting and beautiful pattern. I second what Larry quoted..it is a spectacular loaf and it's plain to see why JH passed it around for all to see! 'Best of Show' ....just gorgeous : )
Sylvia
Glenn, lumos, Khalid, Larry, Syd, Sylvia, and everyone else - thank you so much for your kind comments.
The conference was such a great experience for me; I'm glad you liked the photos, and I so appreciate your compliments on the bread.
Oh, and lumos...maybe your UK-TFL gathering could be the start of a Kneading Conference event of your own!
:^) from breadsong
Could you send me some info on the on site oven construction?
Thanks
davidkatz71@gmail.com
Hello David,
I didn't participate in the oven construction, so don't have any information I could forward to you.
Here is a link to books written by Kiko Denzer though:
http://www.amazon.com/Kiko-Denzer/e/B001JS51CO/ref=sr_tc_2_rm?qid=1316616740&sr=1-2-ent
The book publisher has an event calendar:
http://www.handprintpress.com/event-calendar/
And there's more info here:
http://www.handprintpress.com/resources/ovens/workshops/
Regards, breadsong
Hello Breadsong:
Thank you very much for sharing! I wish that I know about this seminar. I would love to attend. Is there any information that I can find out about the next one?
mantana
You're welcome, mantana; Kimmy kindly provided the website for you below...not sure if next year's details are up yet?
:^) from breadsong
Hi Breadsong,
I love all your photos especially morning buns and lemon cherry bread maybe my next baking project. Thank you so much again for posting on the overall view how the conference looked like.
Hello Mantana,
Here is the website:
http://kneadingconferencewest.com/
Registration fee is 250(not sure for next year). I may sign up for next year conference if I can make it across the ocean. Maybe we all can meet each other’s in person. I hope you don’t mind I post the info here.
Kimmy
Hi Kimmy, So happy you liked the photos; here are a couple of crumb shots for the morning buns and the lemon cherry bread. The morning buns were delicious!...and the lemon cherry bread, so, so good :^) but now all gone :^\
:^) from breadsong
Hi Breadsong,
Oh my…all those goodies both lemon cherry bread and morning buns look so good delicious. If you bake morning buns in the future then please save some for yourself first because they will be gone in a seconds.
Kimmy
Hey Breadsong,
What an array of heavenly breads!
Meeting other TFL-ers, AND having your loaf fumbled by Hamelman... I'm most defenitely in awe, and wish I would be closer (or very very rich!).
Thank you so much for sharing, and now I go back and immerse myself in croissant dough feeling inspired to come up with worthy croissants (and mmm, those morning buns... on my bucket list per direct!)
Thank you for sharing
Freerk
Hi freerk, Thanks for your note, and hope everything goes well with your croissants/morning buns!
:^) from breadsong
Hello Breadsong:
Thanks for the link. The next year conferences are not up yet but looking at the two conferences this year, East and West, I definitely will love to attend the West one! It seems like it was better location and set up.
The one in Maine(East), to me , is not worth the $300.00 but the one in the West is beautiful and from the write up of all those participants( via your generous sharing above) are awesome.
Having said that, I don't think that I can afford any of them! The plane fare, lodging, the cost of transportation and the cost of the program are way.................out of may league! Sight! I only can just read your blog and other at TFL and just be happy that at least I could do that.
mantana
Hello Mantana,
I’m not sure where you live right now but if you live in Thailand then you may consider Le Cordon Bleu Dusit:
http://www.cordonbleudusit.com/
They offer an excellent short courses/workshops on breads too and also other interesting food related courses. I think all the breads courses across the world is roughly the same price range and it all depend on where you live to save extra on transportation and accommodation. There were several Malaysian friends that took the bread classes there (long and short term), they really enjoyed the classes perhaps you may consider the courses there. If you are very fluent on Japanese/France (can understand Japanese/France very well - no need translation at all) then I will recommend LCB –Tokyo and Kobe, I took some classes there before. There are several good culinary school in Japan too that offer short term classes, you may google them on the web. Lastly, there is a school in Taiwan(中華穀類食品工業技術研究所) if you can speak Chinese(Mandarin) very well then you can consider school since they charge the less amount of fee so far I can find in Asia, they had very good instructors there and also visiting instructor from different countries too. I knew somebody from SFBI went there to teach there for a week couples years back. You may want to check them out if you speak good Chinese. By the way, I have friends that attend this particular school courses before that is why I do recommend it to you. I hope you have great weekend.
Kimmy
Hello Kim:
How very kind of you to take the time to write about the bread classes! I lived in a very small town in VA. so all those classes are not possible to me.
I only speak Thai and English so school in America will be the right one.
Thanks again.
mantana