SEATTLE, Wash. -- The best way to begin a visit to Macrina Bakery in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood is to break bread -- which is exactly what PCC's Chef Lynne Vea did with bakery owner and founder Leslie Mackie, who explained what breaking bread means to her:
"To me it's the ritual of sitting down at the table and eating bread. It inspires conversation, it slows people down for a second and makes them be thoughtful, you know, of people around them." Mackie said.
People have been slowing down and enjoying of Macrina's breads since 1993.
"It's four simple ingredients; flour, water salt and yeast, and it's amazing what you can create with those four simple ingredients," said Mackie.
Mackie took Vea behind the scenes of her award winning bakery. She was among the first American bakers to experiment with recipes from European master bakers that involved a long slow fermentation process -- the results are crusty loaves of flavorful bread.
"It takes many people to make this all happen." Mackie said as she walked Vea through the kitchen, where tall ovens baked dozens of crusty loaves.
Her latest mission?
"I wanted to get more whole grain flour into Macrina."
This led her to Fairhaven Flour in Burlington; a mill that's been grinding local, organic wheat for decades.
She discovered the wheat was grown by Williams Hudson Bay Farm -- a Walla Walla farm that was saved by PCC Farmland Trust.
So, she explained, she told PCC's grocery specialist:
"We make these really delicious rolls with this flour, you really should have these in your store!"
"So the next day he said, 'gosh, why don't you bring me samples?' And that started the relationship with having bread in the PCC's." Mackie said.
She pulled out a tray of the buns made with apple cider, wheat berries, and whole wheat flour grown by Williams Hudson Bay Farm and milled by Fairhaven Flour.
"So these are the freshly baked wheat cider buns for PCC," Mackie explained to Vea.
And once again, bread brings people together:
"They're so enthusiastic -- they being the bakery managers at PCC," said Mackie as she and Vea sampled the rolls. "They are so enthusiastic about our products, it's just really been a fun process."
