Read this and you’ll be in the know!

This year is the 20th season of Pizza Nights at Orchard Hill Breadworks. The photos above represent just a tiny sliver of its history, and while this piece isn’t a dive into the past – maybe a retrospective next year at this time – we bet you still want to know about those pictures…

1. The first oven was under a tent.
2. Everything but the picnicking happened in the bakery parking lot, without shelter and in all weather.
3. This was how it was for years before the pavilion was built!

At the end of every season we try to imagine ways to smooth out and improve pizza night. We’re making changes this year that will start before the season begins and will continue throughout the summer.

Three areas we’ve identified for improvement:

1 – RESERVATIONS:

Getting a reservation can be stressful. In fact so many people were getting online at 9AM every Saturday to make their reservation that the crush of orders outpaced the systems ability to accurately track when all the crusts were sold. This created headaches for guests and hosts alike!

• For the first three weeks of May, the reservation system will open, allowing everyone the chance to book and purchase reservations for any night, any time slot.
• These advance reservations will be paid in full, are not refundable, and will be date and time specific.
• There will be no restrictions during the “pre sale” but we imagine it will serve two groups especially well:
  • Those who know they will attend every week.
  • Those who have a large group that might only attend once or twice during the whole summer, but know the date they’d like to attend and can coordinate that with everyone in their party to make arrangements far ahead.
• We understand that there are limitations inherent in this offering, for instance paying for a whole season’s cost could be prohibitive, but the old reservation system will be active as normal beginning on Saturday, May 30th, before the first pizza night and throughout the rest of the summer. Our intention is simply to reduce the Saturday morning rush.

2 – LINES:

From 5:30 onward, the line gets quite long. We love that new friends are made and that conversations with old friends don’t have to be rushed, but we take wait times seriously and are taking steps to shorten them.

• The biggest bottleneck at the oven are ironically the smallest pizzas. (Gluten free, baked in pans)
  • Despite their size, they disrupt the steady flow and are very difficult to get the bake just right because the crust is hidden from my view by the pan.
  • Moving forward, all gluten free pizzas will be baked indoors in the bread oven.
  • This oven is also easier to prevent gluten contamination and is at a temperature more appropriate for gluten free crusts.
• Plain cheese pizza ready at arrival.
  • Pizza night has always been a DIY event, highlighting our guests creativity and experimentation.
  • But why not skip the line and pick up a plain pizza hot out of the oven?
  • Just to be clear, we’ll never tell anyone they can’t make plain cheese pizza to be baked in the pavilion, but…
  • We will be offering plain cheese pizzas, made by our staff and ready for pickup and picnicking upon arrival.
  • This could eliminate upwards of 75 pizzas each night, meaning fewer people in line and less pizzas needing to be baked in the outdoor oven.

3 – LOADS:

Except for 13 Tuesdays during the summer, Orchard Hill is responsible for the physical needs of around a dozen people. This means that hosting seven to eight hundred guests for pizza night requires us to be creative about being responsible for the physical needs of a hundreds more. We’ve learned to absorb just about all of the impacts, but there are a couple areas we’re asking for your help.

• Bottles and cans at the end of a night overflow two 55 gallon drums, the amount we typically handle in a month or more.
  • This year we’re asking guests to carry in and carry out.
  • If it came from home, we ask it return with you. If it was purchased here, we’re glad to handle it ourselves.
• Room to roam.
  • Seeing children running free across the lawns and around the pizza garden will always be among the highlights of pizza night for all of us.
  • We’re making all of our guests aware that unsupervised time at the playground across the road and any area out of sight from the Pavilion is not allowed.
  • With adults present, the Center at Orchard Hill is happy for the playground to be used during pizza night.

We are excited for the season to begin in just a few weeks! Please share this link with everyone you know who attends pizza night and see you soon.

Orchard Hill Breadworks, Pizza Night HQ

The post The Big 2026 Pizza Night Changes appeared first on Orchard Hill Breadworks.

A meal sized salad entirely from local ingredients available at the bakery

I’ll address the elephant in the room first, blue cheese is a polarizing ingredient. I get it. Last month we started selling Blue Ledge Farm’s “Middlebury Blue” and part of the reason I chose this recipe for April is that I really think more people should try it. However, if you can’t bring yourself to do the blue, switch to another less pungent cheese we sell. Feta, Chèvre or even Blue Ledge’s camambrie would all work.

 What makes this salad really work is that oven roasted sweet potatoes with their caramel sweetness, play off the sharp flavor of blue cheese, rich smokey bacon and all of it is broken up by plenty of acidity from the dressing and bright freshness of a mountain of salad greens

The post In the Kitchen: April appeared first on Orchard Hill Breadworks.

Very quick, simple and seasonal tacos from the pantry (mostly)

Raise your hand if you’ve found yourself on a given Tuesday evening, hungry, tired and staring into an almost completely empty fridge trying to figure out what to make for dinner. 

This was me a few weeks ago, and granted, I’m not trying to cook for small children with strong food preferences, but on that night, I had just a handful of ingredients and turned them into something I thought worth sharing. 

Don’t let the photo on the left fool you, my creation looked nowhere near that fancy, but trust me, it was still very tasty. 

The post What’s Cooking: March appeared first on Orchard Hill Breadworks.

Making the almost three decade leap to today, a comparison is on the one hand really impressive, we do make an impact, and at the same time something I’m uncomfortable just leaving there without added context. Not because I’m not proud, I really am, but because all too often in stories like this, the fact that everyone operating at this scale is truly a tiny fish swimming among giants, gets lost and the reader is left with an incomplete picture that really misses critical truths. But I’ll start with the accomplishments, which I think are worth celebrating.

Today, Orchard Hill Breadworks is woven into the local economy in numerous ways, some obvious and others subtle. One constant is that every year that impact grows.

We partner with over three dozen farms and producers, buying everything from grains and flour, (close to 100 tons in 2025) to pastured eggs (about 80,000 last year) and sweeteners like honey and maple syrup. ( 400 and 125 gallons respectively)

All together, purchases made from these farms and producers account for nearly half of everything we spend on ingredients. For some of the producers we support, our purchases account for a tiny fraction of their total production and they wouldn’t notice if we disappeared entirely, but for many, we play a key role in helping their businesses succeed.

Food businesses don’t only purchase ingredients of course, and if we add in the other small operations in our neighborhood that we support and rely on, from builders and welders to plumbers, electricians and earth movers, the ripples that a place like Orchard Hill creates start to feel even more consequential.

Now the part I wish I’d see written about more often: While all of these things are good and make this corner of the world a more vital, resilient (and tasty) place for all of us to work and live, it is also all made possible only because of the wider economy within which we exist. Vast and truly unimaginably complex systems of transport, technology and industry, sometimes passively (the road system, internet and power grid for instance) and other times directly (our ability to call a supplier any day of the week, any week of the year and have any ingredient not available locally on our doorstep the next day) work non stop in service of what we do. And I didn’t even begin to talk about how critical it is for us that the larger economy be one in which people earn a fair wage that allows them to buy and afford products such as those we make and sell. The jobs in that economy are varied, but most are in industries other than small scale, artisanal crafts such as ours.

I started out by saying comparison is the thief of joy. I can easily get discouraged about how far we have to go to reach anything close to real sustainability. Indeed, there are no simple answers or quick solutions when it comes to solving big challenges, but I also think it’s okay every once in awhile to pat ourselves on the back, express our appreciation to everyone who’s supported us to come this far and at the same time acknowledge that we’ll never take for granted everything that goes into our success.

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If I had to pick—and please don’t make me—the days I get to share my love of all things baking—the ovens, the mill, the mixers, sourdough culture, the history of grain, and the place bread and bakers reside in the cultural fabric of communities around the world, and yes, even firewood—with kids of all ages are some of the very best days. Offering my time to share a few words about how a business can be much more than simply a place of employment and commerce is a part of my job I value most.

Over the course of a year, I’ll find myself standing in front of one of our ovens, talking with groups of kids or teens, a dozen or more times. Sometimes it’s a school field trip; other times it’s just by chance, and very often they are groups who’ve arrived from Kroka Expeditions, a neighbor of ours two miles down the road. These photos from a recent snowy January Sunday are from our most recent collaboration. Since 2009, groups of enthusiastic teens and young adults enrolled in one of Kroka’s semester programs have made the journey from Kroka, in all seasons, often on foot, sometimes by bicycle, always excited to work and to learn. We might stack wood, move bags of flour, weed gardens, or scrub racks, but we always share food and talk about the bakery’s place in this community and the world beyond. The now hundreds of students in those programs I’ve been given the chance to work, cook, and teach alongside have committed themselves—for at least the five months they’re in the program—to pursuing discovery, service, learning, and above all, curiosity about whatever lies around the next corner. On at least a few of those days, Orchard Hill is around the next corner, and what we get to experience is a rare exchange in this age that’s not quantified or monetized, but instead simply adds another page in a now long and sturdy book of mutual respect and care between people.

Why do these interactions feel so meaningful to me? During my childhood, I was lucky enough to meet adults who, when they told you about their craft, were so passionate their eyes brightened and you could feel the excitement flowing out of them as they spoke. Those memories were an inspiration for me as this place came into being, and continue to fuel my desire to share that same kind of passion with the young people I meet. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that there are fewer opportunities for such real-life encounters in today’s world than there were thirty or forty years ago, so I carry on this tradition with pride, hoping that perhaps a few of the individuals who spend part of their day hearing about wood-fired ovens, ancient bread-making practices, or the life of a baker might take that seed and grow it into something meaningful to them in their lives.

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A bakery favorite vegetarian open face toast that sings of summer – while being loyal to ingredients widely available all winter.

We call these “Bánh Mi Tartine” in the bakery, but read the backstory below for the details

Every Friday for the past fifteen or so years, we’ve shared “Family meal” in the bakery. It immediately became a treasured ritual, a way for us to take a few moments away from the hustle of work and enjoy a thoughtfully prepared plate of food. It also provides whoever makes it – most of the time that’s me, but certainly not always – with the chance to do something we all enjoy: to be creative and whimsical with food, while feeding people we care about. 

It was around the time family meal started, that I first had a Banh Mi sandwich. With even a small town like Keene boasting a Banh Mi shop today, the popularity of this Vietnamese delight has exploded in recent years, but it was a revelation when I first tasted the combination of salty, tangy pickle, spicy chili pepper and juicy roasted meat. Enough modification has taken place here to make this a distant relative of the original, (gone is the soft white bread, the pate and the pork belly) but enough of the flavors remain to carry the name.

Despite there being 3 components, they are all very simple so don’t be intimidated, this comes together much more quickly than you might imagine. 

The post What’s Cooking: February appeared first on Orchard Hill Breadworks.

A dazzling winter salad

Some argue that the impossibility of growing fresh things in the dead of winter means we shouldn’t eat salads this time of year. I wholeheartedly agree that slices of tomato and cucumber are best left to peak summer, but the perfect balance found here of sweet and bitter, soft and crunchy, make this a seasonal delight not to be missed.

There are a variety of now widely available winter greens that complement each other and fit the flavor profile of this salad equally well. Mix and match: Chicory, Frisee, Endive and Radicchio are all part of this happy family. If you don’t know them yet, this is a great time to meet and greet.

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Really good stock with Really good toast

Alright alright, so I didn’t have a great title for this one, or a great photo, nor is this really a recipe, but with half of everyone I know fighting off a sniffle right now, (winter came in with a roar this week!) this is my #1 recommended fix all – go to – easy as pie – under appreciated meal for cold days when it’s feeling as though the chill has gotten into your bones and you want to warm up from the inside out.

The ONLY requirement here is that you start with: REAL bone broth. (yes, we make and sell that here) and STURDY bread. (Country Round is a little light, Whole Wheat, Whole Spelt, or Six Seed and Grain are all great.) But by all means, you can make your own too!

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Breakfast Strata

Even the most voracious bread consumers among us end up with a stale heel or two of bread from time to time, and a recipe like this turns a bag full of stale heels or slices, into a satisfying, healthy meal that no one would ever guess began with what many would toss in the bin. (lacking a bunch of stale bread, you can of course use a whole loaf) This recipe is bread plus veggies, cheese and an egg custard, baked until golden brown and served fresh from the oven or cooled to room temperature. It’s both simple to make and lends itself to advance preparation because a long soaked strata is way better than a hastily made one.

Like pretty much every other recipe I’ve shared, I encourage you to be adventurous with your cooking. Prefer Swiss chard to spinach? Absolutely. Lack leafy greens but have a bunch of fresh dill or a basil plant growing in the window that needs trimming? That would be delicious too. Not a fan of dairy? I’ve never used a milk alternative, but I’m guessing that oat or almond milk would both substitute just fine. (coconut milk might be a tad rich, but let me know what you find)

Serves 6 – 8

Ingredients

• 10 slices of bread
• 1 stick of butter
• 2 onions chopped (shallots are great here too)
• 1 pound spinach or other leafy greens
• 1 bunch fresh herbs, optional (thyme, parsley, dill)
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup white wine
• 8 oz cheese (gruyere, mild cheddar, Monterey jack or other)
• 8 large eggs
• 1 3/4 cups half and half or other milk

The post What’s Cooking: November appeared first on Orchard Hill Breadworks.

Shakshuka

Shakshuka is about the tastiest, brightest, warming food that you’ve likely never made. It also eats equally well as a brunch, lunch or dinner. What is it? it’s a one-skillet recipe of eggs baked in a tomato-red pepper sauce spiced with cumin, paprika and a touch of chili. First you make the sauce, which comes together quickly on the stovetop, then you gently crack each of the eggs into the pan, nestling them into the sauce and the pan goes into the oven to finish. Shakshuka originated in North Africa, and like all great dishes, there are as many versions as there are cooks who’ve made it. I use feta and cilantro here, with fresh Jalapeño but it’s just as delicious with a dollop of greek yogurt spritzed with lemon and any number of soft herbs, dill, mint, parsley or even sweet basil.

Traditionally served with pita, I like to toast up crusty hunks of whole wheat bread, but by all means, use whatever bread of ours you like.

Serves 6 – 8

Ingredients

• 3 Tb extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 2 large red bell pepper, seeded and cut into small chunks
• 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
• 1.5 teaspoon ground cumin (freshly toasted whole seeds then ground are the way to go)
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon ground chili flake (or more if you have aleppo, which is the best)
• 1 quart fresh roma or other paste tomatoes coarsely chopped
• ¾ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more as needed
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper, plus more as needed

• 5ounces feta, crumbled (about 1¼ cups)
• 6 – 8 large eggs
• Lots of chopped cilantro, thin sliced jalapeño for serving

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