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The Columbia Daily Herald, Columbia, Tennessee
4/2/2008 3:00pm by David Tannen
Roben Mounger, also known as Ms. Cook, wrote this article for the Columbia Daily Herald, Columbia, TN. Roben and I had a great time baking, eating and talking! Here is a link to the entire story or read it below. Visit Roben's blog for wonderful stories on locally grown and crafted foods.
Sean York will one day recall bread making with his Grandfather and Bread Artisan, David Tannen.
Man Can Live on Quality Bread Alone
Clues about our real passions and life purposes abound everywhere for us when we are young. I have discovered this during the second half of life almost daily by tying personal memories to current happenstance. After making friends with a local bread baker, I remembered my senior year in high school buying a cookbook entitled, Beard On Bread by obvious culinary master James Beard. I was struck then as I am now by the following lines in his introduction, “Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all food; and good bread with fresh butter (or local honey), the greatest of feasts. However, unless we bake it ourselves, it is hard to come by a loaf of bread these days delicious enough to stir the senses. We are offered spongy, plasticized, tasteless breads, presliced, doctored with nutrients and preservatives, and with about as much gastronomic importance as cotton wool. Yet people everywhere seem to go on buying bread no matter how poor its quality, simply because it is unthinkable to live without it.” But, I have found there is no excuse for putting up with bad bread, particularly when a loaf prepared by hand is so little trouble if you know David Tannen.
So it was, happy trails for my fun loving friend, Connie Hardin and me as we set off last week on a crisp, clear and brilliantly colored fall day – destination Old Natchez Trace Road (off Highway 7, north of Columbia) and David Tannen’s home, Twin Forks Farm. Though David sells his menu of artisan loaves at the Nashville Farmers’ Market on Wednesdays, Franklin Farmers’ Market on Saturday (10:00 until 12:00 behind The Factory), The Produce Place and The Loveless Café in Nashville, I wanted the full experience and the secret to his genuinely happy disposition on market day.
Astonishingly, he began as a fulltime baker just this past May and I have been lucky enough to purchase this deliciousness on a weekly basis since that time. As connoisseurs of farmers’ markets, my husband, Dalton, and I have a radar for that certain vendor – those would be the folks with the slowed down, even tempered manner who love their produce and enjoy the education component of the market as much as the production piece. We spied David, hands in his pockets with a boyish grin on his face and a simple table presentation, loaded with rustic European style loaves (both boule and batard). “Now this is what I’m talking about,” I remarked to Dalton, as bread from a wood fired oven is a rare find in our southern markets.
Eating our way through the varieties that David offers has been an adventure paralleling his own journey of discovery in bread baking. A pair of experiences seemed to have helped peak his interest in this the realm of nutritious food provider. Step one: as a youngster, he practiced with a swim team early in the morning and his Mother (brilliant matriarch, she was) encouraged him to cook his own breakfast. Step two: he was a reader and became enthralled with nutrition.
In 1989, he bought a book entitled “How To Make $100,000 on 5 Acres”. Carefully researching his dream of vegetable farming he proceeded. “Road frontage, a water source, and a 45 minute ride to a city were the requirements for this lifestyle,” says David who requested these specifics from his realtor. Connie and I nodded in appreciation as we scanned a portion of his 60-acre find. The farm is named Twin Forks after his wife Laura’s family coat of arms. David did indeed grow and sell vegetables, but as synchronicity would have it, he was inspired by a NPR (National Public Radio), Splendid Table show while traveling on a sales job route of an improbable occupation. He recalls hearing an interview with Kiko Denzer author of “How To Build An Earth Oven” and later purchasing the book that sat on a shelf for 15 years before he began to fulfill the dream.
Eventually, he sought his first recipe from Vermont baker and owner of The Bohemian Bakery. He developed the recipe that Connie and I witnessed, Bohemian 3 Seeded, in honor of his mentor. David built an outdoor oven and initially baked in the very picturesque structure for one year. He soon however constructed an oven with ten inches of concrete encasing the baking racks. An external thermometer is connected and hangs to the side of the oven door. At the onset, the oven reaches 600 degrees and eventually cools to 450 degrees. Producing anywhere from 50 to 200 loaves each day, he nurses each loaf, carefully checking each one for the perfect internal temperature.
David chooses his ingredients with the careful consideration that his life experiences have brought to him. His breads involve a preponderance of whole wheat with a spectacular 2-day sourdough process unlike commercial bakeries creating perfectly crusted bread that is easier to digest and, along with the natural leaven and long fermentation process, ultimately a more nutritious meal.
The rising is conducted from 18 to 22 hours and enables the specialized wild yeast time to break down the gluten. David also has a space called “the cool room” which retards the rising process and allows the wheat a long fermentation. As he cheerfully involves his grandson in the process, David notes that Monday and Thursday are days to mix the dough and tend the fire and Tuesdays and Fridays are baking days. His 1 and ½ pound loaves sell for $5.00 each at the various market sites.
“David”, I say – knowing the unfair nature of such questioning- “What is your favorite way to eat any of your breads?” He smilingly says, “I love an open – faced with peanut butter…or maybe thinly sliced with hummus.....no, with an olive oil and garlic spread and soup…. A pause for growling stomachs and then, Connie adds “I am delivering some loaves to friends with Steve Brown’s honey.”
I believe we have come full circle here - James Beard would acknowledge David Tannen’s baking gifts and his personal restoration of what is truly a valuable daily element for any little table and corner of the world. Lucky us - turns out, David’s quest is our good fortune.
1 Comments »
Mary Blackburn said,
What a hidden treasure in Hickman Co.! Discovered David and I were neighbors when I sampled his bread at Whole Foods in Cool Springs. We love to use any of the savory breads for fondue and we use left-over cubes to make croutons. I recently discovered the raisin bread and what a great breakfast treat-toasted with melted butter. Yum!