A bakery that’s a staple of downtown Northampton, Massachusetts, Hungry Ghost Bread, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The owner and baker, Jonathan Stevens, decided to mark it with his first cookbook, "The Hungry Ghost Bread Book: An Offbeat Bakery’s Guide to Crafting Sourdough Loaves, Flatbreads, Crackers, Scones, and More."
Stevens said he wants everyone to experience the art of making and breaking bread with their own community.
As we spoke, Stevens slid thick pieces of carefully formed dough down a wooden paddle and into a round hearth — about 8 feet in diameter — to join about 60 more loaves to bake.
The variety: country bread, covered with toasted sesame seeds. The smell filled the small shop, and the heat from the hearth warmed all who entered.
“Baking bread is the second or third oldest craft, but there are millions of ways of doing it,” Stevens said. “So what I'm hoping to do with the book is not just get people to make my bread. I want them to make their bread.”
And find their own connection to it, like Luna Shyr. She just moved to Northampton and only recently stumbled across the almost shack-like structure that sits on a hill in the city’s downtown.
“I'm really fond of bakeries, and I lived in France for a year. And I have to say that this is a place that really, like, sort of instantly made me feel at home here,” Shyr said.
Shyr sat outside on a stone ledge, eating a rosemary walnut scone.
“I love baked goods and I used to have a croissant and coffee every morning. And I'm trying not to repeat that with scones,” Shyr said while she laughed. “I love that the varieties are different each time you come here and you're not quite sure what you're going to be able to expect. There's a creativity to that. That's really beautiful.”
A creativity to the sourdough bread schedule that changes every day — and to the way Stevens and his wife, Cheryl Maffei, run the business.
Maffei keeps track of the financial side of things.
“This is a ridiculous business proposal,” Maffei said. “Like, yeah, let's have a wood-fired oven in the middle of the city with hopefully a good wood supply.”
She said there are a lot of challenges that have come up, especially with inflation.
“It's really challenging to pay a living wage and buy organic and local ingredients and pay the kind of rents that Northampton wants you to pay. But we have our priorities and it's not always the bottom line for us,” Maffei said.
There’s a love of the process, Maffei said, that inspires her to overcome these challenges. She also contributed to some of the recipes in the book.
“What are you going to do with a stale loaf of French bread or semolina Fennel, but make bread noodles? So, I'd make lasagna out of the bread instead of using noodles. And man…it's good,” Maffei said.
In the book, Stevens tells little stories about his life in the bakery before each bread recipe. He said it’s just how he thinks of things.
“The rye bread is, in my mind, associated with this one older German customer who used to come in every day. I mean, that's how I think of her, every single time I make it,” Stevens said.
Stevens said, while he is excited about the book and for people to try their hand at baking, cities and towns need their bakeries and cafes to thrive.
“Bakeries where people can get good food and run into their neighbors and say, 'Hello,' and catch up on news,” Stevens said. “And if we don't have those things, we're going to get even more alienated from each other than we already are. And that's a frightening prospect. So ... in my wildest imagination, I would love to think that what we do could spawn other bakeries.”
And maybe this is a sign for you to grab a friend and visit your local bakery today, too.
