It’s been a very busy summer and fall here in Athens, Ohio. I’ve finally got the Kernza Mojo going after a few years of research, sourcing and frustration. We now have a perennial wheat grass pizza as a menu item. Besides that project, I’ve also been trying to manipulate dough, bread and pizza in a myriad ways. Here are some cool breads and pizzas that we’ve produced as a result of our on-going mantra, “If it ain’t bat-shit crazy, it’s boring.”

This “Quattro Nodi has Parmigiano Reggiano, Fior di Latte mozzarella, Shade River organic cherry tomatoes, fresh basil and Corto, California extra-virgin oil. 50 hour cold-fermented sourdough with natural starter- Manitoba wheat.

here are some large “Big Balls” (Grande Palle) sourdough. Nice loaf but very hard to bake due to the size.

Speaking of puff, here is some peach puff pastry we did with a cherry compote, almond granola and local Cherry Orchard seedless grapes. Bombshell!!

“The rain in Spain falls mainly on the…” Spanish-style Coca with French Vadouval Curried spinach and green pepper, Parmigiano Reggiano, Tumeric-braised Cowdery Farms “Confetti” eggplant, roasted sweet “Toro” peppers and aged mozzarella.

These fun spelt “Draguettes” are really cool but getting poked by one leads to may “F” bombs…Never heard from customers how they ate them. haha

Zucchini Pizza al Metro with Integration Acres Goat Gouda, Gruyere, Cowdery Farms broccoli, Shade River Farms tumeric-dashi-poached Tokyo turnips. This was a blast and looks like stained glass.

here is an example of some cool cuts we make in our sourdough. I just love that fiery

Anyway, here is our Kernza, Kracker Krust pizza with Oliver Farms pork belly.

“So what about the bread sculpture Dumbass?” you say.

“Okay, here is the giant” I say.

This took almost four months of constantly producing pieces and I really didn’t know if it would all come together. Thank god, my excellent baker Torrey Evans and good friend Keith Wilde stepped in to help out along with all my managers. So here’s the history if you care.

A few years ago, I drove my wife crazy by constructing a four-foot high bread snake in my living room. I then did a “john move” and stored the bread in boxes in the basement to ferment and rot. Well, since that time, we have had the house remodeled and our kids don’t wear diapers anymore, but my lovely wife still doesn’t trust me.

We started by baking individual pieces. I put holes in each piece to put a rope through with the top of a marker and transported them in small boxes so the tips wouldn’t break. When I had enough, I sprayed them with a clear, matte coating in my driveway.

Then, I used an old whiskey barrel I had laying around and attached some wire fencing that Kieth had. I then sprayed the whole damn thing black. You can spot my house now with a large round black ring on the concrete driveway- a great welcome to alien visitors.

we transported all this stuff and wound the thousand of bread pieces around the barrel then filled in the blank spots.

Finally we had our work of art.