Out on a limb with Tree-Top Baking: March 2014

When you're invited to work alongside a French baker, you don't waste a moment—you jump at the opportunity. That's what we did when friend and baker Didier asked if we wanted to join him for a day at a small wood-fired baking space in a building owned by the Marie (city) of Montreuil just ouside the Paris City Limits. He and friends form L'association Salut Les Co-Pains, a small group of passionate bakers and want-to-be bakers. It's a unique group because while the French have a strong association with bread, most visit local boulangeries every day (sometimes several times a day). The day was sunny, the "laboratory" was in a brightly lit room in a building next to a great park, and we had a blast mixing, proofing and (finally) baking two kinds of breads in a wood-fired oven.

Whole grain breads (some with dried fruit) were sold to neighbors from friends a make-shift stand near the oven which was next to a busy park.

Young men and women spent hours and hours playing ball (and other games) in the park, getting plenty of exercise away from their computers or keyboards.