Established in 2016, ORIGIN Breads is a small bakery in Madison, WI. Owner and baker, Kirk Smock began baking in 2005 while living in Guyana. He discovered long fermented sourdough breads in Brooklyn, NY and he fine tuned his fermentation and baking skills while living in Mozambique.
ORIGIN Breads is dedicated to baking long fermented and naturally leavened sourdough breads, bagels, pastries and pizza using only organic grains grown and stone milled in the Driftless Area.
ORIGIN Breads uses stone milled grains because this milling process keeps the wheat kernels intact while grinding the bran, germ and endosperm together. “This is important because the wheat bran and wheat germ contain the healthy nutrients, fibers and oils, and keeping them together allows us to bake bread that is both nutritious and delicious,” Kirk notes.
All of ORIGIN Breads’ products are naturally leavened with wild yeast and long fermented because, as Kirk says, “this timely process is important in leavening and flavoring our dough, and it provides time for the sourdough culture to unlock important antioxidants, folic acid, vitamins and minerals found in the grains. A long fermentation also results in bread that is more easily digestible.”
You can find ORIGIN Breads’ sourdough breads, bagels and granola at all three Co-op locations and at their Eastside Madison bakery.
Read more local vendor stories here.
