Who are we and what are we doing?
My name is Kyle W. Chick. I own The Bakery 04476, an artisanal micro-bakery located on Rt. 199 in Penobscot, Maine. We are a year-round yeast bread company providing the freshest- and highest-quality products that we can and we are deeply dedicated to helping maintain a strong and vibrant food system on the Blue Hill Peninsula and its surrounding areas. We work with as many farms and local producers as possible which allows us to have as small of a travel footprint as we can while also having access to some of the best-quality ingredients innNew England.
Currently our line of products include: staple slicing and table breads, exciting savory cheese knots, traditional European breads, holiday breads, and sweets.
For the last three years we have been selling direct to clients every Tuesday and have been involved in local markets. We have been slowly building visibility, trust, and a dedicated clientele, and we are ready to take the next step!
What do we need?
We are 80% of the way to a fully state-certified kitchen and we are asking for help with the last 20%. We need $14,000 to finish our project. At that point we will be able to serve and support
our peninsula in a whole new and exciting way. Currently we are operating under the Food Sovereignty Ordinance, allowing us to produce out of our home for direct sales and markets only, more commonly known as “cottage industry.”
When our space is state-certified, it will allow us much more flexibility in how we can make our bread available to the community; some of the many possibilities are: retail stores, restaurants,
expanding our direct sales, and the option to really reach out without limitations into other creative markets, as well.
This certification is also critical for us to be able to open a sandwich shop out of our Penobscot bakery in the summer of 2025, bringing a much-needed breakfast and lunch location to this side of the peninsula.
Some of the projects this money will support will be proper insulation, limited electrical and plumbing, ventilation and oven safety, wall coverings, and sanitation.
And of course labor; gotta pay the renovation team who will make it all possible!
For a full list of projects and other ways to help, please reach out to our campaign. We would love to talk about more details!
What do we already have?
Over the last 3 years we have invested in and procured most all of the equipment needed for day-to-day operations of a fully-certified bread production kitchen. For example, we bought out the Bread Basket company in Orland when they retired two years ago which allowed us to acquire our oven, a behemoth Vulcan Heart electric three-bay deck oven that will be the backbone of our company, along with racks, sheet trays, and other kitchen small wares (not as
impressive, but equally as important :). We also sought out and slowly bought storage containers, scales, a propane 6-burner range oven, and the needed three-bay sink (now installed and operational) that’s required to meet sanitation requirements when we are certified.
Most important to the success of our bakery is that we own our location outright, have a brand new septic system, and we, just recently, have upgraded our electrical system, allowing us to
run the oven and, as well, be able to deal with all the growing power supply demands to come.
We’ve done A LOT and now we need help with the final leg of this LONG (though satisfying) journey!
What do we need to get certified?
We have now gotten down to the projects that are hard to “cobble together,” and the most efficient way is to do them is in one decisive chunk. We need to properly finish the walls and ceiling which entails sheet rock and painting, install fiberglass reinforced panels (FRP) in all the high splash or wet zones, install metal wall baffles and fire-retardant insulation around the oven systems, put in proper fans and ventilation for oven systems, install safety alarms, overhaul the
electric Vulcan oven for long-term safety and usage, install kitchen-safe outlets and additional electric, install both a mop sink and a hand sink (and associated plumbing as required by the State), and build a separation wall to seal off the kitchen from all living spaces.
This is the list of essential projects that must be funded before certification and our next step forward toward this dream of making our bread fully available to our community.
How does the bakery support food security?
The most important thing to us about a new food production location Is how are we going to support local food systems and security.
#1 is buying locally; we are constantly on the search for opportunities to work with local farmers and producers. We do our best to preserve quantities of products when they are fresh and in season for use year round.
We are actively changing as our company grows to be adopting the best possible practices we can afford at that time; for instance, we currently use a high-quality artisan flour from Vermont/
New York which is non-GMO and unbleached but it is not organic. As we grow and can afford to build the proper infrastructure for grinding our own wheat berries, this will allow us to buy
organic whole-berry grains from within Maine and maintain a respectable price point while upgrading the quality and health benefits of our bread. By taking on the grinding of our own
flours, we can save money and stop outsourcing work out of the state. A further ripple effect is that having a sizable grain mill in Penobscot will also encourage local people to grow their own
grains and have a location where they can process them close to home.
The Bakery has a 40-acre agricultural lease location in Penobscot where we will be growing test grains, apples, as well as woodland fruits and mushrooms, all for use in our restaurant and
bakery.
Once we are certified, we will be able to donate unsold bread to local community action organizations like soup kitchens and food pantries.
One of the great community resources that will be available to the public once we are certified is the opportunity for individuals to rent our certified kitchen for the production of value-added farm products or pre-packaged goods so that they can also be sold in our local food economy, greatly strengthening our local food resilience.
We fully support our neighbors, the local farmers, homesteaders, and small businesses in having access to a certified kitchen where they can process their food and products in a clean and safe environment and get them out to our community.
Where are we going?
As you know (if you have read this far!), we have big plans for our little bakery. Here are some more examples of what we are planning to do in the future:
Upon certification we will expand current operations and be more widely available throughout the peninsula and the Down East area.
After we settle into being fully up and running, we are looking to open a small store front at our bakery location, at first providing our baked goods only but, over time, diversifying into pick-up to-go sandwiches and hot soups and other simple special selections. Once we have smoothed out that process of actively serving food AND producing bread simultaneously from the same kitchen, we have plans to build a small four-season greenhouse off the front of our building with a heated sitting area and, as well, provide outdoor 3-season garden seating which would provide a much-needed drop-in meeting spot in our small town.
Within 5 years, we would like to expand into doing limited dinner seatings using 100% local goods and focusing on feeding our year-
round community. Once we have gotten to this point, we will provide opportunities to outside chefs to preform pop-up dining experiences, bringing a host of different culinary styles to
Penobscot. This is a basic — though not complete — 5-year trajectory. Please contact us if you would like more information.
Yes, we are climate minded, but what are we actually doing?
The power is in the flour. We currently use a lot of whole wheat in our recipes and are actively developing recipes with whole wheat in mind. Whole wheat is substantially more climate- friendly, taking 30% less resources to produce than white flour. White flour is critical for a lot of breads, but with enough time for reworking recipes, we are able to hide a lot of whole wheat in our products, replacing less efficient flours one cup at a time, all without losing taste, quality,
and integrity.
While we are on the subject of flour, distance traveled is a critical factor. We currently are using flour grown in VT or NY which means our travel distance is the shortest it can be without buying directly from Maine. This is the best practice we can currently afford. Once we shift into grain grinding, we will be able to lower our distance traveled even more!
The next big climate-friendly decision we made was to buy an electric production oven. As soon as the company can afford to do so, we will install solar panels and be able to be baking bread (as well as grinding grain) with a net-0 energy footprint. This is a very exciting idea to us for both sustainability and food sovereignty.
Note: if you are someone who wants to help specifically with financing our solar project, please reach out directly to our campaign to inquire further.
Other climate-minded plans:
We are focused on tackling these small - but important! - areas in the long-term: water usage awareness, limiting plastic wrap, using re-usables, product waste minimization, composting, and limiting landfill usage.
What will happen if we reach our goal? What will happens if we go over?
If we reach our goal, we will start construction immediately! We have a team ready to jump into action when this project is funded. So there will be no delay! if you donate, your money is going directly back into supporting the local economy in a major way. We will actively be updating our social platforms and our email list so you can get in on seeing all the progress your donation is helping to create. Furthermore, if we go over our original goal of $14,000, the
next project we will allocate those funds for will be a grain mill, milling room, and dry storage space (an actual addition off of the existing kitchen space). If the campaign goes that direction, we will release more information on our plans.
Kyle’s history
Hi I’m Kyle, the founder and head baker. This is a short
version of my long story:
I am a long-term resident and business owner who lives in
North Penobscot. For the last 3 years I have been operating
an artisanal bread bakery based out of my house and, when
necessary, out of the North Blue Hill Grange. In 2020 I had
an agricultural accident with a pig, which resulted in knee
surgery and in me needing to retire from my first profession
in the tree industry, as a Maine state-certified arborist and as
the owner of Blue Hill Tree Service & Co.
While injured and during rehabilitation I started baking bread for friends and family as a way to keep busy and build back my strength.
The culinary arts are one of the through-lines that have run
deepest in my life. Ever since I was a very small child I have
worked in the food preparation and farming industries trading
my labor for food on many of the farms on the peninsula. At
the age of 15 I got my first “real” job dishwashing at a local,
historic wood-fired pizza and bar in Blue Hill. This foundation
started an ongoing 15-year love affair with local food and food
systems, restaurants, and farmers that is the basis of my
work today.
In my adult life, if I was not working up in a tree, I was on a farm or in a kitchen. When I was 18 I was accepted into an apprenticeship at the Mill Stream Bakery, BBQ & Deli in Blue Hill. During the 5 years I was involved, I was blessed to have a deep and lasting friendship with the owners Linda Philips and Tim Bingham. Both of these skilled culinarians took me under their wings and gifted me with their
techniques and knowledge.
I worked closest with Linda; she is a graduate of CIA and has worked in, and managed, all over the world in some of the best and largest kitchens in her 35+ year career. My apprenticeship and subsequent
employment is what truly opened my eyes to what is possible and what it means to service your community and provide food, comfort, and hospitality to the local population.
She taught me the chefly arts, and quickly moved me up in
the company to the position of morning bread baker. While I
was the morning baker, my day started at 3:30-4 am and
before 8 o’clock I needed to produce muffins, savory
pinwheels, sweet pinwheels, biscuits, quiche, and a host of
breads that were needed fresh daily for lunch service by
10:30 am.
Everything we made was from scratch, and all of
our breads were mixed by hand — no power mixers
involved! — and if you come see my kitchen now, the same
is true today: no mixer can do what the human hand can do!
These are old techniques that can’t be replaced by
automation. This method of production means much smaller
batches with a high level of attention to detail that demands
great levels of physicality but creates a very high-quality
product. This is especially critical when producing a high-
quality yeasted bread.
As I was recovering from my knee surgery and was getting back on my feet — physically and financially — I had time to fall back on my history. I started creating bread again (and this gave me a trickle of income) but most of all I remembered what bread and serving my
community means to me, of the joy and satisfaction you see
when someone eats what you have crafted for them. For nearly 15 years I have been involved in food: I have worked as a Sou Chef, dishwasher, line cook, salad station, harvester, dispatcher, animal processor, blueberry raker, lobsterman, caterer, bakery manager, kitchen"slop scooper” at retirement homes and through all the ups and downs, making quality food has been the constant. My inspiration is drawn from the peninsula, the Bread Basket of Maine.
We appreciate you for reading this far; you are a true patron of
the arts!
Kyle W. Chick and the whole team at The Bakery 04476 thanks
you.
Please tell your friends and family, share on-line and on social
media, and please, if you are inspired to show this project to
someone specific, do!
Our customers, our connection to the community, and our desire to make the best possible bread are the reasons we get up every day and can’t wait to get baking!
Organizer
Kyle Chick
Organizer
Penobscot, ME