The best little bakery is hidden in Shelburne, Vermont: O Bread Bakery. A stop on the King Arthur Baking Vermont Bakery Tour, and part of the Noshing Across New England series, this tiny bakery is known for its rustic breads.
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The Vermont Bakery Tour continued with a drive out to Shelburne Farms visit to O Bread Bakery. I left the family behind for this bakery visit, but promised to truck home some freshly-baked loaves for all to enjoy.
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Finding the bakery
At Shelburne Farms, all around are vast fields and pastures, and the grand Farm Barn that encircles the courtyard. O Bread Bakery is tucked quietly away into the ground floor of one of the Farm Barn wings.
This bakery differs from the others I've visited so far in that it is purely a bakery (no café), so their breads get the spotlight. When you pull open the oversize screen door to enter, you find yourself in a small space facing a huge rack full of fresh loaves and pastries. There is a tiny counter to ring up purchases and wooden crates stacked on either side of the small space, holding day-old loaves and t-shirts for sale.
Behind the crates are even more racks of fresh-baked bread. Long worktables can be seen next to racks of rising, shaped loaves. Just beyond the rising loaves was another table around which three or four bakers were working together to knead and shape even more dough.
At O Bread, you'll find yourself surrounded by the intoxicating aroma of fresh-baked bread—a whole lot of it.
The breads at O Bread
Visitors to the bakery have the chance to look over each loaf and ponder the flavors, which on the day I visited included Olive Ciabatta, Swiss Farmhouse wheat bread with pepitas, Cinnamon Raisin Swirl, and Sesame Wheat.
Out of all the choices on the rack, the Chile Cheese Ciabatta is the loaf that caught my eye, thanks to the reddish-orange crusts peeping out of brown paper bags. Always a sucker for all things spicy, this is the bread that I grabbed.
At the register a tall basket of classic and seeded baguettes was impossible to resist, so I took a classic baguette as well!
At home with my loaves, I reluctantly remembered my promise to share this bread, and not simply stuff it all in my own mouth.
My family and I all agreed that the baguette was perfect: a chewy crust around a holey and soft white center.
Though we did add a little schmear of butter to the hunks we pulled off the loaf, the bread doesn't really need anything—it's satisfying on its own.
The Chile Cheese Ciabatta is very good, and we all quickly became addicted to that loaf!
It is a soft, oblong bread with a chewy crust, and each slice reveals gleaming pockets of melted Asiago cheese and Shelburne Farms Farmhouse Cheddar. It's also delightfully spicy, thanks to habanero and chipotle peppers tucked inside.
With each bakery visit on the tour, I discovered at least one treat that I knew I'd go back for. At O Bread that treat was their Chile Cheese Ciabatta.
Other things to explore near the bakery
You should need no further enticement to get yourself out to O Bread and experience their loaves for yourself. But just in case you do need more reasons, here are shots of the barn and expansive grounds of Shelburne Farms.
As I was leaving the courtyard, a little boy playing on the low, rock wall warned me to watch out for the tractor that brings folks on a wagon shuttle from the main gate to the Farm Barn. He then asked where I was going. When I told him I was going home, he asked, "Why?"
It was a good question, considering it was such a beautiful day and so peaceful out in the middle of the grounds.
Find O Bread Bakery
If you have never visited Shelburne Farms, you really must get there, and to O Bread today. Bring the kids, pack a picnic basket, and purchase some baked goods from O Bread to eat on your blanket! (May I recommend the Chile Cheese Ciabatta?)
Oh, and watch out for the tractor.
O Bread Bakery is located at 352 Farm Barn Lane at Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, VT. They have several varieties of organic, European style, artisan breads and baguettes as well as pastries and cookies. Find out more about them on their website, including retail locations throughout Vermont where you can purchase their breads!
The Vermont Bakery Tour
The old Vermont Bakery Tour sponsored by King Arthur Baking Company consisted of eight bakeries scattered over the northern half of Vermont. Participants visited the bakeries, tasted the fine baked goods, and had their Bakery Passport stamped at each.
The completed passports were then redeemed for an exclusive Bakery Tour tote bag!
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