Wheat in its most raw form, has anti-nutrients as a part of its genetic makeup. Phytates, lectins... things your body does not enjoy digesting much. 

Wheat has been milled for hundreds of years, breaking down and fermenting the berries, to produce a product that is easier to consume and digest.

Unfermented gluten protein is stronger and tougher and doesn’t digest as well in our bodies. In contrast, a long fermentation process allows gluten proteins time to naturally break down.

Here at The Flour Box, our dough is fermented over a long period of time, neutralizing the anti-nutrients that are naturally present in raw wheat and grains. This specific process also allows the beneficial nutrients that are available in whole grain flour more bioavailable, making our final product extremely healthy as well as uniquely delicious!

Little known fact, naturally leavened bread that has been long fermented is actually much lower on the glycemic index. A lot of people struggle with gluten intolerance, they don’t feel well at all after eating commercially yeasted dough because the bread typically available for consumers to buy was manufactured through a quick process in order to turn out more product and meet a specific projected profit.

Those same people however, can usually eat true naturally leavened bread often with little to no consequence. It's not the bread itself that's the culprit of gluten intolerance, it's the process in which the bread was created, and it's the selection of flours used to make the bread.

Basically it’s all the stuff that’s happening in the details… White all-purpose flour, unbleached commercial bread flours vs. Ancient grains like Einkorn or Khorasan for example. Commercial flours like All Purpose or “Unbleached Bread Flour” have been processed to a point where little nutrients remain. They’ve been chemically treated and ground down so much, the actual molecular structure of the grain becomes a completely different compound altogether. In order to increase shelf life, critical nutrients are removed and commercial fillers are added.

Here at the Flour box, we mill our own raw wheat berries into beautiful nutrient dense flours. We use a combination of those flours, and a long fermentation process to produce a superior tasting, and nutritious product you won’t find anywhere else. Amaranth, Barley, Khorasan, Millet, Spelt, Teff, and Einkorn are just some of the grains we use. What makes our bread special? Our bread is special because we take the time required to produce quality and we don’t use shortcuts!

I wish I had the ability to give everyone who comes to the bakery an explanation of what naturally leavened starter (sourdough) actually is. A lot of people really don’t understand the fact that sourdough isn’t just a flavor, but rather a methodology in making the choice between fast bread production with commercial yeast, or extremely slow production with a starter that grows using natural yeast found in the air and fed regularly over time.

The leavening power of a sourdough starter is very small in comparison to commercial yeast. 10 grams of commercial yeast has the equivalent leavening power of 50 kilograms of sourdough starter, so you literally need several buckets of sourdough starter to match a dusting of commercial yeast and its leavening power. No wonder so many bakeries use commercial yeast.

Commercially yeasted bread just forms and rises a lot quicker and so that two hour interval from mixer all the way to the oven is sufficient for the bread to rise, but it's never sufficient for the wheat to actually ferment and break down all the anti-nutrients our bodies reject.

When you eat commercially yeasted bread, you’re getting a higher dosage of phytates and lectins. You’re getting gluten before it really has a chance to break down, making it tougher and harder to go through your system. This problem has become more prevalent in this day in age where processed foods are literally on every shelf in every grocery store. Raw food takes time, and costs more than what can be made in profit.

I can’t even begin to describe to you how many people come to the bakery who believe they understand what sourdough really is. I hear people tell me all the time, “I have eaten a lot of sourdough, but your bread is by far better than what i’ve ever tasted.” Seriously….I love hearing the compliments, I really do, but what I really want to tell you is, my bread tastes different because it's REAL naturally fermented sourdough!

When you buy sourdough from the grocery store, what you’re actually buying is something that's called sourdough, but it's a completely different product than something that is naturally fermented and produced. Its genetic makeup is just regular commercial yeasted bread where lactic acid has been added to the dough to enhance flavor.

Sour lactic acid is supposed to be the same thing as the lactobacillus. Or rather, it was manufactured to taste like the lactobacillus that naturally occurs in real sourdough starters. Lactobacillus is a natural bacteria found in the air that multiplies when fed, and develops its own unique flavor profile.

When you just concentrate lactic acid and dump it into the dough, you create something that is artificially sour and not genuinely flavored through fermentation and time. You’re not getting real sourdough if you’re buying it from a grocery store, even if it says “sourdough”.

Our bread here at The Flour Box tastes different, because we use old techniques and processes to naturally develop flavor over long periods of time. You get the highest quality of taste and exceptional nutrition you simply cannot access easily nowadays. That’s why I’m so proud of what we do here. I hope you'll give our artisan breads a try!