Bread Alone is proud to partner with Trans Closet for this year’s special edition Pride Cookies. This collaboration highlights our shared commitment to maintaining spaces that are safe, inclusive, and respectful for all.  

For every bag of cookies sold, $2 will be donated directly to Trans Closet Hudson Valley to support their mission of providing clothing, resources and community support for the Hudson Valley’s transgender and LBGTQ+ community.

Trans Closet works to create and sustain trans joy through self-expression. They were founded to:

• combat clothing and economic insecurity in the Hudson Valley’s transgender community

• help reduce people’s dysphoria and support their self-expression

• facilitate the sharing of social, emotional, and creative support within the LGBTQ+ community

• redistribute a wide variety of resources to the community

• and to develop a platform to signal boost community bulletins and the work of other justice organizations

The cookies themselves are classic sugar cookies made with layers of natural food dye to produce a bright and joyful rainbow. The perfect treat for kids and adults alike!

We’re also celebrating Pride through a donation to Woodstock Pride to support their efforts in bringing inclusive events to our local Woodstock community. The Bread Alone team gathered to decorate our Woodstock cafe windows, along with many of our neighbors, in the spirit of the month.

This partnerships is a small reminder to celebrate people exactly as they are.

Grab your Happy Pride Rainbow Cookies at our Woodstock, Boiceville, and Rhinebeck cafes this Pride month!

Starting this weekend, our Pizza Stand opens for the season at the Boiceville location! We’ll be serving up wood-fired pizzas and fresh summer desserts this Saturday and Sunday from 11-5.

The Stand runs on solar power and local firewood. Pizza is made by our lead Pizzaiolo, Brian, who’s spent over a decade perfecting his craft. Each pie is built on a sourdough crust made with organic, double zero pizza flour and topped with an intentional selection of local and imported ingredients. Desserts are made fresh by our new pastry chef, Elizabeth. The Fruition Brownie sundae with seasonal fruit is new this year, and it’s a must-try!

Dine in, or take it to go!

Plenty of outdoor seating available near our gardens (you might even meet our chickens!) Online ordering is also available for easy takeout to home, trail, river, or porch.

We’ll be here all season long. Come hungry. Come often.

Order here.

Bread Bread, Make Peace!

Meet a few of the team’s favorite updated menu items to enjoy during the warm weather ahead across our three cafes. 

Meet the woman behind the menu:

Liz DeSiena, our Chef de Cuisine, is the creative force behind our spring menu update. A team member for over 7 years, Liz has been a part of the Bread Alone community for much longer, growing up 10 minutes from our flagship in Boiceville. She recalls her family getting cakes from Bread Alone during her childhood, and visiting on special occasions for pastries. “Bread Alone has always been a part of my world,” Liz shared. “It was a surprise and delight to end up here.”

Her food philosophy is rooted in unfussiness and intention -- making thoughtful and approachable classics featuring sustainable ingredients. 

One of Liz’s favorites from the new menu? The Broccoli Cheddar sandwich. Featuring roasted broccoli, melted cheddar, pimenton aioli, and arugula on our housemade focaccia, it’s a delicious vegetarian sandwich that satisfies carnivores and herbivores alike.

Check out the full new menu here.

Bread Bread, Make Peace!

Here’s a few highlights from 2024:

For over 42 years, we’ve learned that progress happens day by day, year by year, loaf by loaf. It’s how we’ve forged this path, and it’s how we’ll continue to grow. To our team, partners, and all of you in our community: thank you for being part of this journey. Here’s to another year of baking for people and the planet. Cheers!

This holiday season, our founder Dan Leader is sharing one of his favorite cookie recipes from his new cookbook:
A Slow Rise. 

“If I have a go-to cookie, it’s shortbread. I love its slightly grainy, melt-in-your-mouth texture. I love how simple it is to make. And I love how flexible it is.” - Dan Leader

Lemon Shortbread

Makes twenty 2-inch (5 cm) squares

Start to finish: about 4 hours

Gathering ingredients and preparing the dough: 30 minutes

Shaping and refrigerating: at least 2 hours but up to overnight

Baking: about 25 minutes

Cooling and glazing: 1 hour

For a bit more lemon flavor and an additional decorative touch, add slices of dried lemon. Very thinly slice 1 to 2 lemons and carefully remove any seeds. Lay on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat and then lay another baking mat on top (to keep the slices from curling). Dry in a very low oven (200°F/90°C) until completely dried, 6 to 8 hours. Alternatively, the slices can be dried in a dehydrator, but they should also be weighted slightly to keep from curling.

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment weigh the butter, salt, powdered sugar, and lemon zest for the shortbread. Mix on the stir setting for about 15 seconds to begin to incorporate the sugar. Increase the speed to low and continue to mix, stopping to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl once, just until the mixture comes together, about 1 minute more.

2. Weigh together the flours and add to the bowl along with the lemon juice. Mix on the stir setting for about 15 seconds to begin to incorporate. Increase the speed to low and continue to mix, stopping to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl once (particularly the bottom for any dry that may have settled there), until the mixture comes together, about 2 minutes more.

3. Mound the dough on the work surface and with a pastry skyscraper or the heel of your hand, push it together to form an 8- by 10-inch (20- by 24-inch) rectangle. Transfer to the lined baking sheet. Cover the top and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.

4. Position the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325˚F (160˚C).

5. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

6. Using a chef’s knife, cut the rectangle into twenty 2-inch (5 cm) squares (5 across and 4 down if a long end of the dough is positioned in front of you). Arrange 10 on each baking sheet and transfer to the oven. Bake, rotating the baking sheets once, until the shortbread are golden brown, about 25 minutes.

7. Transfer the shortbread on the baking sheets to cooling racks and let cool for 15 minutes. After that they can be moved to the racks to cool completely.

8. Meanwhile, prepare the glaze.Using a small whisk or a spatula, combine all of the glaze ingredients in a small bowl.

9. Give the glaze a stir and using a small spatula, spread on top of the shortbread, returning them to the cooling rack for about 10 minutes for the glaze to set.

Our original Boiceville bakery sits at the top of a small hill on NY-28 that provides a clear view of the Catskill peaks further to the west. The Catskills have always been a part of our story and history, part of what attracted Bread Alone to the area, and kept us going for 40+ years. 

The Catskill State Park spans 700,000 acres—over 100 peaks, 25,000 acres of forest, and 300 miles of hiking. It’s home to one of the nation’s most important watersheds, supplying over 90% of NYC’s water.

This winter, we’re supporting the work of the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development with our Gingerbread Mountain cookies. The Catskill Center is dedicated to protecting and fostering the environmental, cultural, and economic well-being of our region. For over 55 years, The Catskill Center has worked hard to safeguard tens of thousands of acres, welcome and assist over 100,000 visitors annually, and secure critical funding for the Catskill Park. This year alone, their advocacy helped secure $10 million for ongoing conservation work and community improvements across the Catskills and Adirondacks.

We will donate $2 to The Catskill Center for every bag of gingerbread sold this season. Better yet, every dollar raised will be matched up to $1,000 (thanks to a private donor!). These cookies are hand-decorated, with no two alike—just like the peaks they’re inspired by.

“The Catskill Center is one of the hard-working organizations that allow us all to enjoy the Catskills, and that makes our region the incredible place that it is. Here’s to their work and the collective effort to make the Catskills accessible and beautiful for all,” says Nels Leader, CEO of Bread Alone. 

"We’re thrilled to partner with Bread Alone this season to help protect the Catskills, a region we all hold so close to our hearts, " says Jeff Senterman, Catskill Center Executive Director. “Their commitment to sustainability and community aligns beautifully with our mission to preserve our incredible landscape, celebrate our unique culture, and enrich our towns and villages today and for future generations.”

Visit one of our cafes to pick up a bag of Gingerbread Mountain Cookies—a sweet treat and perfect gift that gives back to the peaks we call home.

At the bakery we often talk about how to effect change at the highest level we can. As we grow, so does our ability and responsibility to do better with our work. When we began in 1983, this meant baking with organic grain. Today, our work starts with organic grain but extends further.

We’re proud to be Certified Climate Neutral, ensuring that we reduce our carbon emissions each year and offset what we can’t. We’ve invested in solar power, electrification, and local carbon offsetting projects. We’re motivated to set a new and higher standard for sustainability in our niche of the food world.

As members of 1% for the Planet, we dedicate 1% of our annual revenue to environmental causes, ensuring that we give back as we inevitably take.

Closer to home, we donate fresh, organic bread daily, providing simple, honest bread to neighbors in need. Good bread for all!

In this season of spending, here’s to giving a bit each day and striving to do a bit more year after year!

Making your own stuffing croutons is easy and a great way to fight food waste in your own kitchen!

Here’s how to do it:

Now it’s ready to use in your favorite stuffing recipe!

Break Bread, Make Peace!

Ultimately when you’re storing real bread you’re balancing the amount of moisture (freshness vs. staleness) with the potential for spoilage (mold). Refrigerating or freezing prevents spoilage while accelerating moisture loss. That’s why we suggest reviving anything out of the fridge or freezer with a quick toast!

Most store-bought breads are packed with additives, like mold inhibitors, that require sugar to mask their unpalatable taste. They may last longer, but we believe honest, nourishing, and delicious foods are perishable. That’s what the fridge and freezer are for!

We just completed phase 2 of our second Heuft Thermo-oil deck oven installation, which doubles our capacity to bake our long fermentation sourdough loaves. Our newest oven is the culmination of planning that began two years ago, a PO placed over a year ago, and a two-part installation in a 24/7 facility of 40 thousand pounds of equipment. The heaviest two months of work are behind us, and now we’re in production.

When we install equipment like this, it isn’t a simple plug-in and start baking. It takes weeks of test baking, with debugging and adjustments, to ensure the oven is ready for prime time. Ensuring the airflow and temperature is even around the oven is key to making sure it produces consistently great sourdough.

This incredible new piece of equipment was manufactured in Germany by Heuft GMBH, the best builder of artisan bread ovens, and it allows us to bake the highest quality sourdough at scale. We bake our signature torpedo breads (like San Francisco Sourdough) at our Certified Organic Kingston facility using this oven system. It is engineered to conserve heat energy, and use a single natural gas burner to bake thousands of loaves of bread each hour. Our solar array provides some of the energy for the pumps and motors that circulate heat around the ovens.

We would not have been able to do this work without longtime partners like Benson Steel, whose crane team allowed us to move oven parts weighing 23,000 lbs a piece safely and smoothly.

Big shout and thanks to all our partners that contributed to this project -- and most importantly to the Bread Alone team that navigated a big summer of work at the bakery.

It takes incredible equipment and an amazing team to make a lot of good, honest food, and we’re so excited about our expanded capacity with our newest oven.

Meet a few of the team’s favorite updated menu items to enjoy all fall and winter long across our three cafes, and check out the full menu here!

Bread Bread, Make Peace!

Right now, Climate Week is taking place across New York City. The gathering of passionate, action-oriented people for Climate Week is a great reminder that we’re borrowing our planet from future generations and the time to act is now.

As we work to make long fermentation bread accessible to more and more folks, climate change is a lens through which we see our work each and every day. We believe that the climate crisis is the greatest challenge of our time.

Last month, we reaffirmed our commitment to 1% for the Planet, where we have been members since 2018.

Begun by our friends at Patagonia, 1% for the Planet is a movement of organizations committed to environmental impact. We proudly donate 1% of our bread sales each year to environmental nonprofits, as just one of many initiatives to lessen our load on planet earth.

It’s sandwich season, and not all bread is created equal.

Our Certified Organic Whole Grain Health is one of our classics and is made using our whole wheat sourdough starter.

We maintain this starter just for our Whole Grain Health and Whole Wheat Sourdough. 

Where so many sliced breads these days lean on sugar for flavor, we use fermentation, and organic grains, and seeds.

Packed with Health

We’ve incorporated superfoods like hemp hearts, flax and sunflower seeds to provide a delicious crunch and nuttiness in addition to plant-based protein, healthy omega 3s and 6s and tons of nutrients.

No Nasty Additives or Preservatives!

Because of how we ferment our breads, we get longer shelf life with only natural ingredients. We believe that real food should be perishable… that’s what the freezer is for!

Long Fermentation

Every loaf of our Whole Grain Health takes over 24 hours to make from start to finish, including long fermentation with all its associated health benefits.

Sweetened with Honey

We use just a touch of natural sweetener to complement the hearty, healthy grains and seeds of this bread.

Send those kids off to school with a sandwich that is as good for them as it is for the planet!

Break Bread, Make Peace!

To welcome the fall and new school year, we’re introducing a custom blend coffee collaboration with Irving Farm: Early Riser. This coffee is decidedly drinkable–an approachable medium roast that pairs deliciously with our pastries and savory menu. These will be the beans behind our signature coffee across our three cafes, and will also be available for purchase in whole bean bags in Boiceville, Rhinebeck and Woodstock.

Irving Farm

Our longtime partner, Irving Farm, has supplied our coffee for many years. Like us, they have roots in both the Hudson Valley and New York City. We appreciate their attention to detail, high quality, freshness and sustainability. We partnered closely to develop the perfect Bread Alone blend–approachable, sweet, rich and balanced.

Early Riser

A mix of two beans, this blend is three quarters Colombian and one quarter Brazilian. It’s a sweet and rich coffee chosen and roasted for a taste profile that complements bread and pastries. The beans are sourced from co-ops who prioritize sustainability and a fair return for farmers.

The Colombian beans come from Monserrate, which is a coop in the Huila region. Irving Farms provides a fixed price for their coffee, helping contribute to a farmer development fund that the co-op uses for investing in long term sustainability projects such as wastewater treatment systems for their micro-mills.

The Brazilian beans come from Sancoffee, a certified B-corp co-op in Minas Gerais, Brazil. They won the 2024 SCA Sustainability award for climate work in their community.

Stop by any of our cafes to try Early Riser, or grab a bag to grind and enjoy at home. Happy caffeinating!

We've been selling bread on the streets of NY since the 1980s, and the Greenmarkets have become something of a second home to us. Our close partnership with GrowNYC now goes back decades, as well.

In the early days, you might have found Dan or Sharon (or even a young Nels) working the Greenmarket booth. Having just left the city to move to a quieter life in the Catskills, these trips “felt like a high” for Sharon and Dan, who loved maintaining the connection to New Yorkers shopping at the market who were passionate about the organic movement.

Today our almost 30-person-strong NYC-based team staffs the 15 markets where we sell our bread and baked goods. The team is led by Karma Tenzin, who has been on the Bread Alone team for a decade and a half!

Karma recalls the early days on the job, when we only had one truck covered with graffiti that we would park in Queens before taking it to the markets. We’ve come a long way since, with a warehouse in Long Island City and fleet of trucks to support our market efforts. Karma and his team make sure Bread Alone is a dependable constant at the Greenmarkets, rain or shine, every week of the year. 

No matter the market or day, you’ll find organic breads from our Kingston production bakery and wood-fired bread and pastries from our fossil-fuel-free bakery in Boiceville.

Break Bread, Make Peace!

Partnering with organic mills large and small means that we have a range of diversely sized organic grain farms in our supply chain. As we work to help build the organic regional grain economy, we have heard time and time again from smaller Northeast farmers that specialty, value-added grains can be a key part of economically sustainable crop rotations. Today we’re introducing Byers’ Organic Dairy, a 100 acre organic grain farm and dairy in Mercersberg, PA, who supply organic spelt–a specialty, value-added grain–to our partners at Small Valley Milling.

The Byers are a farming family, working the land in Pennsylvania for seven generations. Dairy is the primary focus of the farm, but they also grow spelt, black beans, hay, corn, and soybeans on their land, in addition to a small orchard. It's a true family affair–James Byers works with his wife and their kids (five sons and two daughters) on the farm.

Their decision to switch to organic farming was personal. James’ wife cares a lot about health, and after learning about the impacts that pesticides and herbicides can have on people, encouraged the transition in 2000. They’ve been very happy with the switch. “We enjoy being stewards of the earth,” says James. “When we fertilize with cow manure, there is a balance to all things.”

Soil health is a big focus for the Byers. They limit tilling, follow a thoughtful crop rotation, and integrate the manure of their livestock to provide nutrients for the soil. Since the transition to organic, James has noticed both increased biology in the soil and an improvement in the Brix (sugar and other mineral content) of the crops they grow.

They began growing spelt for Small Valley Milling after learning about its properties–both its heartiness, lower gluten content, and profitable economics. They’ve been very please with the decision to add spelt to their crop rotation. The family loves to cook with spelt, and buys back a few industrial-sized bags every year for waffles. James’ brother-in-law has a gluten sensitivity, but enjoys baked goods made with spelt due to the lower concentration of gluten compared to wheat.

The Byers’ spelt can be found in many of our breads and pastries that feature whole grains, such as our French Sourdough, Miche, and vegan Chocolate Spelt Cake. The best bread starts with the best grains, and it is important to us to support the regional organic grain economy through purchasing specialty grains from partners like Byers Organic Farm and Small Valley Milling.

We have opened our weekend Pizza Stand for 2024 at our flagship carbon neutral Boiceville cafe and bakery! Nestled beyond our Boiceville parking lot next to our chicken coop and solar panels, our pizza stand will be open Friday through Sunday from 11am-7pm.

We've revamped our program a bit for this season. We've added low abv cocktails and desserts, collaborating with guest chef Allison Kave ! We're also expanding hours, staying open until 7pm for easy dinner after activities in the Catskills.

The new menu is designed for casual, picnic-style dining al fresco, with wood-fired pizzas, rustic desserts, local beer and cider, natural wines, and seasonal spritzes. 

Our wood-fired, sourdough pizza is rooted in traditional techniques combined with Bread Alone’s culinary vision and the terroir of the Hudson Valley. We use regional grains for our dough, locally sourced produce, and ingredients from mission-aligned suppliers. The Stand runs on renewable energy from our on-site solar array, and responsibly sourced local firewood to heat our pizza oven.

Desserts are simple and seasonal: warm fruit pies à la mode, ice cream sandwiches and floats using house-made sodas, with plant-based options available on the rotating menu. 

The drink menu features , with craft beer and cider on tap and in cans, natural wines that pair perfectly with pizza, house-made all-natural sodas, and low- and no-ABV spritzes using small-batch vermouth and seasonal fruit and herbs. 

Pizzas and desserts will be available to-go via online ordering, so families can pre-order going to and from the Western Catskills and nearby Ashokan Rail Trail for dinner in the great outdoors or at home.

Break Bread, Make Peace!