Old Salem Bakery

Well, John's new camera is AWESOME.  However, (there always seems to be a "however" ...)  We haven't mastered the PC software yet.  Somehow I managed to lose John's photos of Old Salem.  I DO have the ones I took with my cell phone.  This is all you get concerning the Old Salem bakery:

If you're on a PC you should be able to click on this photo and enlarge it enough to read it.  If you're on an iPhone it may be a little hard, so...

"Bread was so important to daily life in 1753 that a baker was among the first Moravians who journeyed from Pennsylvania to settle the Wachovia tract in North Carolina.  Salem's first baker moved from Bethabara to Salem in a772, and worked in the Single Brothers' Workshop.  The church, concerned about the single Sisters and girls visiting the single Brothers' workshop to purchase bread, decided to build a separate residence and bakery for a professional baker, and this structure was completed in 1800. 

In 1807, Christian Winkler arrived from Pennsylvania to operate the bakery.  He became Salem's most well known baker, with a career that spanned 30 years.  His descendants continued operating the bakery until 1926, when it left the family, but continued as a bakery.  Old Salem later acquired the property, restored the structure, and in 1968 reopened Winkler Bakery.  today Winkler Bakery is one of America's oldest bakeries still in operation."

(Maybe I'll tell you about Eilenberger's in Palestine, Texas or Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas soon...)

Now, as far as the oven in Winkler's Bakery:

"The domed bake oven, with its distinctive squirrel-tail flue on the outside, is typical of wood-fired bake ovens used in both public and private buildings in Salem.  Other examples can be seen at the Tavern, Single Brothers' Workshop, and the Vierling House.

"The oven is filled with stacks of wood, which are lit early in the morning.  When the wood burns down, the bricks lining the top of the oven are white hot (about 600 degrees F), and the embers are swept away.  While the oven cools to around 450 degrees, the bakers knead bread dough, mix sugarcake, and cut out cookies.

"They first bake bread while the oven is hottest, up to 96 loaves at one time.  After that, as the oven cools, sugarcakes go in, and sugar cookies are baked last.  The day does not end until the bakers have cleaned up from the day's work, and prepared the firewood and supplies for tomorrow's baking."

The good news is, John used to freak out about losing pictures.  This time he seemed so-o-o-o calm.  I was amazed.  I was even MORE amazed when he explained that the blog will help secure his memories.  (Wow!)