Bantam Bakery Bread

Ever since Niles and Susie Golovin opened it in 1996, The Bantam Bread Co. has been dedicated to producing the best artisanal breads, and rustic pastries made with the finest ingredients that they can find. This includes natural and organic flours, grains seeds and fruits. Motherhouse is proud to make these fine, health-filled breads easily available to our community by taking weekly orders to be picked up in West Cornwall at Farmers Market &/or The Wish House on Saturday mornings.
***When only one of us drives to Bantam, we conserve gasoline and leave a smaller carbon footprint…. that’s good for the environment.
***By buying from a small, nearby bakery, we boost the local economy…. that’s good for the community.
***All profits to Motherhouse from bread sales help us offer our many events at family-friendly prices… that’s good for us all!
For information about ordering Bantam Bakery bread ANY time of year, please click here.

Sprout Creek Farm Cheese

Sprout Creek farm in Poughkeepsie is a farm educational center for inner-city children that maintains a small milking herd of organically, grass-fed jerseys and artisan cheese-making plant. Their cheese sales help to fund the center’s programs. Motherhouse is proud to offer it for sale at the Cornwall Farm Market with delicious nutritious Bantam Bread to help fund our own programs.

A Little History

In 2006 Motherhouse Board member Jessica Marshall organized a service called Motherhouse Delivers. One could order foods from a list of local producers and have them delivered to one’s door every Friday afternoon. Included in the pick-up were breads from Bantam Bakery, meat from Whippoorwill Farm in Salisbury. and fresh fruit from Starberry Farm in Washington. Both book-keeping and finding a willing delivery person proved too challenging for us and we considered closing up shop.

When Bianca Griggs started to organize a farmers market in West Cornwall, it seemed an ideal fit for this fledgling enterprise. So under the wing of Motherhouse employee Amy Jarvis, we continued taking orders to be picked up at the market. To “flesh out” the market’s offerings, we sold milk and vegetables for Stonewall Dairy Farm, flowers for Margaret Tulley, cheese from Sprout Creek Farm in Poughkeepsie, honey from Local Farm, goat meat from Birds-Eye and Tanner Brook Farm and a variety of goods from Motherhouse Market. These included pottery by Bianca LaPorta, stainless baking sheets by Terry Bell, chestnut candle holders by Jean Boutellier, our own homemade candles, note cards, wreaths, and soap, and yarn from Perry Hill Farm.

During the spring of 2008 at Lisa Nicholson’s studio, Wyatt Whiteman prepared a hearth-cooked meal of locally produced foods as part of a brainstorming gathering for the following year’s Farmer’s Market. Tom Levine was there with his new son Jamie as well as Mary-Lee and Terry Bell. Tom was talking about possibly having blueberries for sale during the upcoming season. Later that spring Mary-Lee would volunteer to take over Amy’s vacated position as far as tending the market.

As more and more farmers and producers got involved in bringing their goods to sell, Mary-Lee streamlined our participation to basically bread, cheese, and Harry Colly’s Cloverdale products. During the winter seasons; she, her husband Terry, and Wish House owner Bianca Griggs continued with bread deliveries using the Wish House as a pick-up station. By last summer with two babies in tow, Mary-Lee and Terry continued taking bread orders, driving to Bantam each week and delivering the bread to Tom Levine to sell on the side with his Long Meadow Farm products. (His vague blueberry offer has blossomed into a booming egg, chicken, lamb, canned and baked goods business!)

Thank You!

We are infinitely grateful to ALL who have kept our presence going at the West Cornwall Farmers Market! And we hope to find new volunteers to give Mary-Lee a much-needed break and keep the bread-wagon wheels rolling. Please contact Debra@Motherouse.us if you’d like to be on next season’s bread list OR if you’d like to take over Mary-Lee’s amazing work.

Motherhouse Runs Know Your Neighbor Contest

During the summer of 2009, Motherhouse ran a “Name Your Cornwall Neighbor” Contest at the WC Farmers Market. Out of 43 locals pictured in a poster featuring photos from our events, Bianca Griggs correctly identified 37. Here she is examining her prize: an organic cotton Motherhouse market bag filled with items representing that year’s workshops. Included were eggs for Eggs-perience Chickens, beeswax candles for Bee-ginning with Bees, essential oil hand sanitizer and an herbal eye-pillow for Scent-sible Gifts, an apron for A Stitchin’ Time, dried basil for Peas and Cukes of Organic Gardening, dilly beans for Yes We CAN Can, and yogurt for Keeping a Family Cow.