15 Minutes of Fame
15 Minutes of Fame
Naga Bakehouse featured on Restoration Road
Our barn restoration project is currently being featured on Discovery + as part of the Magnolia Network’s program, “Restoration Road with Clint Harp”. You might remember him as the dumpster-diving, reclaimed-wood loving carpenter on HGTV’s “Fixer Upper”. In Restoration Road, Clint searches America for incredible historic barns that are in need of restoration, while exploring their origins and dreaming of their future. In our episode, you will see the transformation of an old barn into a working gristmill.
Official Site:
magnolia.com/watch/show/restoration-road-with-clint-harp
Look for Season 2, Episode 5: Vermont Grist Mill
Hill County Observer
Local bread, local flour
Bakers’ plans for grain mill would fill gap in region’s food system
Julie Sperling and Doug Freilich are getting ready for a barn raising this fall.
The couple started their wood-fired bakery, Naga Bakehouse, more than 17 years ago, and ever since they’ve been producing rustic sourdough breads and a variety of other savory creations and a few sweet ones.
The Boston Globe
Vermont bakery is turning out artisan matzah they call Vermatzah
By Ann Trieger Kurland Globe Correspondent, March 29, 2022
To connect their work as bakers to their Jewish heritage, Julie Sperling and Doug Freilich make matzah, the unleavened bread eaten by Jews during the eight days of Passover. As proprietors of Naga Bake House in Middletown Springs, Vt., a bakery and mill, the couple most days bake artisan wood-fired rustic loaves with local grains.
The Boston Globe Spotlight
Vermatzah, ideal for Jewish locavores
MIDDLETOWN SPRINGS, Vt. – Doug Freilich adds another log to the embers in his wood-burning oven. Tugging the door partway open for a peek at the wares, he inhales and smiles. “Almost crisp,” Freilich announces, cheeks ruddy from the fireside vigil that began at 4 a.m. Across the room, morning sun pours through the picture window as his wife, Julie Sperling, hand-cranks sturdy pellets of wheat berries and emmer through a mill, transforming them into a hearty flour.
Hill Country Observer
For a locally grown Passover ‘Vermatzah’ links ancient traditions, contemporary tastes
MIDDLETOWN SPRINGS, Vt. Micro-bakers Julie Sperling and Doug Freilich have enjoyed a decade of commercial and critical success for their organic, fire-baked Naga Bakehouse breads, but in the past few years they’ve also been developing a seasonal product for Passover. They call it Vermatzah. The whole-wheat, focaccia and sourdough loaves Sperling and Freilich produce at their mountaintop bakery for most of the year are sold at food co-ops and farmers markets around Vermont, Massachusetts and New York. And unlike many locally baked breads, theirs is made primarily from locally sourced grains.
Edible Berkshire
We found this inspiring version of matzah at Naga Bakehouse
Passover is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the exodus of the Israelites from slavery into freedom, a narrative that became a worldwide inspiration for people who fight for freedom and human rights. What is less known is that Passover was also a major agriculture festival, indicating spring and the barley ripening season, celebrating the awakening of the natural world in days when people’s lives were even more directly dependent on nature than ours.
The Village Voice
A Very Artisanal Passover: Vermatzah Is Matzo from Vermont
The cardboard-like crackers on Seder plates are a Passover requirement, but typically a dry and flavorless one. Not anymore. Vermont’s Naga Bakehouse is baking a new small-batch matzo — aptly monikered Vermatzah — by sifting locally-sourced wheat with nutty emmer, the ancient grain better known as farro. A wood-firing process renders a complex, slightly sweet piece of flatbread that retains an ample crunch, even when fried or chocolate-dipped. Unlike the squares of the Manischewitz variety that dominate the traditional matzo market, Naga’s version is hand-shaped into rounds, each one slightly smaller than a dinner plate.
Crumbs – Leftover Food News
For Vermont locavores who celebrate Passover, finding lamb shanks and bitter herbs is a breeze. Stocking up on unleavened bread could be trickier. Until now. Julie Sperling and Doug Freilich of Naga Bakehouse in Middletown Springs recently invented Vermatzah, a round, handmade, wood-fired alternative to the mass-produced Manischewitz matzohs you find in the supermarket. As a bonus, each box comes with a small bag of wheat seeds so eaters can, in theory, start growing their own.
Seven Days Magazine
Nothing to Pass Over February 17, 2010
In Vermont food circles, kosher-certified isn’t just for Jews anymore. According to several Vermont businesses that have been certified as kosher in recent years, an increasing number of consumers want products with a kosher seal. That demand comes from vegans, lactose-intolerants or other conscientious eaters concerned about industrial food production. In the eyes of many people, a kosher seal, like a certified organic seal, is one more guarantee of quality. To paraphrase an old Hebrew National advertisement, it reassures the customer: This business answers to a higher authority than the U.S. government.
Burlington Free Press
Lotsa Matza February 17, 2010
Nothing says Lakes Region in the spring quite like Matzah bread.
No, really.
The Middletown Springs couple who make a living baking handmade, wood-fired artisan bread have launched a new bread for the Passover season and they’re calling it ‘Vermatzah.’
Rutland Daily Herald
The Making of Vermatzah April 6, 2009
A Middletown Springs bakery brands new old-fashioned Matzah
A Middletown Springs bakery is reaching back in time to celebrate Passover with its own brand of special bread dubbed Vermatzah.
See the full article here