Bedlam Farm Blog Journal by Jon Katz

The pandemic uprooted all kinds of people and their lives, it did one interesting thing for my little town in upstate New York – we got some wonderful cooks and food dreamers who are changing the cuisine up here, and radically.

It is never too late to grow and change. Could I still become a gourmand?

Every week, I go to the Covered Bridge Baking Co. in Shushan, a few miles up the road, to pick up my seed bread and some cookies for Maria. A few weeks ago, I decided to try Kean’s focaccia bread, which she described in such delicious terms.

To my surprise, I found it not only delicious but healthy, especially given the ingredients she used.

I’m not sure I’ve ever tried focaccia bread before; I always thought it was unhealthy and heavy. Neither is true, at least when Keel makes it.

Then yesterday, I read an e-mail from Kean the owner and chef of Covered Baking Co., and it said:

“I’ve got a new focaccia special. This week, the focaccia is topped with garlic confit (garlic, slow-roasted in extra virgin olive oil until it is cooked all the way through so it retains its powerful garlic flavor without any of the bitterness or bite of raw garlic.) and cherry tomatoes for a little acidity and a pop of sweetness, and fresh chives from my garden for a little bright spring flavor. For those of you who don’t know about my focaccia, it is made with whole-grain Turkey Red Flour from Hickory Wind Farm in Cambridge. It is completely naturally leavened, so just like all my sourdough, its ingredients are flour, water, and salt, plus a little bit of olive oil and whatever topics are the weekly special.”

Then I checked with my favorite diabetic food guide for good measure, and it said this:

Wholegrains are an intelligent choice, not just for people with diabetes but for the whole family. If you have diabetes, wholegrain foods are usually better for managing blood glucose levels because they tend to have a lower glycemic index.

It seemed too good to be true. Every Tuesday, I drive up to Kean’s bakery to get my whole grain multi-seed sourdough bread and have a slice of toast for breakfast. I’m very careful about my diet as a diabetic. A nurse once told me, “Either you control it, or it controls you.”

Maria decided she had chores to do in town, so we drove to the Covered Bridge Bakery and picked up our order in a tin chest outside her house. I left money for the two whole grain breads, and Maria and I went bonkers over the focaccia we just got.

It smelled beautiful, and I opened up two chunks in the car. We both loved it; it was terrific.

I’m amazed at the changes the pandemic brought to our quiet little village. Kean McIllaine came up from Washington, D.C., and she is moving to a bakery just down the road. I’ve always been a food philistine; dinners were never pleasant in my house, and I always saw food as an interruption in my food. Maria is much more sophisticated about food than I am, so I’ve improved.

But living in this quiet and not too populated small town near the Vermont border, I never expected to find a garlic confit focaccia or a loved one in this town where gourmet dining is meatloaf and potatoes. Life is full of crisis and mystery, and growing and changing are becoming hobbies.