During an unexpected downpour Sunday at the Old Cheney Road Farmers Market, the new owner of the Grain Bin Bakery, Dawoud Isied, with his sense of humor intact, attempted to convince potential customers that his orange bread would keep them dry.
Most shoppers smiled or laughed as they held out their hands for a sample. The bread has no sugar, preservatives or artificial flavors -- just the fruit -- and is made from Iowa-sourced, stone-ground winter wheat. It was popular.
“It’s great; it tastes like oranges!†said Connie Starck. She and her husband both tried samples of the bread, and as a bread baker herself, she said she can appreciate the quality of what she was tasting.
“It has good texture,†says Connie, “and I can still taste the orange. We also like his multigrain bread.â€
Isied takes several varieties of yeast breads, rolls and challah (with or without seeds) to each market. This past week, his selections included the multigrain, honey wheat, Irish soda, challah, sunflower, honey white dinner rolls, almond honey and orange bread.
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Last fall, Isied went to the then-closed Grain Bin, 5591 S. 48th St., to see about buying the bakery equipment for one of his other family businesses -- buying and selling used equipment. He was struck, though, when he saw the fine condition of the equipment, that he wouldn’t need anything else to open the bakery himself. He then researched the history of the Grain Bin Bakery and realized it had been in Lincoln since 1991.
“It’s part of Lincoln’s history, its heritage,†Isied said, who kept the bakery's name. “My vision here is to bake fresh, healthy, nutritious bread that everyone can afford. What we don’t sell the day it’s baked, we put on the discount shelf and sell buy one, get one free. That shelf has been empty the last several weeks, though. We’ve been selling out.â€
On those rare weeks when there is any bread left on the discount shelf, Isied donates the bread to the Food Bank of Lincoln or to local public schools. He’s happy to donate it anywhere there’s a need because ultimately, he just wants to make sure someone eats the bread.
Someone or something, that is. Isied partners with Angela Kubalek, and they raise 50 free-range hogs on 10 acres near Raymond. They grow crops for the hogs, including radishes and other root vegetables, and the land is part wooded, part fields and crops. The hog project is an experiment where Isied and Kubalek are attempting to find a model where family farmers can still make money while raising healthy animals in a sustainable way.
Nothing at the bakery goes to waste -- not egg shells, heels of bread, scraps of muffins and rolls or bits of fruit that didn’t get used in the baking process. There’s a plastic-lined garbage can at the Grain Bin, and on Sundays, Isied takes the contents to his hogs on the farm.
He bought the bakery last December, reworked recipes, hired five other bakers, and re-opened the doors in February.
“I have the best team ever,†says Isied. “They’re creative people and really smart, and we all like to make what our customers want.â€
That’ll include cakes and other pastries eventually. Right now, they’re focusing on the bread-baking side of the business. Isied takes fresh bread to three local farmers markets (Wednesday’s University Place market at 48th & Leighton in the old HyVee parking lot, Thursday’s Fallbrook market, and Sunday’s Old Cheney Road farmers market) and one in Ashland on Saturdays.
Other market vendors appreciate Isied’s breads, too. Krista Dittman, who runs Branched Oak Farm with her husband Doug, and who also own the new Hub Café, bought a loaf of orange bread to use for samples of Quark, her whole-milk cheese.
“I had an event this week and made honey-infused Quark,†says Dittman. “The orange bread is a perfect flavor complement for the cheese.â€
Pam and Jim Anderson buy a loaf of challah and maybe a loaf of raisin, apple almond, olive, or blueberry bread each week, too. And they also stop by the Grain Bin to pick up a loaf or two of bread during the week.
“I love the challah sliced, toasted and spread with avocado or maybe topped with some pickled red onions,†says Pam. “It’s fresh and delicious. Because there are no preservatives, we do sometimes have to freeze the bread. But the lack of preservatives is also why we like it so much.â€