Meet your Baker: Seven Stars Bakery
It may well be that your favorite East Side bakery is also your favorite Brown Market Shares Program producer. With their doughy breads and flakey pastries, Seven Stars Bakery is nearly irresistible! You'll recognize the name of Seven Stars Bakery at the very least as they provide a variety of fresh loaves (durum round, baguette, olive bread, Vermont cheddar cheese bread, etc.) for bread shareholders to choose from each week. In focussing on quality and sourcing their ingredients locally, Seven Stars plays an integral role in the sustainable and local food scene in Providence, RI.
Opened by husband and wife team, Lynn and Jim Williams, in 2001, the duo has had a near-obsessive focus on quality from the outset. Included in their understanding of quality, the pair has been dedicated to local and natural production. All the grains and flours used in the baking process are sourced locally, within the Northeast. Over the past five years, the team at Seven Stars have actively sought to support small farms and mills in the area. Seven Stars is involving themselves with the whole grain movement in the United States by dedicating themselves to buying from farmers growing forgotten strains of wheat. Not only have the expert bakers cited an improvement in quality of the product, using local grain from small farms yields healthier bread because the commercial sifting process for grains strips them of essential nutrients. Moreover, since 2015, Seven Stars has been milling all of their own whole wheat grain! Co-founder and baker, Jim Williams, has dedicated himself to finding the perfect blend of local whole grains to create a nutrition packed loaf rich with flavor. He's turned his quest into Backdoor Bread, a project that can be enjoyed by the Providence community. With their stone mill, Jim creates different, experimental blends of wheat and bakes them into fresh loaves every Saturday. These one of a kind loaves are for sale weekly at the Saturday, Pawtucket Farmers Market.
Seven Stars does not shy away from expirementation! Paying careful attention to the seasons, Lynn and Jim creates products based on local seasonal offerings. Fall brings with it a profusion of pumpkin flavored breads and pastries. Likewise, winter welcomes loyal customers to try breads laden with root vegetables. However, local favorites are always available at the Seven Stars bakery on Hope street. I would recommend the ginger biscuit—a sweet, doughy treat that never fails to please!
Surely, anyone with a bread share, or anyone who has snagged an almond croissant from the farmer’s market or from the bakery’s brick and mortar locations, feels lucky that Seven Stars agreed to be part of the Brown Market Shares Community.