Joe Italiano started out making bread as a hobby, but soon he was making and selling enough Hummingbird Bread to create a business. He felt motivated because, ”It was part of my desire to be closer to the source of what nourishes and sustains us, and to understand more how these foods like wheat and corn were so essential to the health of cultures in the past but have now become monstrous with the advent of hybridization and GMOs, etc.”
He was an avid farmer in the San Diego area, but decided he wanted to move from there to escape the droughts, water shortages and fires. He had looked at possibilities in the Northwest, but it was his partner, Bryn, that he met three years ago on a visit to the Olympic Peninsula, who encouraged him to share a life with her on Whidbey Island. When they began looking for farm property, they quickly found the perfect five-acre homestead in Greenbank where they could raise sheep, goats, chickens and ducks and grow food in their garden beds.
Joe researched recipes and chose healthy ingredients. As he got further into baking he began to adopt methods that increased the complexity of the flavors of the bread while making it more digestible. He notes, “This was also in part because I have trouble digesting a lot of modern breads that use commercial yeast, highly hybridized grains, and that may contain the herbicide glyphosate, which is routinely used in the growing and curing of wheat in large commercial operations in the U.S.” Joe adds, “I believe gluten is NOT a problem for most people's systems—it has more to do with all of the factors I mentioned previously.”
Once Joe was settled in Greenbank, he began making breads for lots of friends and refining his practices. He began receiving orders for small catering jobs calling for 10 to 20 loaves. Then more people began nudging him to get something going on a larger scale as the demand for flavorful and nutritious bread was growing in the community.
Joe developed a friendship with Annie Jesperson and Nathaniel Talbot, who own Deep Harvest farm, and they worked an arrangement to provide a bread CSA with their seasonal veggie CSA. Then, a spot opened at the Bayview Farmer’s Market, and he is now able to sell his breads there. He is also providing loaves of bread to the Greenbank Pantry on Wednesdays.
More than 100 loaves of Hummingbird Bread are now being sold every week. Joe says: “The community has been incredibly supportive, especially of my payment system which is basically donation-based so that folks that can't afford to pay $10 a loaf can pay less and other generous folks can pay more to subsidize them. It's done incredibly well and it's been really heartening to see.”
Joe and Bryn are happy with their lives on Whidbey and are pleased that they can raise their nine-month old son, Colibri (which means hummingbird in Italian) in this community.
If you can’t make it to the Bayview Market and would like to order some Hummingbird bread, you can contact Joe Italiano by email, joe_italiano1@hotmail.com.
