Uprisings: The Whole Grain Bakers’ Book
Update: December 2010: I have created a web site, uprisingsbakersbook.org, where I’m adding recipes and other pages from the book. I’m working on permissions from the publisher and bakeries, so I’m starting with bakeries that are closed. Look for weekly updates.
In 1983, the Cooperative Whole Grain Educational Association published Uprisings; The Whole Grain Bakers’ Book. The Foreword of the book is at the bottom of this page.
As a former collective member of Uprisings Baking Collective in Berkeley (one of the contributors to the book), I didn’t want this book and organization to just fade away. There were 32 collective/cooperative bakeries who contributed to the book, many of which are still in business. Collected below are a list of links to the bakeries that are still operating. If I missed any, please fill in the form at the bottom so I can update the page.
The book is a valuable resource for bakers and wannabe bakers. One of its strengths is the index—including the traditional categories of major ingredients and types of foods, but also including a special section on Recipes by Special Dietary Characteristics such as No Eggs or Dairy; No Dairy (but contains Eggs); No Eggs (but contains Dairy); No Wheat; No Sweetener, or Fruit-sweetened; No Added Oils or Fats (may contain high-fat ingredients); No Baking; and No Salt, or Optional Salt.
While Uprisings is out of print, many used copies are available. If you can’t find it at your local bookstore, try abebooks.com using the search box here. abebooks.com is a network of independent bookstores around the country, your independent alternative to Amazon.com.
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Click this link to search for Uprisings on AbeBooks:0938432125 There is another book out there with the exact same name, but a different author. If abebooks doesn’t return any books using the ISBN number provided here, try a search for the title Uprisings Bakers to get the other book. I’m not sure if this is the same book, re-published by a new group of authors. If anyone knows about this, please let me know. Map of Bakeries
Bakeries in Uprisings
Other Collective/Cooperative Bakeries
Foreword from UprisingsWelcome to Uprisings, the whole grain bakers’ book. Uprisings has been collectively compiled by experienced bakers from many small independent bakeries. If draws its inspiration from a number of uprisings—of grain, of bread, and of people. The most basic of these is the grain growing from the earth, nourished by the rain and sun. Wheat, rye, corn, barley, buckwheat, millet, rice—these are the fundamental ingredients of whole grain baked goods. Bakers, with a little help from yeast and other leaveners, create another uprising, as dough rises to produce fresh-baked loaves, filling our senses. The third uprising is the cooperative ethic of the bakeries we work in. There are no bosses, no employees. Instead we all do the work together, sharing the responsibilities and the rewards. Our businesses put priority on serving the needs of the community, not on making profits for a select few. We think it’s a great loss that so many of us are unfamiliar with these uprisings. Few people enjoy the delights of eating fresh whole grain bread, let alone those of making it themselves. It’s also a loss that so few people have the satisfaction of helping to run their own workplaces, doing interesting work that meets real needs. Cooperative whole grain bakeries are part of a rising tide of people taking more responsibility for what goes on in our lives. We want more and more of us to regain power over our food, our work, our health and well-being—in short, our personal, social, and economic existence. To achieve this, we heartily encourage these and other kinds of uprisings in all areas or our lives.Published 1983 |
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Hi,
We used to run the Rising Star Wholefoods Bakery in Victoria BC Canada. It is still going, but not as a coop. I am teaching baking at Vancouver Island University. WOuld love to hear from anyone that came to visit us back then. Wholgrain Baking is still a pssion on Vancouver Island. We have just built a wood-fired brick oven at the college, one of about 10 in the area. Cheers
MArtin B
Many years back my brother and I used to buy Peasant Bread amoung many other treats from your store. Would it be possible to get a copy of that recipe?
Don
Yes, contact me at Martin.barnett@viu.ca
Hi,
I was a member of Rebel Bakers in San Diego and have been looking for an original copy of uprisings, with the photographs of workers in it. know where i may find one? Also- looking to connect with other bakers out there or those interested in whole grain organic baking.
Hi lea anne,
I only have a newer edition. I noticed that there are 23 available at used bookstores on Amazon.com (Google Uprisings: The Whole Grain Bakers’ Book). If you email each store, you might be able to find one you’re looking for.
I knew Scott Kessler in the 80’s. He also worked at Rebel Bakers, but I haven’t heard from him in years.
lee
Dude! I just saw your website and the post about searching for Uprisings. I’m still here in San Diego. Probably been 15 years(?) since we’ve spoke. How ya doing? We should talk on the phone and catch-up. Just got the UCSD Alum mag in the mail yesterday… 6 pg spread on the CHE Cafe. Hope your doin well.
Scott
I used to work at Crumb’s Bakery in Athens, OH. We were members for awhile. I attended a CWGEA conference in Buffalo in about 1995 at Yeast West Bakery. What fun. Lost track of everyone over the years. I got a copy of the book and use it to this day. i am now strating a bakery inside jackie O’s Pub & Brewery in Athens, OH. Great stuff
Concerning the Wildflour Community Bakery in Ann Arbor, I was one of the four original builders of the bakery – the lease holder. If I remember correctly, we finished the bakery in 1975, and I revisited the bakery the final week of its operation, in 2000, just by chance. I returned a week later for the final members’ meeting, to provide some history and suggest an alternative, less political management style that was more tuned to our original concept of a bakery of and for the community. By 2000, the bakery had become highly political and restrictive in what it would bake and who could bake. In the final meeting members voted to close the bakery. Your website states the bakery closed in 1981 – it lasted much longer.
Hello! 🙂 I dearly miss Wildflour Bakery… is it possible to get the recipe for the Veggie Roll-Ups? Fond memories of eating these as a child with my family. Thanks!! – Amanda
i lived in ann arbor the first part f my life, up to 1997. i was under the impression the wildflour bakery closed a few years earlier than 2000, more in teh mid to late 90s? i remember going in and the girl i talked to was bitterly unhappy about how it was going to close, i was stil in music school there. . . . i miss, miss, miss that place! i went to commie high(back when thats what it actualy was), used to get treats there when i was able, and i was all about those essene rolls, which, combined with a slightly bruised cheap apple for a dime would often sustain me happily and healthily for a whole day. i think it was marvelous, how politicized the bakery was, and am astounded and sad when i see underpaid, angry and vaugely oppressed teenagers instead of empowered cooperative members manning the still remaining peoples’ food co-op. i hope such politicized businesses return to our communities someday- perhaps as things get worse and worse and worse for all but the very most wealthy, people will start to realize the need for them. i have certainly seen my share of de-politicized coops, which become soulesss, opportunist or even downright nasty. and most often shut down into the bargain, cause they can’t out-shine whole foods with their attempts at opportunism, selection, shininess and the veneer of depoliticized business. . . . . . ann arbor is a cesspool of heinous gentrification these days. but wildflour was a beautiful place. i wish more people remembered it.
I worked at the Women’s Community Bakery in Washington, DC from 1980 to 1984. I believe it closed in 1992. It lived for 17 years. I learned so much from being in that collective. There is a new facebook page for bakery alumni. Check it out.
I used to live around the corner from a small market in DC at 17th and R St. NW in the 80’s. I was addicted to the oatmeal cookies made by the Woman’s Community Bakery! What I wouldn’t give for another bag or two or three of them now!
Thanks so much keeping this history alive! I am a current co-owner of Nature’s Bakery Cooperative. We’re still going strong as a collectively owned and managed bakery. Our 40 year celebration last year brought back many former bakers, even the founding members. It was wonderful to connect with them and hear many stories from over the years.
We at the Ypsilanti Food Coop are working on our website that tells the story of our bakery, the River Street Bakery. We’re a direct descendant of the Wildflour Community Bakery in Ann Arbor. In 1989, bakers from Wildflour started the Depot Town Sourdough Community Bakery in nearby Ypsilanti. The Depot Town bakery continued as a community bakery with a variety of different bakers through 2005. At that time, the Ypsilanti Food Coop (next door) absorbed the bakery and it was re-opened as the River Street Bakery. We’re 100% organic and all breads are sourdough started. We make about 20 different breads, as well as granola, pretzels, sweets, cakes, cookies & pies. We are baking in a second generation wood-fired brick oven using waste wood and pallets — plus we have 30 solar panels on our roof. With about 4 months of data, we believe we’re about 80% solar powered. Look for more info soon at http://www.ypsifoodcoop.org. The spirit of the Wildflour lives on!
Many fond memories of Wildflower Bakery in Ann Arbor. Loved their veggie roll-up! My little guy and I used to sit on the stoop next to the bakery and enjoy the roll-up which was chock full of goodness. We always waited for a new loaf fresh out of the oven to get one of the ends pieces!
After eating every last morsel, we would tuck into one of the jam thumbprint cookies-melt in your mouth!
I know they had a printed cookbook or collection of recipes. Does anyone have any idea where one can be found? I would love to find the recipe for the veggie rollup and their other wonderful recipes. (my little guy is now almost 23!)
I grew up in Ann Arbor and LOVED the Wildflour Bakery’s Honey Whole Wheat Bread. Bakers came to King Elementary School and taught us how to make it (in 5 gal containers!) when I was a child. It remains the best honey whole wheat I have ever tasted. I have never found one that compares. Does the recipe exist anywhere?
Hi Mia, I just checked the book and Wildflour did not include the recipe for the Honey Whole Wheat Bread 🙁
They did include, and sometime we’ll get them posted:Seven Grain Bread, Date Nut Bread, Just Rye, Sesame Oat Rolls, Onion Rolls, Pizza, Arepas, Date Crunch, Pecan-Raisin Essene Rolls, Maple Oatmeal Cookies, Apple/Apricot-Peach/Date Bars, Pecan Sandies, Fruit and Nut Drops, Carob Coconut Clusters, and Dream Cookies.
If anyone has the book and wants to type in the recipes, I can give you an account so you can add them to the website!
Steenie from The Soy Plant worker collective, 1980s. I used to deliver and pickup items for/from most the mini coops and natural food places.
Annie of Wildflour was always a joy to see. I really miss her, and her delicious goodies.
My favorite was the seasonal fruit nut bread, soaked for months and only available by special order. Does anyone have the recipie? Or can anyone put me in touch with Annie?
thanks
keensteen@yahoo.com
I hope my karma is strong enough that someone will post the whole wheat donut recipe that was used by Honey Bear Bakery in Kalispell, MT, in 1980. They had a rich, wheaty flavor that was not too sweet, and a slightly crisp exterior.
Also, does anyone know whether the Mammyth Bakery and Cafe of Missoula, MT is still operating in some form? That was a great women’s collective also in operation in 1980.
(My parents and I began a partial whole grain bakery in Breckenridge, CO in early 1973 and operated it until 1978. We used all organic flour, but did bake a white bread, and made pecan rolls, pie crusts and some cakes from unbleached white flour. It was a lot of work, but very rewarding (except financially with the high ski resort rents!).
You may reply to schimjg@gmail.com.
Hi Lee! I just found out about your blog from Morris. One of the “younger” members who joined after I left has started a Facebook group for Uprisings (the collective) that you might be interested in as well. I don’t have either of the books you are focused on here, but you have piqued
my curiosity! I may attempt to locate a copy and check it out. Morris says he has been baking some of the old recipes recently and had some good success. It was a shame that the collective couldn’t be sustained longer than it did survive. I still have dreams and certainly waking thoughts about all those experiences! Hope you are staying safe and well! – Dave Robison
Feel free to contact me there with messenger or via email. It would be good to touch bases with you again.
I love that this thread is still alive! I recently found 7 issues of the old Millstream magazine which was published in the late 70’s. I have passed them on the Mike Avery from the Bread Bakers’ Guild of America to digitize and publish. During the discussion on the thread someone mentioned the old Uprising book. I still have both editions. One of the recipes that we (Rising Star) provided was Peasant Bread with Dates. I am delighted to say that our pop-up this week-end at Seraphina’s Oven includes the same loaf all these years later!
Martin Barnett
Founding Member, Rising Star Wholefoods Bakery
Now retired but teaching and baking at http://www.seraphiasoven.ca
Come visit us on Vancouver Island!
I must have at least two copies of that book, maybe more. I was active in the Buffalo co-op scene, when it was quite a scene. I was a member of the Woman’s bookstore collective (Emma) and each of the three food co-ops, Lexington, Allentown, and North Buffalo. I also contributed to the women’s collective newspaper, Common Ground. Those were the days. I wasn’t a collective member at Yeast-West, but I was a day laborer there for years. If you were involved in worker’s ownership or whole foods at all, you needed something like Uprisings, because it had the bakery addresses when you traveled. Obviously the first thing you would do was hit one of those and look for a bulletin board (and a sandwich). I ate in the vast majority of these places, at one time or another.