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Berkshire Mountain Bakery: Not Bread Alone
By Bess Hochstein
May 2008
When K & I lived in Housatonic, part of our routine was the periodic stop at Berkshire Mountain Bakery. We relished walking into the cavernous riverside brick bakery—a former paper mill warehouse now redolent of sourdough and flour—where we’d help ourselves to a slice of whatever artisanal loaf was there for the tasting,  enjoying it with a splash of olive oil while we pondered our selection. Part of the experience was watching the bread-baking process—this is a working bakery, not a pastry showcase, full of racks of loaves at various stages of the transition from flour to bread—and chatting with whoever came to the counter. It might be an employee from some exotic part of the world, or it might be the bakery’s mercurial owner, Richard Bourdon.
Along with a faint trace of accent from his native Quebec, Richard always has a twinkle in his eye. Perhaps that’s because he loves his work. Richard was on the way to becoming a professional musician when he realized that his vocation was food. He was at The Hague Conservatory of Music, studying the French horn, when he placed an ad in the paper seeking a farmer or baker from whom he could learn about food production.  First to contact him was a baker, who set him on his path, working with bread makers throughout northern Europe, before he landed in Amsterdam, where he ran a bakery for six years.
A chance encounter with Michio and Aveline Kushi, founders of the Kushi Institute in Becket (the nation’s leading macrobiotic center), brought Richard to the Berkshires in 1985. Here he encountered an unanticipated challenge—the grains were different from those he used in The Netherlands, and the fermentation process he used to make sourdough bread wasn’t working.
It took him a few months to adapt his techniques for his new ingredients and environment, but when he did, he found such success that he soon outgrew Becket and moved his bakery to Housatonic, where he was eventually able to purchase the 7,000 square-foot riverside warehouse that is now Berkshire Mountain Bakery.  That was more than 20 years ago, and during the decades the bakery has flourished.
Richard’s success comes directly from his healthful, hearty sourdough breads made with organic ingredients. K is partial to the Sunny Flax Seed loaf, or, if he wants sliced bread, the Whole Meal Spelt with Sunflower Seeds.
I’m a huge fan of the Olive loaf, which has a gentle touch of garlic and basil, and the Potato Onion, with rosemary—particularly to accompany an Italian dinner. I was thrilled to discover the moist and earthy Whole Rye loaf.
On our visits to the bakery we’d usually also grab a baguette, plus an Oatmeal Pecan cookie (which never lasted the drive home).  Then we tried the scrumptious Cherry Pecan loaf and later the focaccias, which were perfect heated up on their own or as a quick-start base for a semi-made-at-home pizza. We moved on to the pizza crusts to take greater responsibility for our own pizzas. (If we didn’t enjoy making our own, we’d buy Berkshire Mountain Bakery’s frozen pizzas; tempting varieties include Pesto, Roasted Pepper & Goat Cheese, Three Cheese Garlic, and Honey BBQ.)
Just as man cannot live on bread alone, a bread baker may need more variety in his life. Richard’s earlier innovations did not stray far from his foundation. He introduced “Bread & Chocolate,” a white-flour boule chock-full of Callebaut dark chocolate, which I consider dessert—after all, one third of the bread’s weight is chocolate! But this spring, Richard has gone further in the dessert direction, hiring a pastry chef and introducing “Wholesome Sprouted Grain Cookies” in four varieties: Chocolate Café, Ginger Molasses, Sweet Seed, and  White Chocolate Decadence.
Why are these cookies “wholesome?” Because of their unique combination of ingredients, beginning with sprouted whole-grain spelt flour. According the Richard, sprouting the grain increases its nutritional value, makes the nutrients more easily absorbed by the body, and aids digestion.
The cookies are sweetened with sucanat (dehydrated cane juice) which retains about 13% molasses – a good source of iron, calcium, potassium,  B Vitamins, and chromium. For shortening Richard uses antioxidant-rich organic palm fruit oil, which is trans-fat-free, and not to be confused with palm kernel oil.
The White Chocolate Decadence cookie is packed with Callebaut white chocolate and macadamia nuts, with a hint of cardamom powder; and the Chocolate Café variety uses dark Callebaut plus almonds, walnuts, and a natural coffee substitute of roasted dandelion root, barley, rye, chicory root, and beet root. Even though these cookies are good for you, they’re also delectable.
Since K & I moved to Tyringham, the Berkshire Mountain Bakery is no longer on our regular rounds, though we do occasionally stop by en route to the Lauren Clark Gallery. Fortunately, Richard’s healthful, delicious baked goods are available at many local establishments, such as Guido’s markets, the Berkshire Co-op Market, and Clover’s Organic Market.  He’s also a regular presence at our Farmers’ Markets, run by Berkshire Grown, where samples of breads are liberally dispersed—K can’t walk by without buying a mini ciabatta (flavors include Cheese & Herb, Jalapeno and Cheese, Olive, and Chocolate).
But now there’s an easy way for people who don’t have the luxury of living nearby to enjoy the bounty of Berkshire Mountain Bakery: Via the Internet. The bakery has just introduced a website, where folks from afar can order breads, pizza crusts, cocktail toasts and, of course, those yummy new cookies. Richard also provides an ingredient list and nutritional information for each of his products.
In addition, the site also includes “Food for Thought,” a space for Richard to express his opinions on subjects of his choosing, as well as a list of books and links to websites he finds worthwhile. For those who haven’t had the pleasure of meeting the bread baker of Berkshire County, the site is a convenient way to get a taste of his personality, as well as buy his great-tasting breads, cookies, and other baked goods!
About Bess Hochstein
Bess J.M. Hochstein came to the Berkshires as a second-homeowner before deciding to move here full time. Previously a communications executive, she's now a freelance writer living in Tyringham with her corgis Duffy and Hobbs and K. She writes for several publications, including Berkshire Living, the Boston Globe, New England Wine Gazette, and Healing Lifestyles & Spas magazine.
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