All of Farm to Market's products are made with natural ingredients. That means our breads contain no artificial preservatives and have an average shelf life of 4-5 days. Some of our breads, like Sourdough, French Farm, and Rye, are made using a natural fermentation process that naturally gives the bread a longer shelf life. Our yeasted breads like White, Wheat, Egg Buns, and Grains Galore do not go through this same fermentation process, so they tend to develop mold more quickly.
SLICED BREAD
For daily use, it's best to store your bread in a dark, dry place. If you don’t anticipate eating your sliced bread within a few days, we recommend freezing it to prevent it from molding. For best results, you should wrap the bread so that it is airtight or use a freezer bag. To thaw the bread, you can leave it on the counter overnight, or defrost it like you would any other food in a microwave or oven. For menu items like toast and grilled sandwiches, it works great to store your bread in the freezer and then thaw out the number of individual slices you're planning to use at that particular moment.
HEARTH BREAD
To keep the crust on our hearth-baked breads crisp, they are packaged in paper bags. Just like our sliced bread, it's best to store them in a dark, dry place. Hearth breads tend to become hard and stale rather quickly, so we suggest freezing them sooner than you would freeze our sliced breads. Wrap the bread so that it is airtight or use a freezer bag. To thaw the bread, you can leave it on the counter overnight, then place it in a 400ºF oven for 3-5 minutes. The oven will help to bring the crust back to its original crispy texture.
THE MYTH OF REFRIGERATING BREAD
You may have heard that the best place to store your bread is inside the refrigerator. While you're certainly allowed to do as you wish, this is not something that ever recommend. Storing bread in the refrigerator will dry the bread out quickly, a process that know as starch retrogradation
. Although in these times, we are in an anything goes situation -- if you have bread in the fridge, just use a lot of butter and toast it in a skillet, like a restaurant using a griddle. There are few things more comforting than good bread and butter.
We feel so fortunate to be able to bake for you through these uncertain times. We know many -- including our friends and longtime partners in the restaurant and hospitality industry -- are suffering right now. We hope that you can take comfort knowing that there is still fresh bread on the shelves for you every day, and the purchase of our bread directly supports our 63 employees in Kansas City.