A lot of people tell us that we bake bread the hardest way possible, which is like, yes, it could be so much more refined.

But where's the fun in that?

You know.

Shaun Thompson Duffy is one of the owners of The Grain Shed, an employee owned bakery and brewery in Spokane, Washington.

The Grain Shed focuses on landrace grains, and traditional baking methods.

Shaun has spent years learning how to elevate bread.

But what ignited his passion for bread making?

The first thing that drew me to bread making was the mystery behind bread making.

I was working on the savory side in kitchens and, working in some high profile restaurants.

And bread really wasn't a focus.

And so I started, just digging into it.

How can, like, four ingredients, sometimes three ingredients turn into something that really delicious.

Shaun grew up in and around Dallas, Texas and came to Spokane in 2010.

In 2015, he formed Culture Breads, an artisan bread baking company available by subscription.

I would deliver bread to the Perry Street Brewery.

They would use it on like charcuterie board and stuff like that.

And then I met Joel Williamson.

Whose my business partner.

He started link Foods co-op.

Whenever you started talking grains with somebody and they don't fall asleep, but they're really interested.

It's like, well, this guy's a grain guy.

Then in 2018, with the help of brewer Teddy Benson, and Palouse Heritage co-owner Don Sherman, they were ready to bring their dream to fruition.

The bread and the beer is like the two foundations that we built this place upon.

This is, our classic dough.

We're just going to stretch and fold it.

This is how we knead it.

So that's the mill right there.

This is the runner stone.

The bed stone is stationary.

Then the runner stone moves.

The wheat drops in, and then it just starts working its way out and making it in the flour.

We get most of our grain from a place called Palouse Heritage.

The landrace grains that Palouse Heritage has like their their germ is larger.

It makes your flour more enriched.

You get a little floury at this job sometimes.

This is our rye levain.

So this is just a mixture of rye flour and water.

And then this is our wheat levain.

Natural levain and natural sourdough.

They call it sourdough.

You harvest the natural bacteria in yeast and in the wheat.

So this is what makes things rise.

One of the top priorities of The Grain Shed is using traditional baking methods to create healthy and delicious breads.

We're just like reinventing stuff from the past.

Everybody used to use these landrace grains before they started breeding different attributes into the grain for like harvesting and monocultures.

Before steam ovens, everybody was baking out of a wood fired oven.

The information is just got lost, you know, because we don't.

Nobody does it anymore.

Bread baking should teach us that we're all the same.

We're not different.

Every culture had their form of taking flour and water and mixing it together and making something.

Well, what I really like is that there's sort of like a meditative nature to making 200 loaves of bread, Everybody gets along and you can sort of laugh and work at the same time.

I think that there's, a sense of, among all the employees something of a service to the community.

One of the main reasons why I wanted to start The Grain Shed was to be in a neighborhood and to see, like, kids walking around here.

They want a cookie or a croissant or something like that.

You know, those stories are gonna they're going to grow up and they're going to talk about this bakery.

And I was down at the end of their block in Spokane, Washington, of all places.

That really makes me happy.

Were a part of people's lives through bread or through beer, through pastries.

They take us home.