Spelt, The Feel Good Grain™

Berlin Natural Bakery is the oldest and only all Spelt Bakery in the US. It is located in Berlin Ohio, home to the largest Amish community in the world. In this part of the country, bread is baked the old fashioned way and baking is a way of life.

What is Spelt you ask? Spelt is the third original grain of this world. Wheat came thousands of years later. Nutritionally, Spelt is far superior to wheat. It has been the gourmet grain of Europe for hundreds of years where it is known in Italy as Farro and in Germany as Dinkel.

Compared to wheat, Spelt is higher in proteins and amino acids. It is higher in Vitamins B and E. It is also higher in unsaturated fatty acids, and L-Tryptophan, which aids in the production of serotonin. It is warming and supports good blood circulation in your system. It is high in water solubility making it easier to digest and allowing the nutrients to be more easily absorbed by the body. This makes it better for people with diabetes and is why the American Diabetes Association recommends Spelt over wheat.

So why don't we see more Spelt grain being grown? First of all, the yields of Spelt are much smaller than that of wheat, and secondly, it has two tight outer hulls that require expensive equipment to remove. Finally, Spelt does not lend itself to mass production because it is much more difficult to bake with than wheat because of its fragile glutens and the unique composition. This is why Berlin is a small batch bakery and bakes only 100 loaves per batch allowing the bakers to make adjustments as they proceed. Even the amount of water added to the flour to make the dough is different from that of wheat. Spelt needs more water. In addition, bakeries that mass-produce bread have to add even more gluten and other ingredients to make the dough more durable and machine manageable. Another old-fashioned method we use to make our Spelt bread tastes so good is stone grinding into flour on site at the bakery every day. We carefully monitor the temperature to ensure that the nutrients in the grain remain intact as Mother Nature intended. The flour we stone grind today isused to produce the products we bake tomorrow. We lose less then 1% of the grain during the milling process. Our spelt is truly WHOLE GRAIN and our flour does not sit around for months getting old, losing its nutritional value and becoming susceptible to pests. People in this country are not used to eating bread this fresh. That is why people notice the difference when they taste Berlin Spelt Breads. Each loaf of bread is double bagged and frozen to stay as fresh as the day it was baked. When you start with a superior grain and then add the best old-fashioned baking methods, the end result is great tasting bread that makes you feel great. Spelt is the feel good grain!!