Former music teacher starts bread bakery in Norfolk

NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) - Caleb Nihira is serious about making a lot of dough in Norfolk - the kind he can bake into bread, that is.

The former music educator moved to Norfolk from Tucson, Arizona, about three months ago and recently began operating the North Fork Bread Co., a bakery that focuses on naturally leavened artisanal breads.

“It’s sort of an old-school way of doing things using just flour, water and salt,” Nihira said. “I start with wild yeast cultures and sourdough starters. That’s what leavens the bread.”

Nihira, who grew up in Missouri and went to school in the Fargo-Moorhead area of North Dakota and Minnesota, lived in Arizona for the past 12 years. He began baking bread as a hobby.

“I started real simply, making white breads at home and using the commercial yeast for all of that,” he said.

Eventually, he expanded and found the desire to experiment with sourdough. When his wife, Jody Gibson, took a job in technical services in the analytics department of Northeast Community College, Nihira took the opportunity to shift his focus from music education to baking.

“I saw an opportunity here, and a lack of opportunity in the other area,” he said. The response, he added, has been “frankly overwhelming.”

Nihira uses the kitchen facilities at the Granola House at 600 W. Benjamin Ave. to bake a variety of breads, including traditional sourdough, whole wheat, cranberry walnut, focaccia and traditional French-style baguettes.

“I use the white sourdough base and whole wheat sourdough base as the base of a lot of other things,” he said. “I’ll add cinnamon-raisin or jalapeno cheddar or whatever it is people ask for.”

His products are then sold at a variety of locations, including area farmers markets, Kuper Farms Country Market and Norfolk Natural Market, the Norfolk Daily News reported. Customers also have contacted him through the website he has set up to place orders, he said.

Nihira said he’s excited about starting his own bakery where he can revive the old practices of making bread from three simple ingredients. He added that he eventually would like to build relationships with area farmers to establish a source for his baking supplies.

“That way it’s sort of integrated into the economy rather than pulling products from far away and trying to sell them,” he said. “(I want to) create a market in which it’s not just me that’s benefiting from the sale. People will buy my bread, but they’re also buying wheat from this farm in Nebraska or milk and butter from the local farmers, as well.”

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Information from: Norfolk Daily News, http://www.norfolkdailynews.com