How a 40-Year-Old Hudson Valley Bakery Is Reimagining Itself for the Future
Solar energy will power the bakery’s new-and-improved facility.
An Upstate New York bakery is taking a major step toward a smaller carbon footprint. Bread Alone, a nearly 40-year-old bread maker in the Hudson Valley, has spent four years renovating its Boiceville facility where the business was originally founded. The site will soon reopen in January as a net-zero-energy operation, fully powered by ground- and roof-mounted solar panels.
The relaunched 8,000-square-foot facility will produce bread and pastries for all of Bread Alone's café locations—in Boiceville, Lake Katrine, Rhinebeck, and Woodstock—as well as 12 farmers markets across New York City.
"We all need to electrify our lives as much as possible and then produce from renewable resources all the electricity that we consume,” says Nels Leader, CEO of Bread Alone and son of the company's founder Daniel Leader. "The climate crisis is really ground zero of how we can be a responsible producer."
Nels Leader adds that he also hopes the company will inspire home bakers to take meaningful steps of their own toward a smaller carbon footprint. "It can start with a really small gesture," he says, noting that even the act of "converting, in your home, a gas appliance to an electric appliance" can make a difference.
To mark the launch of its new-and-improved facility, Bread Alone plans to unveil an updated menu, including both newly developed recipes like a buckwheat Pullman bread, as well as updated classics like a 100-percent sourdough levain.
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