As with any good story, there are a few different ways to tell the story of Red Hen Baking Company: It's a love story: we are guided by an enduring passion for certified organic ingredients, and for the union of high quality grains, water, salt, and natural leavening. It's an adventure story: no two days are exactly alike here at the bakery, and making excellent bread requires skill and attention. It's a comedy: you should see us all laughing together around the bench. It's an epic saga of the struggle between good and evil…actually, no, it's not. I was just kidding about that.

Red Hen came into being when Randy George and Liza Cain, the bakery co-owners, moved back to Vermont. Before the bakery was born, Randy, who is also our head baker, was already committed to artisan bread baking and was delighted to find that Vermonters know good bread! The scope of our business is directed by stubbornness and a fierce passion for artisan methods.

Red Hen is made up of about 24 full and part-time employees who work, collectively, 364 days a year (we don't deliver on Thanksgiving Day).

We take pride in our hard work - and, of equal importance, we have a lot of fun. By the way, for many of us, the commitment to doing things in an environmentally responsible and healthful way extends to our day-to-day lives. Some of us even commute to work by bicycle, on foot, or on cross-country skis, depending on the season.

We bake and deliver 7 days a week so that Red Hen bread is always fresh, wherever you buy it. Our drivers and packers are the unsung heroes who complete the process of getting the bread out every day. Our packing crew works from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Drivers start their day as the packers are thinking of hitting the hay. They come at 5:00 a.m. to load the vans for their daily routes.

While restocking the racks with fresh bread, all of yesterday's bread is gathered and distributed to local food shelves and farms - we want our bread to fill bellies, not landfills!

As a bakery, we locate ourselves proudly at the crossroads of a return to traditional methodology - making bread with flour, water, and salt - and an exciting revolution in the way people think about food. We are part of the "bread revolution" that has, over the past 15 years or so, prompted a resurgence of interest in artisan bread in the United States.

We believe that good food is one of life's great pleasures, and that it's worth the time and effort it takes to make delicious food that nourishes both body and spirit.

We also believe that food doesn't have to be elaborate to be excellent. We share a conviction that beauty and joy are essential to a full life, and we practice our craft to that end. Let us do the work of making your bread for you, so that you can spend your time on the rest of your meal.

We are also part of the Organic agriculture movement, which calls for a return to genuine stewardship of the land instead of using chemicals, synthetic fertilizers and monoculture plantings to produce huge crops of inferior-quality food.

We insist on using Organic ingredients because we support sustainable, Organic methods of growing food, because we believe these ingredients are superior in quality, and ultimately, because they just make better bread.

We hope that you will agree, and we welcome your feedback.