For those who have not been stress baking while staying at home, the aroma of freshly baked bread can still fill your kitchen. Wildgrain, a new Somerville-based subscription service, will deliver to your door a box filled with three artisan loaves partially baked and frozen, delicious ready-to bake pastries, and hand cut pasta. The subscription makes it convenient to stock your freezer with comfort carbs, which arrive safely packed with dry ice. The breads are sourdough and made with stoneground unbleached flours and wild yeast and undergo a 36-hour long fermentation, says Johanna Hartzheim, who launched the company with her husband, Ismail Salhi. “We do the hard work so you don’t have to,” she says. The selections rotate, with a recent box containing a country loaf, a wheat loaf, and an olive round. Pop one in the oven, and it’s ready in less than 30 minutes, and will turn out bronzed, crusty, craggy, and surprisingly light. The wild yeast makes the bread more digestible and nutritious and longer lasting, says Hartzheim. The couple lived in Paris for years, where they developed an enduring passion for bread, she says. Recent boxes have also included 12-ounce packages each of fresh, handmade pappardelle, linguine, and plump cheese tortellini, as well as four shortbread tarts studded with nuts and oozing homemade caramel filling. The pastries change regularly, too, and might be croissants, scones, or lemon tarts. Hartzheim worked from a shared kitchen in Woburn until the coronavirus hit. For now, she oversees a few local bakers and pasta makers who produce the goods using her recipes. Subscriptions are $79 a month and can be paused or canceled at any time. The company donates six meals to the Greater Boston Food Bank for every new subscriber. For information and to order, go to wildgrain.com.
ANN TRIEGER KURLAND