4/15/2008 9:28:00 AM Turn your nose to Orion for heaven's scent
Ryan Taylor named the business after his son, Orion. It is for the most part a family run business that includes his wife, Trecia, who runs the business side of the bakery, and his parents.
Loaves of bread are available as pan loaves, rounds or batards, depending on the variety. The bakery also offers daily specials that include a Saturday Ciabatta bread that takes 36 hours to rise and rye and pumpernickel on Sundays.
Science says that our sense of smell is triggered by odor particles -- tiny molecules called odorants.
Each odor-causing molecule has a very specific shape. Much like puzzle pieces or a lock and key, these uniquely shaped molecules bind to uniquely shaped protein receptors located on the olfactory epithelium, the only part of the human brain that is exposed to the air.
The protein receptors in turn pass along the information to the brain that a connection has been made. The brain then interprets the union as a specific smell or combination of smells.
But most of us don't care about that.
We just like the smell of bread.
It smells like home...or what we all believe home should smell like.
Until a few months ago there wasn't a convenient place to give your olfactory epithelium bread smell protein receptors a good workout, outside of the home (with the possible exception of the local supermarket).
Then last July, Ryan Taylor opened the Orion Bread Company in Old Town Cottonwood.
Taylor was a student at Northern Arizona University, attending classes on the seven-year plan when took a job as a baker.
Whether it was aptitude, interest or an addiction to the odorants is inconsequential. What matters is that he took a liking to the work and, eventually, an aversion to working for others.
In July 2007 he brought his likes and dislikes to Main Street Cottonwood. He also brought a $60,000 Italian made bread oven and an unyielding ethic for making bread the way it is supposed to be made, slow and simple.
Orion Bread Company offers a wide variety of breads -- 30 some at last count. But they all have one thing in common -- they are all made from the four basic ingredients of bread-- water, flour, yeast and salt.
Those simple ingredients and a patient process create what are now called artisan breads.
Artisan breads have a lousy shelf life and list of ingredient that isn't near as amusing or confusing to read as their commercial cousins.
One of the secrets to making great bread is the way the yeast is induced. At the commercial bakery the bread is force fed a diet of hi octane yeast, which allows it to rise quickly and move on down the assembly line.
But Taylor applies most of the yeast slowly, using a starter much like what is used to make sourdough. The result is a slow "fermentation' that brings out the grain's natural flavor.
Every loaf of Orion's Marble Rye, Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic, Miner's Sourdough, Cranberry Walnut, Greek Kalamata and Feta, 9-Grain or Whole Wheat Molasses bread is done the same way -- slowly.
Although the wholesale side of the business has grown (Orion breads are now sold at 22 outlets in the Verde Valley) Taylor still believes in catering to the walk in trade.
As a result they also make heavenly fresh cinnamon rolls, an array of cookies, pastries, and ethnic baked goods such as baklava, biscotti and cannolli.
If you haven't given your olfactory epithelium bread smell protein receptors a good work out lately it is important that you do so at the earliest opportunity.
That's because what science doesn't tell us is that the scent of bread baking is the scent of heaven. And heaven as we all know, is like home.
Orion Bread Company is located at 1028 N. Main Street in Cottonwood's Old Town (928-649-1557) (www.orionbread.com).
