This week’s meeting highlights include opportunities for Thanksgiving Dinner Service at the Boys and Girls Clubs, a holiday concert by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and a fascinating presentation by local baker/entrepreneur Don Guerra who uses local grains to create his delicious Barrio Breads.

After the Pledge,  Norm Rebensdorf started with an Invocation to bless the veterans who sacrificed to help create all the freedoms we Americans enjoy today.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
  • Steve Pender plugged our holiday party at the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy show at the Fox theater on Dec 21.
  • We all can help serve Thanksgiving dinner at the Drachman Boys and Girls club on Nov. 14  or at the Pasqua Yaqui Boys and Girls Club on Nov. 21.  Contact Tom Robertson for details.
  • Support our Rotary fund raising riders, Tom Robertson, Tony Spear, and Kirk Reed at the Nov 18 Tour De Tucson.
  • Contact Bob Grady to buy Rotary Shirts, red, white, or blue, order by Dec 1.
  • Sharyn reported on working with nurses in our Rotary sponsored integrated healing programs.
  • Sharyn also introduced new member Phyllis as the new chair of RYLA.
DRAWING:

The pot is over $800, still no winner.

SERGEANT AT ARMS:

Lots of Happy Bucks contributed.

PROGRAM:

Olivier introduced his friend Don Guerra, the owner of BARRIO BREAD

President Pat showed our appreciation for Don Guerra’s program with a Rotary “Service Above Self” memento

Barrio Bread is part of a new program to encourage the local grain economy.  Barrio Bread contracts with several local farms to grow the specific wheat he needs.  He has farmers in Avra Valley, Marana and Green Valley.

He started in Flagstaff, sold that bakery, and came to Tucson to teach school.

He started the new bakery with a USDA  $100,000 grant.  It took $250,000 to start up. Much of this was for an Italian glass-doored oven. The bakery is at Broadway and Highland and you can go right in to watch him bake.  His flours are 60% local now and will be 100% next year.  He uses the  Levain sour dough process which produces lower sugars and better nutrition.  He uses locally grown Durum, Iranian type  Khorasan, Red Fife, Hard Red Spring, and White Sonoran wheat and some mesquite  flour too.  The sourdough bread has a longer shelf life.  “Everything comes down to understanding fermentation.”

Altogether a fascinating program.

Notetaker: Richard Carlson