Bake Bread with Pat Hains at Her Olympia Farmstead

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By Mary Ellen Psaltis

van dorm sponsorFor Pat Hains, life revolves around bread. Step into the kitchen of her farmstead in south Olympia, and you’ll be embraced by the warm aromas of classic baguettes browning in the oven. Inhale once and you’re ready to eat. Inhale twice and you’ll never want to leave.

Bread is one of the simple miracles of life. It’s mostly flour and water, but baking bread is an art. Hains, a bread artist, owns and operates Hains House, a bed and breakfast, where those miracles happen. Learn how to cook pizza in the outside wood fired oven or why soaking towels in a bowl in the bottom of your oven are essential to creating the golden-domed crusts.

bread cooking class
Pat Hains bakes bread at her south Olympia farmstead.

Settle into one of four bedrooms, such as the Llama Room, which overlooks the backfields. If you imagine stepping into a page of Country Living, you’re getting close.

The cooking class that Hains took in Italy not only inspired her baking, but also opened her eyes to the value of restoring her home with its country charm intact. Instead of gutting the house to make way for an ultra modern design, she kept much of the original wood flooring and lathe and plaster, updated elements and reinforced the rustic comfort. Now it’s a homey abode.

Hains, who finds traveling the world to her liking, took an extended trip to Weinheim (near Heidelberg), Germany. She attended the Akademie des deutschen Bäckerhandwerk. It was “the most amazing experience of my life time,” exclaims Hains. Fourteen people from eleven countries made 300 bread recipes in two months.

Now you can reap the benefits of her education during a weekend of bread baking where you will get up to your elbows in at least nine different kinds. Possibilities include 100% whole wheat, sourdough, bagels, pretzel, brioche, rustic with walnuts and cranberries or savory with rosemary and garlic, sweet dough and traditional baguettes. You will make friends with the wood fired oven in the back yard. However, don’t expect to linger over coffee in the dining room – you’ll be too busy baking for too much relaxing. That will have to happen on another weekend.

Hains House makes a peaceful retreat or a marvelous place for a party, reception or other event. Daughter Sally Henry is the Event Planner and can tell you all about the barn and surrounding property. How about hosting a family pizza making party? Now that would be a memorable birthday.

hains houseLooking for a casual wedding in a barn? Overnight guests will enjoy a full breakfast with eggs, seasonal fruit, potatoes, roasted vegetables, sausage and the favored lemon scones. And, you’ll have time with Pat Hains.

For a woman that works full time for the State of Washington, runs a bed and breakfast, works part time as a baker at Mom’s Bakery, raises chickens, has fields to mow and property to manage, I’d think she’d be crazy.

But spending time with Pat Hains over a cup of iced tea and a plate of bread was soothing. She told me, “I’m having fun.” I believe her. She also told me that all the people that come to visit are “really nice and really fun.” You, too, can partake of these simple miracles.

Visit the website by clicking here or call 360-791-8928 for more information. Hains House is also listed at airbnb.

olympia cooking class
Stop in for a bread making class or spend the night at the B&B.

Hains House

2525 Beaver Creek Drive SW

Olympia, WA 98512

360-791-8928

 

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