Page 38 - the NOISE November 2012

STORY & PHOTOS BY ANNABEL SCLIPPA
I Knead You, Baby
Ryan Taylor didn’t grow up ‘off grid,’ but more organic than many, and more in touch with the earth than most. His mother was always cooking and baking all kinds of goodies. Even today, she and his father have goats, chickens and gardens, and live in the Rimrock – Beavercreek – McGuire- ville area, or, as Mr. Taylor puts it, “kind of in the middle of nowhere.”
Trecia (Barcus) Taylor is an Arizona native herself, born and raised in Phoenix, until she headed off to college at NAU. The then Ms. Barcus was majoring in psychology and Mr. Taylor wasn’t quite sure what the heck he was doing, but they knew some- thing for sure: that other person in Spanish 404 was super cute, and had a contagious knack for joking around and making the other laugh. They first ‘went out’ at the skating rink where he worked. “It wasn’t re- ally a date. We just hung out there because he was working, which led to a date,” re- members Mrs. Taylor.
The two continued to see each other after she graduated and moved back to Phoenix. He was still living in Flagstaff, and visited her every weekend, for a year. Finally a job opportunity came up for her to teach with Mr. Taylor and his mother at a charter school in Rim Rock. She moved back up to the Verde Valley. “We three taught at the same school, and lived together along with Ryan’s dad Mark,” she continues.
Eventually she took a job waiting tables, while he tended bar and gave ATV tours, in Sedona. “We saved money, then went on a big long journey, like a couple of semes- ters, touring the West Coast,” said Mrs. Tay- lor. When they got home, they decided to move to Flagstaff so he could finish school, during which time he started working at a bakery.
Mr. Taylor was working at that bakery in
Flagstaff for about three years, and it was during this time that more was rising in the oven than bread. The couple’s first son, Eron Dee Orion Taylor was born September 27, 2006. They made two decisions during this pregnancy. One was to shoot over to Vegas and have a true Elvis wedding at three months pregnant, and the other was to open a bakery after their son’s name- sake. They wanted to do something for themselves and their future family, and so was born the Orion Bread Company, and the joined forces of Mr. and Mrs. Taylor.
Orion Bread Company opened July 10, 2007 with partners involved including 49% ownership from their landlords, who just plain believed in them. When times got tough and their landlords needed to sell out their portion, the family bought that interest back, making them entirely family-owned today. Ryan’s parents, Mark Taylor and Helga Rodda, trusted in this new young family deeply enough that they took out a 2nd mortgage on their house to keep the bakery open.
A Whole Grain Fam- ily Investment
It might seem like sacks of flour, a pinch of salt, yeast and water, but bakery making ain’t no small investment. The oven alone, made in Italy specifically for their bakery, cost $63,000. And it didn’t even show up on time, costing them more in inciden- tals. Mr. Taylor explained, “It was meant to arrive in four to five weeks, but ended up showing up 12 weeks later. It was ‘Holiday times’ and Italians are notorious for taking Holidays.”
Co-owners, and grandparents, Mr. Taylor and Ms. Rodda, wear multiple hats in the family biz. Grandma likes to help on the forming table, or at the oven, and comes up with new bread ideas and flavors, such as potato-dill, with her son. She is also a
shape-maker of the recently-perfected brioche buns. Ms. Rodda admits, “Ryan is a little impatient with me sometimes. He likes things standardized, and I can’t be there enough to help him achieve that.” But she continues, “It’s a gift to see my grand- children so much, and to keep them out of trouble.”
Grandfather Taylor is, according to his son, the “Bun Rack Manager, the Keiser- meister, or The Bun Inspector.” He helps to organize the orders, and keep the flow going, overseeing bread cooling, racking, packaging, bun counting and inspecting. Retired from a 321⁄2-year career in physical anthropology at NAU, I must ask him, how does physical anthropology play a role in the bakery? “Remedial anthropology around the table all day long, so much pri- mate behavior,” he says. Mrs. Taylor chimes in, “Dough balls are thrown! Well, it’s a bak- ery full of men – what else need be said?”
When Orion Bread Company first opened, it was only the four of them. With- in a couple of weeks, they hired a person to package: starting with Daniel, then Scott, then Shandor, and dozens since then. For accounts, they immediately had Evelyn’s Kitchen, then grocery stores started lin- ing up. Regular distributors now include New Frontiers, Bashas’, Weber’s IGA, Mount Hope, and just recently, Natural Grocers. Restaurants between Sedona and Cotton- wood number in the twenties, and grow- ing, with New Mexican restaurants in Je- rome even carrying the Taylors’ signature creations.
Mrs. Taylor has been a busy woman, gar- nering all of these accounts and filling mul- tiple roles in the bakery. “I fill in the gaps, make the biz work. I input the numbers perspective, and then the creative process, well ... I do that as well. It’s hard to say ex- actly what my job is. My main current focus
is sales and promotion, but at the same time I’m trying to give Ryan goals and numbers to work with, and all the while be- ing ‘Mommy Taxi’ and raising the children at the same time.”
Giving Thanks
Maxton Lee Rigel Taylor was born four years (and one month) later than his broth- er Eron. It’s possible he follow in Eron’s foot- steps, as the star Rigel is the left foot of the constellation Orion, and one of the bright- est stars in the sky. He arrived October 29, 2010, at two months premature. With his first flight a helicopter ride to the PICU unit at St. Joseph’s in Phoenix, he was off to an unexpected start, and according to Mrs. Taylor, “continues to prove that he has his own way of doing things.”
As Thanksgiving arrives, so does the ris- ing in remembrance of Maxton’s surpris- ing arrival. Maxton first came home just one day after the upcoming holiday. This month the Taylors will be spending their 3rd Thanksgiving as a family together, and the 5th as a bakery.
This holiday of giving thanks is met with the baker’s dharma of making all that bread. For the record, their largest baking day was the day before Thanksgiving three years ago, when 1,600 pounds were mixed, kneaded, and rising: a recipe, one might observe, that could be applied to family as well as dough.
What started with laughter, friendship and love, continues today and can be felt by each patron who ventures into the bak- ery and tastes the Taylors’ delightful breads. In this harvest season, find someone you love, break a loaf of Orion bread and give gratitude.
| Annabel V Sclippa is a real cheese & eggs kinda girl. steakandmustard@gmail.com
38 • NOVEMBER 2012 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us