Erik Goodling Strafford Vermont

HW Breadworks.  Erik Goodling

Teacher, Baker, Adventurer  

Susan Cloke

Journal Opinion Winter Columnist

April 2, 2014

 “My mom taught me to bake as a kid.  Now I make Old World European breads, French sourdoughs and whole grain breads,” said Erik Goodling of HW Breadworks in Strafford.

“I make a bread called Jed’s sourdough.  The starter for that bread comes from the famous, and now closed, Jedediah’s House of Sourdough in Jackson Wyoming.  I’ve been making that bread for 20 years.

“In 2010 I was getting ready to get on a plane and go on vacation when the volcano erupted in Iceland.  Because of the volcano, air traffic was shut down and I ended up with 10 days vacation and nothing to do.  So I built a brick oven for making bread.”

Goodling makes a Maple Anadama – traditional New England bread made with cornmeal and molasses.

The Anadama from HW Breadworks is made with maple syrup from Kendall Farm and local organic cornmeal.

“There’s a story behind the Anadama,” said Goodling.  “The story is that a farmer’s wife left him and she left cornmeal and molasses in the kitchen for him. And he made bread all the while saying ‘Anna damn her’ thus Anadama.”

“I collect bread cookbooks and love using the book “Bread” by Jeffrey Hamelman, the head baker at King Arthur.”

Goodling sells his breads on Sundays out of the house.  In bad weather he brings bread to Café 232 in South Strafford.

To see what is being offered or to order bread for pick up, email hwbreadworks@gmail.com

He didn’t plan on being a breadmaker.  He studied literature at Bennington with a focus on Russian literature.  Goodling says, “If you put “War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina” side by side you’ve got enough to think about for the rest of your life.”

“I went to Bennington to study philosophy and literature.  19^th century literature and ethics and I let my hair grow long.  Bennington was the most intensely creative place I have ever been.  We lived in a free for all of creativity.  Finding that place was awesome for me,” said Goodling.

Goodling started college at the University of Cincinnati studying electrical and computer engineering.  One day, walking through the hallway and talking about artificial intelligence with a fellow frat member he was asked, “So you’ve built a thinking, feeling thing – can you turn it off?”   He realized then and there that he would switch to study philosophy.

After graduation from Bennington there was the question of what to do with a degree that shows you’ve studied Tolstoy and Plato and Socrates.

He was being a ski bum and cooking in a pizza place in Killington when he met his wife to be and they married on her grandparents’ farm on Caper Hill in Redding.

After marriage, they lived in South Strafford and Goodling worked as a chef at Simon Pearce, at the Prince and the Pauper, and at the Norwich Inn.

He loved cooking but he also loved talking about books and literature and philosophy.  He left the kitchen and went to Newton Elementary School to teach 8^th grade English, Social Studies and to take on the very fun task of directing the school play.  His children still go to Newton School.

After a year at Newton he was offered a job at Richmond School in Hanover where he taught 9^th grade English for 13 years. 

Those same questions of philosophy that he’s been asking himself about life made him decide to take a leave of absence last year.

Now Goodling is teaching at the Okemo Mountain School in Ludlow.   His students are in the 6^th to 12^th grades.  They spend the morning on athletics and then come to him to in the afternoon to study English, Social Studies and History.

Goodling is also an adventurer.  In 2009 he set out on a quest to see Mt. Everest.  “I was trekking, not mountain climbing,” said Goodling.  “I’ve been hiking all my life and seeing Mt. Everest was a lifetime goal.

“I spent three weeks in Nepal.  Once we were out of monastery country we were on a windy, narrow trail next to a 2000’ chasm and you really understood how mankind could develop a spiritual sense of connection,” said Goodling.  “We climbed to Kala Patthar (18,500’) and we had the greatest view, the view of Mt. Everest.”

Goodling has also traveled in Africa. He was on a trip to Kenya when there was an attempted government coup. 

“We were in a hostel and could see fighting and it got put down.  We were living with the Maasai at the time and they were our only protection.  When I got home there was a picture on the cover of Time Magazine of a woman who had been killed in the attempted coup,” said Goodling.

“I can’t say that there is one image that defines me.  So many pieces contributed to who I am,” said Goodling.

Born in Chicago in 1967, Goodling’s family moved to Weston Connecticut when he was young.  He remembers his dad, a graphic designer, sitting at the drafting table and smoking a pipe.  He has memories of his parent’s friends and how it felt to be with that circle of close and tight friends.

Goodling’s mom now lives in Randolph and “she’s my inspiration,” said Goodling.  “I plan to expand the Breadworks.  The future is also a bit scary but the process of making bread allows me to get lost in my own brain and making bread is calming.

“I also want to also make cheese.  I was on this Iberian Island eating incredible cheese.  It’s the classic story of cheese made in one place for centuries and the younger generation is leaving the Island and the way of making this cheese is getting lost.  I would love to go there and learn how to make this cheese and start making it back home in Vermont.”