May 20 / 6:00am - 4:30 pm

Bakers across the Southwest are using time-old and modern techniques to produce identity preserved products while celebrating local flavors and traditions. Join the Guild for a day of weaving together the grain chain, from field to fougasse. 

The day's itinerary:

• 6:00am Meet at Essence Bakery in Phoenix for coffee and croissants Address: 3830 East Indian School Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85018 
• 6:30am - 8:30am Take bus to Oatman Farms 49629 S. Rocky Point Rd, Gila Bend, AZ, 85337 
• 8:30am – 9:30am Tour Oatman Farms  
• 9:30am-10:45am bus to Hayden Mill Tour Address: 22100 S. Sossaman Rd. Queen Creek, AZ
• 10:45am-11:45am Tour Hayden Mill 
• 11:45am-12:15pm Bus to Gilbert  
• 12:15pm-1:00pm Lunch at Barrio Bread Address: 932 N. Colorado St in Gilbert, AZ 
• 1:00pm-2:00pm Barrio Bread Tour  
• 2:00pm-3:00pm Hayden Mill Fulfillment Center Address: 932 N. Colorado St in Gilbert, AZ. 
• 3:00pm-4:30pm Bus from Gilbert to Essence 
• 4:30pm return to Essence Bakery 

We will meet at Essence Bakery in Phoenix for coffee and croissants with Eugenia Theodosopoulos. Eugenia operates her bakery with three core principles: buy local, eat well, preserve the planet. Eugenia’s commitment to her craft is rooted in tradition and technique garnered from years in professional kitchens, here and abroad.  Environmental sustainability practices guide operations, from sourcing to composting. Eugenia chooses organic, whenever possible, and her ingredients are designed around local and in season foods. With bellies full, we will head to the farm before the heat sets in.  

Indigenous to Mexico and dating back to the 1700s, Sonoran wheat has been proving a rugged grain that is making local wheat possible in arid climates. With tremendous care, bolstered by science and best practices, Oatman Farms uses regenerative techniques. They make this wheat available to the region while enriching their soil and maximizing water impact while minimizing its water usage in the hottest agricultural landscape in the United States. We will tour their Gila Bend farm, understanding the thoughtful choices they make to provide local provisions in a tough location. Then we will jump back onto the bus and heading to Queens Creek to tour Hayden Flour Mills.

Emma Zimmerman and her father Jeff have spent the last decade reviving historic and forgotten grains, restoring rusty old mills, growing their crop from 30 acres to over 400, and adopting practices that not only produce a more delicious end-product, but nourish people and the planet. After touring their stone mills,  we will head to Gilbert.

Having seen the wheat in the fields ready for harvest, and stone mills in action, you will have worked up a hankering for some lunch featuring this flour. Don Guerra of Barrio Bread  is committed to working with local farmers, chefs, and other food producers to strengthen the regional grain economy and grow the local food network. Don was awarded a USDA Local Food Promotion Grant that allowed him to collaborate further with local growers and producers with and expand production with a new bakery. Most recently, Don opened a Barrio Bread in partnership with Hayden Flour Mills. There will be an opportunity to see Hayden Mills Fulfillment Center, housed with Barrio Bread.

You will be shuttled back to Essence, feeling nourished and inspired.  

Eugenia Theodosopoulos, Chef/Owner Essence Bakery Cafe 

Eugenia’s love and respect for food and baking began at age 13 while working in her father’s restaurant—a legendary and loved-by-the-community Ohio eatery established in 1931-still owned and operated by the Theodosopoulos family today.  

Eugenia’s passion for food is rooted in tradition and technique. After college, she moved to France to further her culinary skills by studying and working at the renowned Ecole Lenôtre Paris. Eugenia went on to establish a cooking school and catering company in Paris serving clientele including foreign diplomats, embassies, and international executives. 

In 1994 Eugenia and her French husband, Gilles launched Essence Catering in Phoenix, Arizona. In 2007 they opened Essence Bakery Cafe specializing in French pastries, breads and organic breakfast and lunch.  After 9 months in business, it was named Best New Restaurant for the pastries and food.  The croissants, food and pastries continue to receive accolades and awards. 

Her talents evolved over years of hard work, dedication and rigorous training and in 2011 Eugenia was awarded Pastry Chef Extraordinaire and inducted into the Arizona Culinary Hall of Fame.  

Her support of others carries over to the community where she enjoys sharing her love of food with youth. She has mentored dozens of young ladies through C-CAP (careers through culinary arts program) and started an apprenticeship program with CCAP and the state of Arizona in baking and culinary. 

In addition, she partnered with Free Arts of Arizona  to create a 10 week  hands-on culinary program for at-risk youth and families of domestic abuse. Also, she spent 26 weeks teaching a teenage boys group home knife skills and how to cook dinner. 

Eugenia currently serves on the board for CCAP Arizona.  She was recently board chair for Bread Bakers Guild of America (BBGA) and president of Les Dames d’Escoffier Arizona. 

She speaks fluent French, is proficient in Spanish and is learning Greek.   

Yadi Wang, PhD Bio

Inspired by the farming lifestyle of his extended family, Yadi Wang was determined to become a farmer after receiving his doctoral degree in environmental science and years of practices being a chemical and process engineer. As a first-generation farmer, he is working with the nature in the driest and hottest part of the North America using regenerative organic agriculture principles, where he strongly believes the practices and the integrated approaches must focus on the health of people and the planet. In the past three years, he has brought 150+ species back to a once degraded land. The biodiversity allowed him to eliminate the use of chemicals and fertlizer while improving soil health, strengthening the plant integrity and animal welfare through a metabolic approach. As much as building the resilient food supply and demand for the ecosystem, he is one of the founding members of the Development of Regenerative Yields Cooperative, where the team is exploring alternative opportunities for the local food system for the community.

Oatman Flats Ranch

In perhaps the hottest and driest place in the United States, we are confident that by utilizing regenerative organic agriculture principles, we can create a microclimate for the native species to thrive as natural resources become more readily abundant. We know the beginning of this journey is to restore the health of our soil.

In the desert Southwest, saving water is vital. We have created and will continue pushing the boundary of our regenerative farming methods so we can conserve hundreds of millions of gallons of water beneath our farmland and surrounding watersheds.

Our food is rooted in:

Regenerative and Organic Farming Principles Our family farm, Oatman Flats Ranch, is the first Regenerative Organic Certified® farm in the American Southwest.

Growing Heirloom Water-Conserving Crops We grow heirloom non-GMO crops that save millions of gallons of water. Each package of our flour and bread mixes conserves approximately 700 gallons of water in the Gila River aquifer.

Health and Wellness, Nutrition and Flavor We work with Mother Nature to make food products that prioritize health and wellness, nutrition, and flavor.

Family Farming and Community We are dedicated to building a resilient, regenerative food system in our local community.

Radical Transparency We believe there should be integrity, honesty and accountability within the food system, so we proudly include QR codes on our packaged goods that provide total transparency to our customers.

The artistic presentation of the breads produced by Don Guerra is only outdone by their stellar taste. As owner/baker of Barrio Bread, Guerra uses flour and water to build connections to make the world a better place. Guerra began his career 32 years ago in Flagstaff where he was hired as a bread-baker. He opened his first bakery there in 1995, and another in Oregon two years later. He eventually returned to Tucson and became a teacher but also was experimenting with bread baking, starting Barrio Bread in his garage in 2009. He chose the name because Barrio is Spanish for neighborhood, and the name emphasizing his commitment to his community. His naturally leavened bread is made with a French method using wild yeast, producing breads that are delicious, easy to digest and have a perfect crust. With his naturally fermented breads he promotes biodiversity and drought tolerance, and enhances the nutrition and flavor profiles of the regional food supply. When Guerra founded Barrio Bread, he had a vision to revive native and heritage varieties of grains in order to build a sustainable grain economy in Southern Arizona. Today, his bakery is a model for the future. Guerra unites regional farmers and millers in bringing healthy whole grains, flours, and breads to consumers, expanding the meaning of Tucson’s gastronomy. 

Guerra has won numerous awards, including the 2022 James Beard Award for Outstanding Baker and a 2022 MOCA Local Genius Award. Other accolades include being named one of the Top Ten Bakers in America by Dessert Professional magazine, a Leveraging Your Localness award from Bite Magazine, and other kudos from Good Food Finder and Local First Arizona. He shares his knowledge through interactive workshops and in the classroom with schoolchildren, at Tucson Village Farm and the University of Arizona. He collaborates with brewers, restaurateurs, and retailers to bring new foods and drinks to life. He recently opened a Barrio Bread location in Gilbert in partnership with Hayden Flour Mills. 

In the tale of  Rumpelstiltskin, The Miller’s Daughter has to weave straw into gold because of her father’s overly enthusiastic claims. In a modern-day fairytale, Emma Zimmerman has taken her dad’s obsession for heritage grains and transformed it into an award-winning flour business. Her alchemy also finds expression in the home kitchen, where she turns these unusual flours and grains into accessible and tasty meals, much to the delight of her friends and family. Emma’s passion for historical restoration extends beyond grains; she and her husband restored a burned out one-hundred-year-old house in downtown Phoenix, where they now live with their three sweet children and an affectionate pit bull. Emma tends an amateur garden and is just waiting for someone to ask her about the status of her compost pile.  

About Hayden Flour Mills: 

At Hayden Flour Mills, we are reviving forgotten native grains from the ground up in the Arizona desert - yes, more than cacti can grow and flourish in the desert. Our mission is to take you from chemical-laden, over-processed wheat into a world alive with flavor, texture, aroma, and natural nutrients through heritage grains and the art of stone milling. 

Stone milling is an old-world process where the whole grain is crushed into flour by rotating stones. Unlike modern roller mills that tend to shave off and discard the flavor and replacing natural nutrients with chemical enrichments, our process of stone milling in small batches preserves the natural oils of the grain, creating a more flavorful, nutrient-dense product. While it’s hard, labor-intensive work, we believe it’s well worth it. 

We’re proud to offer our customers the highest quality, natural, hand-cultivated flours that are never bleached or enriched, and always freshly milled. 

We’re dedicated to reviving and stone milling heritage and ancient grains through regenerative and sustainable practices that are better for both people and the planet.