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Summer 2026—February 2027
2026 SFA Film Residency, with multi-city in-person experiences and monthly virtual workshops ⟶
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Renew
Summer 2026—February 2027
2026 SFA Film Residency, with multi-city in-person experiences and monthly virtual workshops ⟶

Oral Histories

The SFA oral history program documents life stories from the American South. Collecting these stories, we honor the people whose labor defines the region. If you would like to contribute to SFA’s oral history collections, please send your ideas for oral history along with your CV or Resume and a portfolio of prior oral history work to info@southernfoodways.org.

ORAL HISTORY

Jim Betts

Bluegrass Baking Company

Born in Iowa, Jim Betts has lived in Lexington since the 1970s. Jim’s father taught at the University of Kentucky. His father’s work took his family traveled to Africa and Europe during Jim’s childhood. His experiences abroad opened his eyes to different cultures. Betts cultivated a love of baking and good bread at a food co-op while a student at Oberlin College. He moved to San Francisco and worked with high end bakers, including a stint at Jeremiah Tower’s restaurant, Stars. Eventually, he returned to Kentucky. After working in other bakeries, he and his wife, Francine, opened Bluegrass Baking Company in Lexington, KY in 1990.

While bread baking is his passion, Betts has also become committed to eliminating waste through composting. He finds it closes the circle of life in a satisfactory way. No waste, no guilt. Jim attributes most of his success to his wife, Francine, and her commitment to the bakery and their life partnership.

Date of interview:
2023-08-23

Interviewer:
Rosie Moosnick

Photographer:
Sarah Jane Webb

Download Transcript

“

“That co-op is what led me to my career as a baker, 'cause you would get jobs there. You could be a cook, you could be a dishwasher, or you could be the granola maker. You could be the yogurt maker. You could be the tofu maker. All these were like one-session jobs, and you had to have two a week. And I had been a dishwasher in Lexington before I went there, and I'm good at it. I don't mind it. I like doing a lot of dishes. I don't wanna do a few. So one of my jobs was being a dishwasher, and the other was being a bread baker, which I'd never heard of before, but that seemed kind of cool. It seemed like a neat thing to do. And we would bake bread, 10 to 12 loaves maybe at the end of the [shift]” - Jim Betts

Jim Betts is a baker. He and his wife, Francine, own Bluegrass Baking Company in Lexington, Kentucky.

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