Support
the SFA

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.

< Back to Oral History project: Southern Grains

ORAL HISTORY

Rob Segovia-Welsh

Chicken Bridge Bakery

After working in bakeries in Wisconsin and North Carolina for several years, Monica and Rob Segovia-Welsh built a wood-fired oven at their home in rural North Carolina in 2006 and began crafting hearth-baked bread incorporating as many locally milled grains and locally grown ingredients as possible.

Monica and Rob produce a variety of different breads, baking 350 to 400 loaves a week in their wood-fired oven. These days, their sons Simon and Milo work alongside stacking wood or folding dough. The family sells their dark-crusted bread, often hand-stenciled with politically-inspired messages, at the Carrboro Farmers’ Market.

Date of interview:
2018-06-06

Interviewer:
Kate Medley

Photographer:
Kate Medley

Download Transcript

“

"So when we first started, the whole idea of North Carolina grains was kind of laughed at because North Carolina’s known for not having very good hard wheats, so it’s just like really good for soft wheats and you can make really nice pastries and biscuits and pancakes, but the idea of making, like, a quality loaf of bread, I think was kind of just like accepted that, well, you’re not going to get that from North Carolina. And today I think that’s like—I mean, I think it’s turned on its head." - Rob Segovia-Welsh