Staff at Upper Crust Baking Co. in Davis thought they were having quite a busy day Saturday morning meeting consumer demands for fresh baked goods for both in-store and the weekend Davis Farmers Market, but the real commotion came bursting through the doors moments later!
One staff member reports having heard a strange chorus or refrain from somewhere outside the building that grew louder and louder as if a large group was rehearsing a strange script. "I just never would have guessed the real source of the paranormal ruckus." they exclaimed.
"Zombies! That's right, and with a strange appetite for GRAINS! they must have followed their noses to our bakery. Honestly, I'm just relieved they grabbed the sunberry whole-grain loaf of bread out of my hands and didn't want to eat me!"
Local newspapers and other media groups report that Zombie sightings are at an all-time-high this year. How to deal with the zombies is a topic of hot debate. Some say they are worse than the turkeys that roam throughout the town; however, proponents of the undead hordes say that it's good for the City. One local resident said "They are clearly here for the annual Zombie Bike Ride, which is an event that brings the community together each Halloween season, and unlike the turkeys, they hardly make a mess, and after Halloween, they vanish without a trace.
ZOMBIE BIKE RIDE: We are going to have a blast this Halloween on Sunday, October 31, from 12-3pm with a bike ride along the Davis Bike Loop... where riders will encounter ZOMBIES! Then from 3–3:15pm, we will have a grand finale complete with Skydance Skydiving's zombies skydivers coming down in Community Park, made possible by support from Lawson Youmans of Hallmark Properties and Mathias Klein of Klein Hardwood Flooring! The skydiving finale will be followed by our Zombie Mash afterparty from 3:30-5:30pm, put on by the Davis Downtown Business Association. Visit www.zombiebikeparade.com for details. 💚💚💚
The Zombie Bike Ride Committee members extend their thanks to bakery owner, Lorin Kalisky, and his family for feeding the hungry horde that came through their front doors and for sponsoring the 3rd annual Zombie Bike Ride.
For nearly 35 years Upper Crust has been producing unique breads, pastries, and vienoisserie in the small-batch, slow food tradition.
Their bakehouse is located in central Davis, next to the Davis Food Co-op. You can also find them at dozens of Northern California farmers markets from the Bay Area to Lake Tahoe.
They make artisan breads, from whole grain sandwich loaves to authentic baguettes and sourdoughs, croissants and viennoiserie in the true Parisian tradition and bagels as good as you find in the Lower East Side.
Their second-generation family-owned bakery grew from a passion for quality, authenticity, and a scientific approach to baking. They gravitate toward both French and Jewish baking traditions.
Trudy and Mo Kalisky, Lorin's parents, are native New Yorkers who came to Davis, California as graduate students in 1970. It didn't take long for the couple to realize that there wasn't a decent loaf of bread to be had in the (then-) rural Central Valley town.
Mo began baking French-style baguettes at home, bringing his academically scientific experienceto bear upon the age-old traditions of bread-baking.
By 1986, the entrepreneurialcouple rented a small baking facility and started providing artisan breads to Davis and Sacramento area restaurants and specialty food shops, and they were among the first non-farm vendors at several regional farmers markets.
In 2016—after having lived in Paris for more than 14 years—Lorin, returned to Davis with his wife, Edith, and their two daughters, and took over the day-to-day operations of the bakery.
Lorin, who trained with top bakers in the US and France, brought new energy and focus to the bakery as well as a renewed focus on sourcing ingredients from Yolo County and Northern California’s family farms and agricultural producers.
Today, Upper Crust Baking serves dozens of farmers markets in the Greater Sacramento region, in the Bay Area, and as far as Lake Tahoe. And after decades of baking out of a private commissary, they spent all of 2018 converting Davis’s former Radio Shack into a bakery-café-boutique, and opened their flagship bakehouse to the public in early 2019.
Upper Crust Baking remains one of Northern California’s premier artisan bakeries, as well as one of its oldest. They make a wide variety of unique breads, as well as a few outstanding sweet things.
Upper Crust bakes with local ingredients and supports local agriculture in Yolo County and Northern California.
Many of the flours they use are milled in the Bay Area using California-grown grain. They use Mariani nuts from Winters, raisins and honey from friends they made at farmers markets, and their chocolate is from Ghirardelli. Their sourdough levain is from a pure strain of Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis sourced from the UC Davis Food Science and Technology department. Upper Crust Baking is an enthusiastic supporter of the California Grain Campaign and has received a “Snail of Approval” from Slow Food Yolo.
Their birdseed loaf won a national award for best raisin bread. And if you like cheesecake, their recipe is straight from the Claremont Diner in Montclair, New Jersey — the same cheesecake on the menu today at New York's famous Carnegie Deli.
You can find their products (and sometimes Lorin, Edith, Trudy, and Mo, their children, or their grandchildren) at farmers markets throughout Northern California.