Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 17, 1990 TAG: 9006190350
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: ALUM RIDGE LENGTH: Long
But this spot in Floyd County is no more diverse than its co-owners: baker/recipe-finder/jewelry-maker Connie Colloca and her husband, writer/printer/DJ/general-mover-of-things Jon Ratner.
"Eclecticism is something I favor and I push it anywhere I can," Ratner, 41, said recently as he leaned against a modern cash register at the front of the old-fashioned store. "It keeps things from getting boring."
The couple also keeps the nights from getting boring in this one-stoplight county.
An occasional Friday night will find Ratner and Colloca clearing the bakery floor of boxes, tables, crafts and an old ice-cream freezer and replacing them with musicians, poets, story tellers, a few candles and a kettle of soup.
Music on these evenings varies from the jazz of a duet known to locals as "Doug and Eddie" to bluegrass and Appalachian folk songs.
But Jan Oosting, a musician from Willis, said no matter how new or old the music may be, the impromptu concerts are held in true folk tradition.
"It's a community of people getting together on occasion to provide entertainment for themselves," said Oosting, a retired chanteyman - a sailor who sings in rhythm with his work - who plays about 40 instruments. "That's what the tradition is all about."
Some of the musicians are quasi-professional. Others can make little more than a joyful noise, Oosting said. "But you put up with it because they're doing something to entertain themselves instead of sitting around in front of a television set. They're just doing it for themselves."
That is pretty much the philosophy behind Morning Star, too.
"We're trying to put together the things we like," Colloca said, standing on a milk crate to get a better grip on a mound of bread dough.
The couple tried once before to put the things they enjoyed under one roof when they opened The Read and Feed, a combination vegetarian restaurant, print shop and used-book store. The business lasted just four months.
"Its time just hadn't come," Colloca said. But the bakery is filling a niche.
"A good friend of mine had a bakehouse, but she got tired of it," Colloca said. "Ever since it closed, people have been wanting a bakery back here again."
Then, too, the bakery doesn't ruffle any political feathers in a county where many residents want to keep things the way they are - pristine and neighborly.
"Any of these small, personally operated things - they're needed here," Oosting said.
They're especially needed when they make something good - like Colloca's bread. "It's super duper," said Oosting, an admitted fussbudget.
The Pine Tavern, a restaurant in Floyd, serves Colloca's bread with every meal; maple swirl for breakfast and french bread for dinner.
"We've been using them ever since they opened," said Michael Gucciardo, chef and part owner of the Tavern. "We have it delivered three times a week."
Business at Morning Star has built up slowly.
A sign at the cash register reads: "Don't ask for credit; we can't afford it!" And the new slogan for the baked goods is: "Buy the bread, we knead the dough."
"It's been kind of a long year struggling," Colloca said. "Any business will do that in the beginning stages - and we're still in the beginning stages."
Bread is the main feature of the year-old bakery, but Colloca tries to make something sweet each day while Ratner stocks the shelves with woodwork and jewelry by local artists, vitamins, raspberry soda, granola and a few food and hardware items found in more typical country stores.
"I tried baking for a while and my bread was . . . edible," Ratner said. "Connie does it all now."
Most of the recipes are Colloca's own, or at least carry her special stamp on them. That stamp often means whole wheat flour instead of bleached, or honey instead of sugar. "I'm trying to promote health," she said.
Not one of the store's food items contains artificial coloring or preservatives. And the bread is made the old-fashioned way.
"Some of these places are so automated now, the bakers don't even touch the bread," Colloca said. "I stick to traditional bread-baking ways as much as I can. I'll always make it by hand."
And she does - 100 to 140 loaves a day.
Part of the old-fashioned tradition comes from necessity: much of the equipment here is . . . used.
The mixer, for example, was built in 1937 for use by the U.S. Army. Colloca said she's not sure how old the ovens are, "but when people look at them they say `That equipment is old. Real old.' "
Still, it works.
Colloca and Ratner are used to cooking most of their own food - they have been vegetarians for years. "Usually wherever we live we have to create a business to feed ourselves," Ratner said.
But other people are asking to be fed, too.
Colloca said she's had requests to send her breads to Canada and various states across the country.
"Maybe we'll get into the shipping business someday," she said.
She also hopes to get into the ice-cream dipping business, to bake more sweets and vegetarian lunches and to find the time to make her own jewelry to display with the other crafts.
"Little by little we're trying to add a few things," Colloca said. "We have a lot of big ideas and a lot of small ideas. Hopefully, we'll be able to manifest a few of them."
Ratner adds, "You've got to have diversity. Life is so diverse in itself."
by CNB