“On Saturday night, we rake the coals in the oven to spread them evenly across the oven floor, and then close the door,” says Jessica Larkin-Wells ’19 (CLAS) of her side hustle baking bread at a pizzeria after it closes. “Because it’s wood fired, and because it’s a very well insulated oven, it maintains its heat the next day, so we don’t have to add any energy; it’s already hot.”

A sociology graduate, Larkin-Wells honed her abilities as a breadmaker through UConn’s Sustainable Community Food Systems minor — a unique and intensive interdisciplinary program that combines theory and practice through service learning and hands-on experience with community partners. Larkin-Wells, interim manager of Spring Valley Student Farm, bakes her bread at a pizza shop in Guilford after it closes for the weekend, largely using freshly milled, organic, and heritage grain flours from a producer in Maine. On Sundays, a gathering of people in the know come to the shop to purchase the 40 or so just-baked loaves while the bread is fresh and soft and warm. “When I can make a really big loaf of bread for a group of people and know that it’s all going to get eaten that day, it’s all going to get eaten fresh — that’s my favorite kind of bread to make,” she says. Like farming, breadmaking has brought her skills that go far beyond forming loaves, she says — teaching her to be “infinitely attentive” to what she’s doing and the world around her.