Photograph of Udi’s Whole Grain Gluten-free Bread courtesy of udisfood.com.

From narrow provinces

of fish and bread and tea . . .

The Moose by Elizabeth Bishop in The Complete Poems, 1927 – 1979

My lovely, young, wheat-and-gluten free neighbor, Jasmine, gleefully ran up to me the other day to give me samples of a new wheat-dairy-and-soy free bread she’d just discovered at a grocery at Half Moon Bay, California.  Her lively, healthy little girl has been gluten-free from conception on . . . “For the first time,” Jasmine said, “I can give my child a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  This bread has a normal texture. You don’t have to toast it.  Try it.”

Try it I did, and for once I’m pleased with a store-bought gluten-free bread. However, I can’t travel to Half Moon Bay every time I want to buy a loaf of bread.  I checked Udi’s out on-line and found that Udi’s Handcrafted Foods is in Denver, Colorado. Their gluten-free products are produced in a dedicated facility. Udi’s has a whole line of bakery items and will ship.  The bread is five dollars, which is competitive for a gluten-free loaf.  The shipping costs, however, make it prohibitive. Udi’s site doesn’t list the stores that carry their product and the only email address was for catering.  None-the-less, I emailed and asked for local store locations.  Their marketing director got back to me right away, bless her.

She told me that all four of the Draeger’s Markets located on the San Francisco Peninsula carry Udi’s bread and that the San Francisco Whole Foods carries it as well. So, yesterday I went to Draeger’s and they were all out.  (It’s in the freezer section, by the way.)  It sounds like the San Mateo store gets it’s deliveries on Wednesday afternoon . . . so you know where I’ll be later!  And, I am working on Whole Foods, which is right across the street from us.

So, greedy little creature that I am:

Dear Udi’s:

I can’t tell you how pleased and grateful I am to have found your product.  Kudos for such a fine job.  I hope you don’t mind if I send you my wish list:  gluten-free stuffing mix, gluten-free Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs, gluten-free panko, and gluten-free “pita” bread.  On that last note, since I am of Lebanese and Turkish extraction, I tried your bread with “yogurt cheese,” which we call lebaneh, and a sprinkle of zatar.  Wonderful!

Keep up the good work and please do continue to work on wider distribution.

Sincerely,

Jamie Dedes

I couldn’t sum this post up better than Jasmine summed up her article My Journey to Gluten-free Living published in Joann Vallo‘s The California Woman.

When I first realized I couldn’t eat gluten I thought I’d never get a pizza, beer or sourdough again.  I’ve been happily surprised to find that couldn’t be farther from the truth and I’m happily enjoying all of the new, neat gluten free treats on the market.”

Thanks, Jasmine, for introducing me to Udi’s Gluten-free Whole Grain Bread.