Staff of life brings a second chance
Dave Dahl makes incredible tasting and incredibly healthy bread. But that’s not the most remarkable thing about Dave’s Killer Bread.
Dave and his brother, Glenn, began making bread as children: Their parents founded the local natural baking company NatureBake in 1955, and Glenn runs it today.
Dave, on the other hand, spent much of his adult life in and out of prison, on and off drugs.
“I have to say, looking back, I was mentally ill. I was depressed, very depressed. I didn’t seem to have a way out of it,” he says.
At a time when little was known of depression, and treatment even more scarce, Dave turned to alcohol and smoking marijuana, and when he stumbled into meth, he says he finally found relief from his depression, even if it came in temporary bursts.
“I thought of dope as my personal savior at that time,” he says.
Dahl says life hit rock bottom when he was sentenced to almost 10 years in prison after a burglary and assault charge.
The upswing came when Dahl made it into a rehab program and a vocational drafting school within prison.
“It was a really enlightening experience for me,” he says. “I realized I liked to learn.”
Dahl began to daydream about the bakery business. With a penchant for hearty, chewy and slightly sweet breads, he started to think about the “blueprints” behind the bread, the recipes themselves.
His ideas took shape, and he contacted Glenn while still in prison.
“I decided I wanted to go back to the old family business and do it my way,” he says.
Glenn sensed something was different this time, and decided to give his brother the chance he needed.
Last December, Dave was granted early parole after serving 88 months, and this time, instead of seeking out his old friends and vices, Dave walked back into the bakery.
Grandma set the example
Dave winds through the baking room floor of his Northeast Portland operation. A dozen or so employees intent on kneading, mixing and cleaning don’t look up from their work.
Dave peers into an oven, eyes a temperature gauge, resets a timer. At any one time he may have five batches of bread baking, rising, or mixed or kneaded into plump loaves, ready for the ovens.
His six varieties include Rockin’ Rye, earthy Nuts and Grains and the slightly sweet Blues bread. Much of the dough is hand-worked because the complex mixtures of whole and crushed grains and seeds aren’t easily handled by machines used to work less bulky bread.
Currently, Dave is working the kinks out of his recipe for a 21-grain bread, not yet available in stores.
“The healthier it is, the harder it is to make,” Dave says.
Dave bakes all his bread out of NatureBake in partnership with his brother, so Glenn is familiar with the challenges that Dave’s bread presents.
“It’s labor-intensive,” Glenn says. “It defies being put through equipment.”
But that’s the way Dave had to have it.
“We’re doing everything the way Grandma used to do it,” he says. “When it comes to bread, I know what I like.”
It hasn’t come easy. As Dave puts it, “I’ve been out of prison for 9 1/2 months, and I haven’t stopped busting my ass.”
‘I feel it in my heart’
Dave brought the first of many hard-won batches to the Portland Farmers Market Summer Loaf festival last August. It was an immediate hit.
“I knew they were breads people would like,” he says. “I knew there was a market for it.”
The bread is stocked fresh at New Seasons, Food Front, People’s Co-op, Whole Foods and Fred Meyer. It’s hard to miss: It features a big picture of Dave clutching a guitar on the label along with a short story of Dave’s life.
Dave credits music, exercise, clean living and family support in keeping him on track. Ego boosts from newfound fans of Dave’s Killer Bread don’t hurt either, he says.
Farmers markets remain his favorite place to sell. He likes to be there in person to soak up the praise.
“There are so many people that are excited about my bread,” he says.
While clearing the chemicals out of his own body, Dave decided not to put any in his bread, so he uses only organic and sustainably farmed ingredients whenever possible.
Despite his success, Dave’s not ready to declare total victory just yet. But this time, he senses something is very different.
“I feel it in my heart,” he says.
For the first time in his life, Dave is at peace, if not downright happy with his place in life.
He explains, “The thing I can say about this is, I feel good about what I’m doing.”
Dahl hopes his story will inspire those with family or loved ones in jail or on drugs that there is a way out.
“It’s kind of a miracle in a way,” he says, “that there’s still hope for my life.”
Glenn had watched painfully as his little brother struggled over the years with depression and drug addiction.
“He’s never been this positive before, this reflective,” Glenn says. “He’s not making any excuses.
“We’ve always been real close, ever since we were young. I always figured there was hope. I always told him it could work out. I always wanted him back.”
- David Plechl
