Michigan bakery and cafe models commitment to local sourcing and fresh milling
Field & Fire is a Michigan bakery and café that mills local, organic grains and bakes in a wood-fired oven. Focused on local ingredients and natural leavening, their goal is to make flavorful, healthy food while fostering a good workplace. More than 50 employees make their three locations hum: a café, bakehouse and the flagship retail space, which opened alongside the Grand Rapids Downtown Market in 2013.
“We were solidly committed from day one to sourcing all organic flours, and have maintained that through the years,” says Shelby Kibler, who owns the businesses with his wife, Julie. Their dedication to quality ingredients and thoughtful baking practices led to food that quickly earned them a good reputation. By 2016 their pastry team started working out of a larger kitchen at their new cafe location; this gave the bread crew more space at the Downtown Market, and in 2025 they united their teams in a new expanded space at the cafe.
For the first several years, Ferris Organic Farm in Lansing, Michigan supplied their whole grain flours. Fresh milling was ‘baked,’ if you will, into Field & Fire’s plans, which were based on models Shelby saw as he learned the craft. In 2016 they purchased a mill, and continued using whole grains from Ferris Organic Farm. In 2021, they partnered with nearby farmer Josh Nobel of Melody Bee Farms, which is only 20 miles away. The pursuit has brought new curiosity and vigor to the bakery and mill.
“Josh and his team grow all the wheat, rye, and spelt we can use, and we are constantly looking to grow and nurture this relationship,” says Shelby. Field & Fire were already buying eggs and honey from Josh, so adding grain was a natural progression.
Their relationship stretches beyond the practical considerations of farming, storing, milling, and baking grains, firmly into friendship territory. Shelby considers Josh a good sounding board for general business issues, and Josh became anAGC member last year at Shelby’s suggestion.
The two have spoken together at field days and events, discussing their work and connections. This kind of openness is an invitation to further projects and bonds. At a recent food-grade grain field day hosted by Michigan Ag Advancement and Kellogg Biological Station, Josh met a wheat breeder from MSU and is excited to have his farm be part of future grain trials.
In the latest round of AGC microgrants, Field & Fire was awarded funding to purchase grain storage totes for Josh to use on-farm, helping to maintain grain quality on the farm before it reaches Field & Fire’s mill. One day, Shelby muses, the bakehouse might have its own silo to hold the harvested and cleaned grain. What a concept!
Field & Fire is a continuation of Shelby’s long exploration of baking. He began working at fellow AGC member Zingerman’s Bakehouse in 1997, and after a couple of years, was running the bread department. Fermentation really excited him, and in 2003, he moved to California, thinking of studying the process in-depth at UC Davis. Instead, Shelby ended up immersing himself further in the food business, working in pastry and becoming a chef.
On his journey, he encountered people that were riffing on the new traditions emerging in American baking, like fresh flour milling, natural leavening and wood-fired baking. When he met baker Dave Miller at a conference, the compass of his career was set. Miller is a well-known natural- leavening baker who grinds his own flour and bakes with wood heat. “His ethics and morals, and his passion really seeped into me,” says Shelby, and he arranged to visit him in California. His esteem for this holistic approach to baking grew, and he sought and found other models. He visited a similar baker in France, and found a French baker working in upstate New York at Michael London’s.
In 2007, Shelby returned to Zingerman’s Bakehouse and began teaching and running their Bake! Program. This is where he and Julie met, and forged a life. While Shelby considered becoming a partner at Zingerman’s Bakehouse, ultimately, the itch to open his own bakery won out.
“I've tried to assimilate all these lessons and create something that we could feel was pretty special. And that's what we did,” says Shelby. He and Julie love being part of the craft bread movement in America. Field & Fire embodies a deep relationship to ingredients and techniques, and invites people to enjoy and understand their all-in approach to bread.
A recent focus is financial sustainability. This is a common but often unspoken reality in food businesses, where margins are thin thanks to steep overhead costs. And with a focus on local ingredients, labor-intensive practices like flour milling, and time-demanding slow fermented breads, you’ve got a puzzle.
Just as he shaped a plan for food and baking from a range of inspirations, he’s collecting guidance on how to proceed – from Josh and from other bakery owners. Last year he participated in the Bakery Leadership Circle sponsored by another AGC member, the Bread Bakers’ Guild of America.
Membership in AGC is energizing, Shelby tells us. Efforts like baking trials of Midwest wheat varieties have offered a type of community exploration for him, and especially for Field & Fire bakers, that is hard to find elsewhere.
“The classes, events, and platform connect us with amazing people at other member organizations that constantly enhance our focus on grains, farming, and food in general,” says Shelby. “We’re so glad to be able to connect folks across the grain value chain like this to strengthen all involved!”
