Field Trip: Semifreddi’s

We are part of a group called Homeschoolers Loving God, and there was a field trip to Semifreddi’s in Alameda. I had to get special permission for Melody to attend since the minimum age to go on the field trip is 6 years old, and her birthday wasn’t until that Saturday (the field trip was on Wednesday). She was very excited that they let her go. And thanks to my awesome in-laws for watching Emily so that we could go.

Note: Phone photos –> some blurry ones

We arrived early and had to wait for a few others before starting the tour.

Most of the group (kids, anyways)

Oh yeah, stylin’ with the hairnet.

Sooo many types of breads and pastries!!

Breads in the lobby area

Semifreddi’s opened in 1984 in a small space (smaller than my kitchen!) in Kensington, CA.

And now, they are located in Alameda. Look at this huge flour silo!!!

They punch some numbers into a digital keypad, and the amount that they need goes from that big flour silo, through a tube, into a GIANT sifter (which started up while we were standing next to it!), and into that funnel.

Water is added, along with yeast and salt, and it becomes this HUGE thing of dough! (If you’re cool, you can also rock the beard net like these dudes.) It was some outrageous amount of loafs that they can make from this amount of dough.

A huge mixer!

Assembly line, and look at all those baking sheets! (Yes, I’m going to add exclamation marks at the end of every sentence! It was that cool!)

300 gallons of oil and then some…

ANTM, here we come!

Owner Mike Rose gave the tour

Taking dough out of the baskets and scoring the tops

Before we were quizzed on what we can remember (so we can get our gift bags), we also walked through an oven!! It was slowly baking yummy breads at 90*F.

Another group shot

Each gift bag contained lots of yummy breads, biscottis, croutons, and a pastry. Super duper yummy stuff!

Focaccia

The bakery is right next to where my sister works, so we also went to visit her, thus the apple visitor sticker that Melody has on her hoodie. I’m not the biggest fan of apple turnovers, but that one was good! And the croissant was delicious too.

Their breads are sold within 50 miles of the plant, and I think there are 2 cafes in Berkeley.

It was a long tour, but very fun and informative. I think the first 45 minutes was just Mike telling us about the history of the Semifreddi’s and how bread is made. Sidenote: There are 3 men’s restrooms and 1 women’s restroom at the plant. That is all.

If you want your own tour of Semifreddi’s but aren’t in the area, you can check out the virtual online tour. It is the 3rd video on the page or you can click HERE.