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Enjoy fresh-baked bread and watch the 18th-century baking process with Resident Baker Justin Cherry of Half Crown Bakehouse.

Dates

Methods of Payment

Cash, Credit Cards, and Venmo accepted

Located At

12-Acre Field

Menu

Loaf of Bread $15
Loaf of Bread & Cheese$25
Virginia Provision Pack$50
Salt Pork Butter$5

Quantities are limited.

A Loaf of Bread

This bread is made from two historic 18th-century wheat varieties: Rouge de Bordeaux wheat, milled at the Lee family's home at Stratford Hall, and Purple Straw wheat, milled at George Washington's Gristmill. The Lee and Washington families have been connected for more than 250 years, making this bread a tribute to their shared history.

A Loaf of Bread and Cheese

Included is a loaf of wheat bread and a proper portion of cloth-bound New England cheese.

A Virginia Provision Pack

Included in the pack, you will receive:

  • A loaf of bread
  • A portion of cloth-bound New  cheese
  • A portion of smoked ham
  • Salt pork butter

Meet Our Resident Baker, Justin Cherry

Culinarian historian Justin Cherry is Mount Vernon's Resident Baker and is the chef and owner of the Half Crown Bakehouse, which specializes in colonial foodways.

Cherry was a 2019 Fellow at the Washington Library. His research focused on the 18th-century foodways culture at Mount Vernon. 

Learn About Heritage Grain, Ground by Water Power

Cherry uses grains ground in Mount Vernon's gristmill whenever possible.

The first white Lammas wheat ground at the Gristmill since Washington’s day was baked in Cherry’s mobile 18th-century clay oven and sold at Revolutionary War Weekend in May 2019.

Cherry continues to facilitate collaboration between heirloom grain specialists and Mount Vernon’s Historic Trades Team.

See an 18th-Century Clay Oven

In March 2020, Cherry and the Historic Trades Team installed a bake oven in Washington’s Farm. Bake ovens, also known as beehive, masonry, brick, pizza, or bread ovens, were a staple in early America.

These thick clay domes were built into kitchens next to the hearth, like the original oven in the Mansion’s Kitchen, or built outdoors. The design of Mount Vernon’s reproduction oven resembles those used throughout the Chesapeake region.

Evidence of ovens like this has not been found at Mount Vernon, but similar ovens may have existed around the estate.

George Washington's Gristmill

George Washington constructed a gristmill at his Dogue Run Farm in 1770-1771. In 1791, Washington upgraded his operation, installing a new automated method—the Evans system—that replaced manual labor with mechanical means through all the steps in the milling process.

Learn More

Tour the Gristmill

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Tour the fully-functioning reconstructions of George Washington's Distillery® and Gristmill, located 2.7 miles from the estate’s main entrance.

Tours are offered seasonally on Saturdays & Sundays, April – October.

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Shop Gristmill Products

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Enjoy stone-ground grits, pancake flour, and yellow cornmeal that have been produced by water power at George Washington’s Gristmill at Mount Vernon. 

Shop online or in-person at the Shops at Mount Vernon.

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