Bread was likely the first food ever produced by the hand of a human being, marking a turning point in the evolution of our society eons ago. Today, its state is far different.

As the saying goes, there’s “more than one bread in the bread aisle,” a reflection of how the food has become a mass-produced product designed for convenience. That convenience has its place, but it comes at a cost: Bread has lost much of its cultural meaning.

There was a time when bread was essentially only made from regional grains, with each variety carrying a unique fingerprint — flavor, texture and structure influenced by local climate and terrain. This bread spoke to place and people; it emphasized our connection to the land we call home.

Evrim Dogu — owner of Church Hill’s Sub Rosa Bakery alongside his sister, Evin — has a passion for reviving this ancient bread culture. While their beloved bakery’s building suffered a fire in November 2024 (the shop is slated to reopen this November), the siblings have continued to mill flour and sell their baked goods at the Birdhouse Farmers Market every Tuesday.

In between baking and organizing pop-ups, Dogu has also recently launched himself into an international effort, powered by a millionaire hospitality tycoon, to help breads and pastries made from regional and endemic (originating only in its native land and found nowhere else) grains thrive in the country of Georgia.

Baking independence

Georgia’s relationship with wheat is long — with archaeological evidence suggesting wheat has been cultivated in the region since prehistoric times — and holds a complex tie to the country’s independence. Georgia is home to more than a dozen ancient wheat species, including five that are endemic.

Despite this heritage, Georgia’s ability to support its own wheat production has been intensely compromised. During its time as a republic under the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, Georgia’s agriculture was shifted away from wheat and toward other crops, while Ukraine and Russia expanded their wheat infrastructures.

As a result, Georgia became increasingly dependent on Russia for grain and flour. That dependence has only grown with time, driven by factors like the fall of the Soviet Union, the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, high production costs, small farm sizes and limited resources. Today, more than 90% of Georgia’s wheat and flour imports come from Russia.

“Georgia’s agricultural development is pretty profoundly important in relation to not relying on imports,” Dogu says. “It’s a country of about 4 million people, they have very rich land and they’ve been an agricultural people for thousands of years. They have an inheritance of land knowledge, they just don’t have a lot of what they need to scale.”

Enter Temur Ugulava, a Georgian millionaire and head of the Adjara Group, a hospitality company that operates high-end hotels and restaurants across the country.

Recently, Ugulava turned his attention to regenerative farming, founding Udabno, a project aimed at supporting regional, sustainable and biodiverse agriculture. The name — meaning “desert” in Georgian — is a playfully ironic title for a farm that spans more than 20,000 hectares (about 50,000 acres) of land. Udabno claims to be “Europe’s largest regenerative initiative.”

“[Ugulava] got into the idea that the best thing you could do for Georgia is to go off of the land’s amazing ability to produce all of this delicious food,” Dogu says. “The country has an incredible cuisine and food culture that is really remarkable based on how small the country is.”

Udabno’s goal is not just to grow regional food, but to feed the bounty back into the economy — specifically through Ugulava’s eateries. To do this, he’s continuously brought in agricultural and culinary experts from around the world. For bread and pastry, he needed someone who not only knew fine baking, but also could help him to understand regional grains and what it takes to turn them into flours fit for dynamic use. Dogu was his man.

Dream scenario

The path to Dogu and Ugulava connecting started with John Wurdeman, owner of the Georgia-based winery Pheasant’s Tears. Georgia is considered one of the oldest winemaking regions in the world, and Wurdeman, an American who moved there in 1996, has become a globally known ambassador for the country’s wine.

He also happens to be the brother-in-law of Richmond’s own Manny Mendez, owner of Kuba Kuba. While visiting family, Wurdeman stopped into the then-newly opened Sub Rosa, where he connected with Dogu over a shared food philosophy.

“We both see bread and wine as things that basically make themselves with a guiding hand, and are natural extensions of the land — of wheat or grapes coming out of the Earth,” Dogu says.

A decade passed before Dogu reconnected with Wurdeman, this time in Georgia — Dogu was there as part of a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) arts and culture exchange program that included a culinary angle. Wurdeman mentioned that he was working on a wine project with Adjara Group, and soon Dogu was introduced to Ugulava to talk bread and pastry. For Dogu, it was a dream come true.

“Imagine you have this dream of going to an area of the world that is one of the primary birthplaces of wheat and wine,” he says. “And to have the opportunity to be able to research the grains of that area, which are ancient.”

“‘If only I could make bread from them! But I’m just a baker, I don’t have the means to do that.’ And then somehow through meeting a friend and getting connected to this man who has a huge vision to revolutionize his country’s food system through his hotels, you’re brought to that place and your dream happens.”

Once involved, Dogu began planting the infrastructural seeds needed to start a revival of Georgia’s relationship to regional grain. The overarching goal of his work: create a plan for Udabno to grow ancient grains with the help of knowledgeable farmers, train bakers to work with them, and create high-quality baked goods that celebrate local agriculture.

What bread can be

Dogu’s approach to bread and pastry, one defined by changing techniques to suit the unique characteristics of a particular grain, requires a baker to re-imagine nearly everything they know. After adapting to a new way of milling — Dogu set Udabno up with a new stone mill — you have to experiment with a product far removed from all-purpose: how to prepare and how to bake all changes.

Dogu says that even using imported grain wouldn’t eliminate the challenge. “The moment you decide to make your own flour, you’re essentially recreating an infrastructure that completely disappeared with the advent of mechanized industrial farming,” Dogu says.

Fortunately, Dogu has experience achieving this kind of change on a small scale with Sub Rosa.

“On the Sub Rosa website, we say that we’re collaborating to create a regional grain culture— and by that, I mean we’re trying to change the conversation so that we start to think about bread in a deeper way and not just as some standardized product,” says Dogu.

Building a regional grain culture takes time: It took 12 years for Sub Rosa to transition to using 100% regional flour, all milled in-house. That’s a long-term goal for Udabno, too. But in the short term, the plan is to open a flagship bakery serving breads and pastries made with at least 50%, if not 100% Georgian grain.

Back in Richmond, Dogu continues to consult on the project, helping to build relationships with farmers who can grow the grain needed to make the vision a reality.

And although it’s under Ugulava’s concept, it represents Dogu’s dream of what bread can be — realized on a much larger scale than he ever imagined. He hopes the finished product sets off a chain reaction in other parts of the world.

“How amazing would it be if we had a culture where we’re not only choosing wheat varieties that grow well — which makes them good for the Earth and easier to work with —but also choosing them for aroma and texture?” Dogu says.

These are things people did thousands of years ago, he says.

“And we have evidence of it because we can see how the grains used today — which we got from these ancestors — behave, and how we can grow them out.”

Dogu will head back to Georgia at the end of September/early October to continue to help open the first bakery based on the mill.