Bakery

Fans found it throughout Phoenix, including at Whole Foods, AJ's Fine Foods, the Boulders, Ritz-Carlton, Royal Palms, Luci's Healthy Marketplace in central Phoenix and at Simply Bread's first headquarters. But Simply Bread, based in Chandler, closed abruptly in February. What began with popularity and promise deteriorated into a flurry of lawsuits, a threatened foreclosure, anger, recriminations and a restraining order. …

Wheat crops in the U.S. Great Plains are showing signs that production may plunge more than the government forecast last week as hot weather and a lack of rain erode plant quality and force farmers to harvest early. …

Building on the success of the gluten-free products it already carries, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is expanding its range of gluten-free products and creating additional displays to highlight them in stores. Gluten-free items have always been among the most frequently requested products by customers and in January 2010, Fresh & Easy introduced more gluten-free items, created a labeling system for the products and added a list of all gluten-free products on its website: www.freshandeasy.com/glutenfree. …

Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products is rolling out a new video series that demonstrates its Cottage Bakery brand True Artisan bread’s performance superiority in side-by-side comparisons to non-artisan breads. …

The Bread Bakers Guild of America’s 2011 regional event series, Breadville USA: Exploring Local Baking in America, comes to the City by the Bay on June 18-19 with a sold-out class, “Introduction to Artisan Bread,” which will be taught by San Francisco Baking Institute faculty at SFBI’s facilities in South San Francisco, CA. …