Here at Dinkel's we are constantly figuring out ways to be better. In this world we all, always, have a direct relationship with the environment. Our primary relationship is using energy (electric, gas, etc.) and using food resources (ingredients). We've been around for a while (87 years now!) and we think that paying attention to this relationship will ensure that we can continue to stick around.
The Ingredients
We constantly look for the best which often translates into the most local ingredients. We try to source all our ingredients to within three states. Why local? Local mean fresher and less energy to get to us.
- All of our wheat comes from the Dakotas and Wisconsin. The wheat we buy is unbromated and unbleached. We are buying some organic flours now.
- Our eggs and dairy come mostly from southern Wisconsin.
- We are now using organic carrots and bananas in our cakes.
- We also use organic wheat bran and organic flour in some items (and are aggresively looking for other organic ingredients).
- Our Honey comes from a small family owned farm in Southern Wisconsin: Gentle Breeze Honey.
- Some ingredients we just can't find better than our German roots-like the Lubeca Milk Chocolate we use. However we try to buy a bigger order at once to reduce shipping energy costs.
- We are developing products that include organic ingredients like our Low Fat Raisin or Apricot muffins.
Beverages Offered in the Store
- Coffee and Tea Exchange
- Organic Valley single serve milk
Energy Use
Our bakery was built when people did not think of energy use! With that in mind we have made big steps to reduce our energy footprint:
- We refitted a new burner on our oldest (from 1945) oven 5 years ago reducing our natural gas usage by over 40 percent!
- We have also improved on our baking schedule in order to have the ovens on as short amount of time as possible.
- We installed sensors on all our lights in our basement so that they are only on when we're down there (instead of them being on all day, like they used to be!).
- In 2008 we switched almost all (more than 90 percent) of our incandescent light bulbs to energy efficient compact fluorescent (we have already noticed a change in our electric bill!). By 2009 we switched over all lightbulbs.
- We switched to napkins that are from 100 percent recycled source-printed with non-toxic inks.
- In 2002 we switched one of our two dumpsters to be for recycling. We recycle all our carboard, buckets, bottles and cans.
- The packaging we use for sending our mail order is made from 80 percent recycling (both the boxes and the packing paper).
