Around 72 million loaves of bread are sold annually in the United States. The average American eats about 53 pounds of it a year. And here in northern Michigan, where a bevy of bakeries give rise to a high-carb heaven baked fresh daily, Atkins doesn’t stand a chance. In honor of all that is good this Friday, we take a bite of three of the best since slicing – and the secret ingredients to their success:

Stone House Bread
With a café in Leland and a production facility in TC, northern Michigan is Stone House Bread’s bread and butter. But the company also sells its product in more than100 stores across the state. Tonie Zahm-Spearing, along with three partners, bought the bakery in 2007, 12 years after it first opened.

So what makes Stone House Bread so unique? Zahm-Spearing says the answer is simple – each loaf uses only three natural ingredients: stone-ground organic wheat flour, well water and sea salt. That means “no sugar, no eggs, no milk, no preservatives, no additives,” she explains. Every loaf is also hand-formed and proofed, and the final dough-rise before baking happens in willow baskets lined with Belgian linen. The dough might love its luxurious linen lounge time, but Zahm-Spearing suspects what keeps so many local customers happy is Stone House’s sheer convenience; beyond its own store shelves, Stonehouse stocks fresh loaves at area grocery stores galore – Meijer, Tom’s and Glen’s included.

Pleasanton Brick Oven Bakery
There are only about three dozen wood-fired brick-oven bakeries in the country, and one of them is right here in TC. Gerard Grabowski and Jan Shireman opened Pleasanton Brick Oven Bakery in 1993 in Pleasanton Township in Manistee County. Fourteen years later, they relocated their business to the Village at Grand Traverse Commons.

The brick oven, which the couple built themselves, has had a wood fire blazing inside since the bakery’s TC opening in June 2007, and it hasn’t once gotten cooler than 420 degrees. Grabowski says their hand-built ever-hot oven is the secret to achieving the chewy Pleasanton crust he calls “second to none.”

Bonus: Pleasanton packs its loaves with as many local ingredients as possible. “It’s fresher, more nutritious and doesn’t need to travel so far, thereby creating an unnecessary carbon footprint,” says Grabowski.

Bay Bread Company
A few years ago Stacey Wilcox and her husband were moving back home to northern Michigan. They had one major goal: “We wanted to buy a family business where we could be closed on Sundays and on holidays,” says Wilcox. They decided Bay Bread Co. in TC was the perfect match and bought it in 2004. All of their ingredients are natural and everything is homemade – right down to the glazes for their assorted scones.

Wilcox calls Bay Bread Co. as “the everyday bakery with high-end products at a low cost.” Along with selling more than 40 types of loaves, she says the bakery’s special niche is its relationship with downtown restaurants. Amical, Poppycock’s and The Dish Café all receive their bread from Bay Bread Co. Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools also get their daily bread from the bakery. “We love that through our bakery, restaurants and schools, our bread is reaching the whole community,” says Wilcox.