As recently as 1900, bread was baked in Bellwald only twice a year. Given the large families of the time, each baking session required 240 to 250 rye loaves. Several families would fill the oven multiple times. During the First World War, baking took place quarterly; by around 1930, six times a year, and since 1940 even monthly. Rye bread, known for its long shelf life and high nutritional value, was ideal for feeding the hard-working mountain population. Originally, every hamlet in Bellwald had its own bakehouse. Due to the high risk of fire, these were usually located at the edge of the village and near an open water source. With the restoration of the Ried bakehouse in 2002, the Altes Bellwald Foundation saved the last remaining bakehouse from decay. It was built in 1780 and is divided into a baking room and a rear flour room with a dough trough and baker’s table. The other bakehouses in the hamlets of Bellwald have either burned down or, as in the village of Bellwald itself, been demolished.

In earlier times, the people of Bellwald were entirely self-sufficient. No flour was purchased from outside. Only flour made from locally grown rye was used—milled by water power at the various mills on the Bellwald mountain. In their countless small and larger fields, nearly every family planted not only rye but also wheat. This wheat was used to produce white flour through the process of “Pidje”—fine milling and removing the bran, which was then used as grisch (bran mash) for the livestock. Alongside various specialties, people also baked “Chruchtele” (Lenten cakes) from this wheat flour for the entire fasting period. It was rare that a family would bake a few loaves from wheat flour. Since the Second World War, flour from outside began to be purchased. It was mixed with local rye flour for baking. From 1960 onwards, grain cultivation sharply declined. The grain fields were converted into pastureland. Today, no grain is grown anywhere in the municipality.

The baking schedule used to follow a strict order, matching the rotation of the goatherd who moved from family to family in a set sequence. After the Weibel (village herald) announced the baking time on the village square on Sunday after Mass—on behalf of the mayor—the farmer whose turn it was had to preheat the oven on Monday evening of that week. This was mainly done using brushwood. Early Tuesday morning, he would place a second bundle of finely split wood into the baking oven and the stove, and bring the sourdough (Hebi) to the bakehouse.

But since 1954, the bakehouse oven in Bellwald has remained cold. Shortly after the Second World War, several families began buying their bread from the local co-op or store. The number of rye fields quickly decreased. Wheat was no longer grown at all. Most of the rye flour was used as livestock feed.

Since 1956, every family has been buying its bread from the co-op or store. Generally, people now eat wholemeal bread, which they initially referred to exclusively as white bread. Rye bread was then only bought occasionally—as a treat for the animals. Today, people correctly distinguish between wholemeal and white bread, and like a wave of nostalgia, rye bread is now once again enjoying renewed appreciation.