Belinda and Rose-Anne

The bakery is situated next to Maison Julia in Val-David, about 10 minutes away from the community. During the night and the early morning it is the realm of Richard and his team of bakers who make all the breads, cookies etc. to sell to the public.

But after breakfast there is another group of people that is determined to take charge of the bakery. Co-workers and villagers arrive to take over.

Marie-Claire kneading dough

Once we get off the bus, the first thing we need to do is to go into the basement to change into proper baker’s clothes. When everybody is ready, some of the morning team start to prepare the bread dough. If somebody is really motivated he or she can knead the dough by hand. But since we need to prepare the bread dough for the whole community, this is time consuming and exhausting so we normally use the big mixer.

Once the dough is ready, it needs to be cut into smaller pieces; they later will become the individual loaves. Then the dough gets covered and is put in the big cupboard next to the even bigger, oven to rest and rise. While all this happens, the rest of the morning team are busy making muffins or biscuits.

Now the bread team can work on something else also. Sometimes, it can be pizza or quiche dough that also needs time to rise or to be coated. Before the morning workshop ends everything has to be cleaned.

Arjuna and a great loaf of bread

In the afternoon a different team of ambitious amateur bakers arrive. Their most important task is to finish the bread so that everybody in the community gets enough bread for supper. This requires taking the dough out of the cupboard and shaping the big lumps of dough into pretty loaves. Beside the bread, the afternoon team has to finish the pizza or quiche, if there is pizza or quiche dough. This includes having to shop for all kind of vegetables for the pizza or quiche toppings.

Also we make some scones or pita bread for supper, granola for breakfast and hummus or vege pate to spread on bread. In the end we need to keep an eye on the time, so we will be ready when the bus comes to bring all our delicious goods and us to the community.