“Where there is love, nothing is too much trouble and there is always time.”
–'Abdu'l-Bahá
A Baking Community
We, Andrea and Jim Cribb, embarked on building our outdoor wood-fired oven with one purpose in mind: to share fresh-baked breads, pastries, and pizzas with family, friends, and neighbours near and far. We offer these in an effort to build community; we neither charge for what we bake nor expect anything in return. It is our pleasure! Our hope is simply that in sharing food—perhaps the oldest custom known to humankind—we will connect souls, warm hearts, and fill tummies.
A Brief History
I started baking bread thanks to Andrea's father, Desmond, who taught me how to make my first loaf. Then Andrea and I moved to a small village in the French West Indies where my French Canadian roots for fine bread truly kicked in—the village baker would hand me each morning a hot baguette right from his wood-fired oven, held in a paper sling torn from a bag of flour so I wouldn't burn my hands. That was in the early 1980s and the wonderful taste still lingers. Simply delicious.
The baker in Deshaies, Guadeloupe, who ignited my passion for simple, wood-fired oven baking. Sadly, I cannot remember his name.
Since then our travels have taken us to numerous communities at home in Canada and in countries abroad and wherever I go I scout out local bread. One of my favourites was in a village in Mozambique where bread was just coming out from beneath the ashes of a ground fire: dark, warm, crusty.
Building the Oven
In 2020 Andrea and I settled on some rural property in Nanoose Bay on central Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and set about building a wood-fired oven covered by a pavilion. It took nine months off and on to construct, with help from our daughter Jessica and our grandsons Tristan and Marcus. For the finishing stone work we hired Price Masonry: we are most thankful to Dean, Stew, and Adam for their fine craftsmanship.
Baking Food to Share
For decades we've been baking French sourdough bread—whole wheat, multigrain, country (unbleached white and whole wheat blend)—along with baguettes and pain rustique. Our sourdough breads are made with flour, salt, water, and local natural yeast cultivated in our starter. Dried yeast is used in our baguette and pain rustique formulas. We use only organic ingredients and we mill our own whole wheat flour.
With the construction complete, we have moved our baking from an electric range indoors to the wood-fired oven outdoors, and carry on the traditions of our ancestors.
Some baked goods just out of our wood-fired oven.
Connecting with the Community
We host weekly bakes of breads and pastries on Saturdays with the wood-fired oven at temperature by late morning. Come to watch, learn about this age-old process, or, if you’re a baker, arrange with us to bring your creations to pop into the oven. Either way, we can all enjoy being together and share a simple meal with food warm and fresh from the oven.
Image created by Jeff showcasing bread from various bakers just out of the oven. Thanks, Jeff.
Youth Learning to Bake
Traditions form bonds across generations and the baking of bread is one of the oldest humans have enjoyed. To encourage youth to preserve this tradition we host informal bread making sessions for youth of any age. We look forward to hearing from you if you're interested in participating.
Challah braided by our seven year old neighbour.
Strawberry tart painted with egg wash by our six year old neighbour.
Youth gaining hands-on experience preparing traditional sourdough bread to go into the wood-fired oven.
If you have questions or would like to learn more about our community baking project, please contact us at: connect@communitybaking.ca.
We Try Our Best
But clearly, as indicated by our daughter's note, we don't always succeed. True, this treasure was scribed by Jessica many years ago during the early days of baking in our kitchen, but its sentiment hasn't changed: we all have our own tastes.
Travelling and living on different continents has allowed Andrea and me to share in exquisite food, mostly served in homes and small rural outdoor settings. The majority was delicious, some not, but all was memorable for the connections we made with others. Such is the aim of our community bakes.