Boulangerie La Vendeenne
If you visit one of Nova Scotia’s many outdoor farmer’s markets this season and happen to arrive early enough, you may come across a long line of people. I encourage you - get in line! Chances are that you will be waiting for bread and pastries from the French bakery, Boulangerie La Vendeenne. I can promise you, it’s well worth the wait.
Jean Marc Riant, owner and baker at Boulangerie La Vendeenne, has been baking bread for Nova Scotia since moving here from Montreal in 1997. He initially opened a small bakery in Yarmouth, but found the distance to Halifax, where much of his bread is marketed, too long a drive. Jean Marc and his family now live in Martin River, on the South Shore, where he produces his beautiful French bread and pastries in the bakery he built next to his home.
Originally from the La Vendeenne region on the Atlantic coast of France, Jean Marc has been baking French-style bread for many years now. He started apprenticing to be a baker when he was 15, and has been perfecting his craft ever since. For Jean Marc, being a baker is definitely not routine. “Baking bread is not the same everyday,” he asserts. “We work with a living thing - the yeast and the fermentation”. And despite the apparent simplicity of ingredients - flour, water, salt and yeast - baking good bread requires the same attention to detail as any other artisan’s craft. Understanding the nature of the different grains and flours, mixing the flavours, and working with yeast are all a part of the challenge to create consistently high quality bread and pastries. Jean Marc insists about baking bread, “I still learn”. When he is traveling in Quebec, he often asks to be taken on for a night of working in another French bakery as an opportunity to share skills and knowledge.
The bread from Boulangerie La Vendeenne is certified organic through the Maritime Organic Growers Association. For Jean Marc, deciding to use organic ingredients for his bread made sense. “I grew up eating really good food,” he said. His mother, an inspiring cook herself, always ensured that her family’s food was of the highest quality - grown naturally and locally. Jean Marc gets his grains and flour from Speerville Flour Mills of New Brunswick, as well as from an OCIA certified mill in Saskatoon. Having organic certification assures his customers that both quality of ingredients and certified organic processing standards are adhered to.
Jean Marc’s bread has definitely been well received in Nova Scotia. At the height of his baking season, when the outdoor farmers’ markets are in full swing, Boulangerie La Vendeenne is producing 2000 loaves a night, three nights a week. At that point, the bakery can be using up to sixty, 25 kg bags of flour a week. During the winter, the bakery has a crew of four, increasing to a crew of seven from May until mid-autumn.
Even though you’ll now find long lines of people eagerly waiting for bread from Boulangerie la Vendeenne, it took a few years to build up business. Jean Marc recalls how he spent the first two years “talking up” his bread. He would tell people, “If you want to taste something different”. And the bread is different. French style bread requires a process of slow fermentation. Unlike most conventional bakeries, Jean Marc does not use a proofing oven to promote leavening. Going slowly reduces oxidation in the fermentation, or rising, of the bread. While fast rising gives you a higher loaf of bread, Jean Marc insists that oxidation “kills the taste”.
The modern stone oven used at Boulangerie La Vendeenne is from Quebec, and the bread is baked directly on a large stone. French bread typically has a well-defined crust, a chewy texture, and is a pleasure to eat. Along with a wide variety of fresh yeast breads such - baguettes, multi-grain, and a sweet apricot and almond bread (my favourite!), the bakery produces a sour dough bread which Jean Marc says is his most popular. Just to keep everyone in that long-line at the farmer’s market in pleasant anticipation, Jean Marc makes a new bread to try every month.
Jean Marc is very positive about the future of organic French-style bread in Nova Scotia. With plans in the works for expanding his bakery, Jean Marc is hopeful that as more people become interested in food that is not mass produced or denatured with preservatives, bakeries like his and other local food artisans and farms will thrive. After speaking with Jean Marc you can appreciate his optimism, and view that good bread is a metaphor of a vibrant community - “you have the farmer, the miller, the baker, these are all for the community” he says.
Bread and pastries from Boulangerie La Vendeenne can be found year round at The Halifax Brewery Market, Planet Organic Market, Pete’s Frootique, and the Italian Gourmet. Jean Marc also markets his baked goods to several restaurants. From mid-spring until the end of autumn, Boulangerie La Vendeenne can be found at farmers’ markets in Lunenburg, Mahone Bay, Annapolis Royal, Hubbards, and Wolfville.
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