NS Organic Farmers

Oakhaven Organic Bakery



“A wood-burning oven of this size is completely suited to human bread baking,” says Doug Brown as he pulls loaves of bread from the oven of Oak Haven Organic Farm’s bakery. The one-room bakery is a recent addition to 130 year-old farmhouse where Doug lives with his wife, Joy Elliott, and their four children.

Doug mixes and kneads all of the bread by hand. And these aren’t fluffy white loaves. Instead, they are naturally-leavened hearty breads made with spelt and kamut flour. Doug also makes pita breads, granola, and sweets, and all of the baked goods are certified organic by Maritime Certified Organic Growers.

Doug likes the pace of the wood-burning oven, even though baking days are long and strenuous. He gets up 5:30 a.m. and starts the fire in the four-foot deep oven. The wood comes from a neighbour who makes runners for lobster traps. Doug buys the hardwood slabwood in four-foot lengths.

While it burns, he has time to make the dough for the bread and pitas. When the fire has burned down somewhat, he pushes the coals to the back and bakes pitas at the front. While this is happening, the bread is rising. After the pitas are taken out, he rakes the coals over the bottom of the oven, closes the door and lets the oven absorb the heat. Later, he cleans out the coals and puts in the loaves of bread. This happens around 1:30 p.m. From 6:00 a.m. until the bread goes in, Doug works constantly, not even stopping for lunch until about 10 pm in the evening finally retiring while the breads cool on the racks.  Next morning, he’s up before dawn to slice, bag and package the breads for delivery.

All of the ingredients are certified organic and almost all of them come from Speerville Flour Milling Cooperative in New Brunswick. Some of the ingredients, such as the oatmeal and spelt flour are from grain grown by members of the Speerville cooperative and other ingredients, such as the sunflower seeds, are retailed by Speerville. Doug wishes that there were enough organic growers in the Maritimes to supply Speerville with even more products.

For Maritime consumers who want to buy local baked goods, Oak Haven bread is the perfect choice. Not only is made by a Nova Scotian, but the grain is milled in New Brunswick, the maple syrup for the granola is from Maritime trees, and the fuel used to bake the bread isn’t electricity or propane, but is local wood. Even the courier used to deliver the bread is a local courier, not a national company with headquarters in central Canada.

Buying local may be a vague concept, but it hits home when you see a farm family like Doug and Joy’s managing to live on a beautiful organic farm thanks to the support of their customers. The bread label for Oak Haven’s bread states “Bread that’s good for the body, soul and planet.” I couldn’t agree more.

Oakhaven Bakery - SELL SHEET

Product
Product Description - Yeast free Naturally Leavened Breads and pitas all baked in a traditional Acadian-style wood fired oven with all organic ingredients and pure North Mountain Water.
Spelt Pita  
Spelt Loaf Yeast Free.  Contains certified organic whole spelt flour, water, certified organic sea salt and organic sunflower oil.
Spelt Sesame Loaf Yeast Free.  Contains certified organic whole spelt flour, water, organic sesame seeds, certified organic sea salt and organic sunflower oil.
Spelt Raisin Loaf Yeast Free.  Contains certified organic whole spelt flour, water, organic raisins, certified organic sea salt and organic sunflower oil.
Spelt Corn Loaf  
Kamut Pita  
Kamut Loaf Yeast Free.  Contains certified organic whole kamut flour, water, certified organic seas salt and organic sunflower oil
Kamut Sesame Loaf Yeast Free.  Contains certified organic whole kamut flour, water, organic sesame seeds, certified organic sea salt and organic sunflower oil
Kamut Raisin Loaf Yeast Free.  Contains certified organic whole kamut flour, water, organic raisins certified organic sea salt and organic sunflower oil
Kamut Corn Loaf Yeast Free.  Contains certified organic whole kamut flour, water, certified organic sea salt and organic sunflower oil
Granola Bulk  
Granola 500g  
Granola 1Kg  
Organic Maple Flax Granola Contains all certified organic ingredients:  oatmeal, maple syrup, sunflower oil, sunflower seeds, raisins, flax seeds & sea salt all roasted in a wood-fired oven
Organic Granola Contains *Oats, *Sunflower Seeds, *Sunflower Oil, Honey, *Raisins, *Sesame Seeds & Sea Salt.   *Certified Organic Ingredients