There were enough baguettes to fill a bread shop! Forty Slow Food members and guests slapped, stretched and shaped their own authentic French baguettes under the watchful eye of Jean Marc Riant, the artisan baker of Boulangerie La Vendeenne. Over the course of four hours, Jean Marc led the group through a step by step process that yielded over 100 baguettes and a wealth of information about bread making in its most classic form. The baguettes turned out marvelously and everyone got into the spirit of the day with real amateur zeal.
Jean Marc also prepared numerous loaves of sourdough bread baked with Red Fife Wheat, a heritage variety that is on Slow Food’s Canadian Ark of Taste. Jennifer Scott, the co-ordinator of the Maritime Heritage Wheat Project, showed samples of the wheat and spoke of the history and characteristics of Red Fife. A tasting was greeted with many compliments about the quality of the bread. Everyone took home a loaf of Red Fife, the first recipients of what is hoped will be a revival of this heritage bread throughout the region.
As the day unfolded, Jean Marc presented an array of 20 mostly raw milk cheeses from France. These were of the highest quality and represented many cheese making styles and geographic regions. They were eagerly consumed along with the bread.
Many thanks to Jean Marc and Jeannine Riant for such grand hospitality and for taking the time to bring consumers so close to the artisan bread tradition.
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