Our Story

For more than 3000 years, every village had a baker. In his wood-fired oven, the baker made wholesome, rustic loaves to nourish his community. He used milled grains from nearby fields, local spring water, a little salt and wild yeasts. 

Every morning as the rooster crowed, the baker could be found toiling over his dough, baking fresh bread for the villagers.

Therein lies the humble beginnings of the loaf.

Grains, nourished by the earth and watered by streams, were ground by the forces of wind and water, shaped by the hand of man and baked by fire to produce a true product of nature.

Hand moulded, packed with nutrition and made using freshly procured, local ingredients, this loaf contained a real integrity that is often missing from bread today.

Our mission at The Authentic Village Baker is to replicate the true integrity that was once found in the village baker's bread and bring it to you today.

To do this, our artisan bakers follow the same procedures and use the same techniques as the village baker, to create a traditional rustic loaf packed with fresh local ingredients and real integrity.

Bakers of Yesterday

There is an unquestionable connection between bread and life.

In the English language, the definition of a lord was a provider of bread. His lady was the keeper of the dough. Wages were earned and paid in bread, and the household provider was called the breadwinner. In the Middle Ages, without a good sourdough starter in her dowry and an ability to bake bread, a girl could not marry. She simply did not have the credentials for marriage!

From as early as the sixth century, craftsman bakers were a part of every town and village across Europe. By the 12th century, the role of the baker was so important to the health and viability of communities that strict laws were introduced to regulate the manufacture of loaves.

Bread had to be of a good quality, well baked and in accordance to the newly introduced legal standard. If breads were found to be poorly baked, adulterated by additives or undersized, the baker would be fined. Failure to bake bread freshly every day was an offence.

Bakers guilds were formed and master bakers set standards and passed on their expertise to apprentices. At this point in European civilisation, bread was the prime source of nourishment.

Bakers of Today

By contrast, the bread of today seems very much the poor cousin of its historical ancestor. 

It is tasteless and crustless, spongy and insipid, flavourless and full of preservatives, emulsifiers and mould inhibitors. Made using production-line facilities and lacking the essential village baker's knowledge and touch, today's bread tells us there is something very wrong with the way we live and eat. 

Instead of placing emphasis on quality and staying true to the food that has nourished us for generations, we now produce plastic bread with the emphasis on quantity and affordability, rather than quality and true goodness.

Modern baking techniques use high speed machines that whip together water and flour in a fraction of the time traditional processes take, and in doing so damage the living thing that is dough. To attempt to repair the damage to the dough's cell structure, substances and chemicals are added to lend artificial strength to the dough so that it can withstand the beating modern baking dishes out. In doing so, modern bakeries have eroded all that is good and nourishing about bread, leaving behind an empty shell in place of its former glory.

True bread requires gentle mixing, time to rise slowly and without artificial stimulant, the touch of an artisan baker and slow baking. Combined, these ingredients produce the golden loaves of our ancestors.

At The Authentic Village Baker, our mission is to stay true to the time-honoured processes of the bakers of yesterday.

Using only the highest quality, locally sourced ingredients, combined and crafted into loaves by artisan bakers and packed with integrity and goodness, The Authentic Village Baker consistently produces traditional sourdough bread of a quality and standard that is a testament to the humble beginnings of the village baker.

The Authentic Village Baker never uses any harmful additives, preservatives or chemicals.