I hope you’re all already familiar with Dawn Woodward and her business Evelyn’s Crackers. If you’re reading my newsletter, you have to know Dawn. But let me take this time and enjoy telling you about her myself.
Dawn and I were both living and working in Toronto the year we met, but it took us going to Montreal to meet for the first time. This was in 2018. We were both there for the Taste of Grain conference. I was attending, Dawn was a panelist with Amy Halloran (one of the two highlights on the weekend). It was a special weekend, I met a lot of people who became good friends. Dawn was one of them.
I was working at La Banane at the time. Dawn was baking (I can’t quite remember where, I think this was before Kensington) and selling at Wychwood Barns and other farmers markets, just like she is now.
Before I met Dawn, I had access to K2 Milling and flour from the Hoffnung community. A fine starting point, but not great diversity and pretty heavily sifted. Dawn opened the door, and helped me get exposed to many different kinds of grains from different producers. Peter from Merrylynd and Shelly from Against the Grain standout.
Dawn is no fuss. Her work is about flavour, the quality of our food, and the practices behind producing. She is a star amongst bakers like me, and severely under-celebrated by the food-writing community. What makes a great chef or baker? Sometimes I think people (even professional food writers) are still too focused on the perfectly square cut of compressed melon to realize 50% of that imported produce ended up as trim. What’s important in our work? The problem is, some food producers don’t care, just like some food writers don’t care, and they will still work together to support one another. As diners, eaters, patrons, we have to look harder to find the real stars. It’s special eating something that was produced out of a deep passion and conviction for the work you do and the ingredients you use.
In early 2019, before moving to New York, I had my first popup. Dawn was hosting it at her space at 125 Jefferson (you can still find her there today). We were four bakers, Dawn, Carole, Patti, and myself. Two varieties, all wholegrain. It was a great experience for me to produce something of my own, not just something on my prep list at work.
It can get strange behind-the-scenes in food production. Commodity ingredients from the global food-chain are often grown from seed owned by one of the agri-chemical giants. The seeds are engineered to survive the prescribed cocktail of life-suppressing chemicals, both in the form of fertilizers and fungicide/pesticides. This style of farming doesn’t allow for crop diversity or adaptability to our changing climate. It doesn’t build healthy soil, insuring our food is rich in essential amino acids.
It blows me away that people are still buying “00” flour from Italy, grown in Canada. Those food miles can exceed ten thousand, for a product that would have tasted better, been healthier for you, and better for the environment if purchased in Canada, without having been shipped overseas for processing. Even if I source grain from Ontario and Quebec, baker’s working within the regional grain economy (let’s say Canadian-grown in this case), will always have the product of greater value. That’s because we have to cut less corners and exploit less labour to earn a living off our flour. If the Italian “00”, being sold as premium, is the same price as Canadian organic wholegrain flour (like Anita’s or Flourist), it certainly has a smaller impact on our economy and a greater negative impact on the environment. I think it’s important to have these conversations when we hear about rising prices at the grocery store.
The industrial food-system has monopolized bakeries and dairies, and consolidated farm land in the pursuit of massive wealth for the small handful and stakeholders, at the expense of community resilience.
What’s happening on the other-side is a completely different story.
There are grainsheds, alliances, and commissions, working in connection with top University’s breeding programs that are growing grain with purpose, and a guild of bakers, millers, maltsters, brewers choosing the establish a new food economy. It is because of people like Dawn, experts in their field and so generous sharing their knowledge, that baker’s like me can follow down the same path.
I probably got off track there from trying to do a baker’s profile on Dawn. Around the time when I met Dawn, I was going through a fundamental change about how I approached baking. Because I had learnt about the work Dawn was doing, the work Nan Kohler and Mai Nguyen were doing, the work Kim Bell was doing, the underlying reason for why I baked changed. I wanted to bake like them, and be part of the the work they are doing.
I have no doubt in my mind that Dawn played a critical role in me finding my own voice as a baker. I admire her work so much, and am so grateful for all the support and encouragement I have gotten from her every step of the way since we met.
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Thanks so much for reading this far. I wanted to end this newsletter with an announcement, a bit of big news, really:
Yesterday I signed a lease for 338 Powell Street, the future home of Tommy’s Whole Grain.
It’s one of those big steps that is taking a moment to sink in for me. All-hands on deck. Winter 2023/2024. Get ready.
Sending love to you all. Thanks again for being here.
Thanks, Tommy. I’m so flattered. Enjoyed your grain meanderings and thoughts as usual. Can’t wait to see your new place. Xoxoxo d
Congratulations my love!!