Bread has sustained millions of people around the world for thousands of years. It's simply a basic staple in our kitchens, and it is big business too.

Statistics from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, published in 2013, cite that total bread sales were worth $3.5 billion. That figure is further broken down to $2.2 billion for packaged "industrial" bread and $1.2 billion for unpackaged "artisanal" bread.

The latter category has been a fast-growing and delicious one, and the contrast between the two production methods is significant.

In Kitchener, Ont., for instance, Weston Bakeries on Victoria Street, a division of food giant Weston, churns out thousands of commercial loaves and bread products weekly. For the most part, the bread goes from wet mix to baking to cooling and bagging in just a few hours before heading to grocery stores.

Compare that process to the rise of small-batch or craft bakeries that have popped up in Waterloo Region and Wellington and Perth counties. The breads baked at these much smaller outlets represent a return to older baking traditions, which often means mixing, proofing and baking that takes place over two or three days rather than hours.

While there are many others, here's a list of some of these smaller bakeries and their unique breads.

Cambridge
For 27 years, Nalia and Jose Silva have operated Silva's Portuguese Bakery. Located on McLaren Avenue, the bakery is most proud of its home-style round white loaf.

"The recipe," says Nalia Silva, "is nearly 100 years old and came from Jose's family in the Azores. There's mashed potatoes in the dough."

Silva's also bakes pao de Milho – a dense Portuguese corn bread – and serves take-away sandwiches.

In downtown Galt, The Bake Shop on Main makes several breads including a French-style round white loaf called a boule, as well as a baguette-style "stecca" loaf that is studded with savoury ingredients like tomatoes or olives.

Stratford
Alan Mailloux opened Downie Street Bakehouse just over five years ago. He says his specialty is a long-fermented sourdough bread that is essentially a full two-day process, from mixing the dough one morning, letting it proof overnight and then baking the next morning.

"We like to say we use the most expensive ingredient in the world in our baking – time."

Guelph and Elora
Polestar Hearth has been baking bread for about nine years, according to owner Jesse Merrill, opening to retail in December, 2016. Merrill says that he loves the challenge of fine-tuning the daily long-fermenting dough.

"There are a handful of variables like humidity, temperature and different flour millers that can hit you at any time," Merrill says.

Roughly 20 minutes away from Polestar is Elora Bread Trading Company where Calantha Elsby makes about 750 loaves of bread a week.

"Our specialty is long-fermentation sourdough using mostly organic and natural ingredients," Elsby says.

Having just celebrated three years in business in December, Elora Bread sells from their shop and at restaurants and stores in Elora, Guelph, Kitchener and Waterloo. All their breads are 100 percent naturally leavened and use no commercial yeasts. "Even our cinnamon buns and samosas are sourdough," she adds.

Image | Pita Bread

(ATCO Blue Flame Kitchen)

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Kitchener
Tavis Weber has operated Golden Hearth Bakery, located in downtown Kitchener, for about seven years now. Along with pastries, he bakes a dozen breads, including fougasse, a Saturday special: a flatbread found in southern France, it's a rolled out and cut into shapes – a leaf, a tree or a ladder perhaps.

"It's a baguette-style dough, and we add black olives. Put it in the middle of the table, tear it apart and dip it in oil or use butter," Weber says.

Kishki World Foods has a half-dozen breads, primarily from the middle east. Baked daily are Iraqi samoon, a white Afghan loaf, and Pakistani naan. Whole wheat Moroccan bread is baked once a week.

Located in the Duke Food Block, Bread Heads uses a wood-fired oven for pizza and breads.

In its four locations in Cambridge and Kitchener, City Cafe Bakery bakes sourdough, seven grain and red pepper onion breads.

Using teff flour, Muya restaurant on Highland Road makes and sells hundreds of pizza-shaped injera inside and outside Waterloo Region each week. It's a tangy, fermented Ethiopian flatbread that also serves as your utensils when you eat in the restaurant.

Waterloo
Ambrosia Pastry Co. makes pastries and focaccia as well as a laminated brioche which really ramps up the bread's flavour, says co-owner Aura Hertzog.

"Our brioche dough is pre-fermented to create an even deeper richness and buttery flavour and texture."

Sabletine in mid-town bakes épi de blé, a baguette shaped like a sheaf of wheat, a white boule and whole wheat rye bread, among others.

On Moore Avenue, The Bakery at CE Food Experience bakes a variety of sourdoughs and breads with herb and garlic, caramelized onion and even coconut-curry.

In many cases, bakers give names to their sourdough starter, and that's the case at CE Food Experience.

"We call her Patrice," says owner Cecelia Smith. "She's about a year-and-a-half old."