STORY BY MAHMOOD FAZAL, PHOTOS BY CHRIS TURNER

The greatest act of living sustainably is to be kind to each other,” is a quote from Simran Sethi inscribed on the door of Trentham’s Red Beard Bakery. 

As customers flow in for there famous Blonde loaves, Thais explains,“My husband John Reid has always been passionate about real food; wild-ferment authentic sourdough, baking the traditional way using the old scotch oven from organic stone-ground milled flour.” But last year tragedy struck, “My husband died of cancer last year and this was always his passion.”

John was awarded the local heroes award at the Food & Wine Festival. The bakery he opened with his partner Thais has since become a gourmet’s landmark for its committment to authentic sourdough and sustainable practice. 

The sourdough are handmade with traditional techniques and baked in a huge 19th century oven - a carbon neutral process. Thais adds, “He wanted a bakery on every corner like there used to be. We just want everyone to have their own local bread.” 

John and Thais met while teaching environmental education. “[John] actually has a science degree so he brought all of that with him to his baking. Which is incredibly useful in terms of the science behind bacteria and just the biodiversity within bacteria.” Together they shared the belief that taste has a great impact on the way we live our lives.

When Thais and John were growing up, their grandmothers always made beautiful bread. She says, “[My grandmother] always used wholemeal flour. She used to bottle fruit and make everything herself. John’s family was the same.”

Initially, the plan was to set up to share that passion in the city by starting a community bakery in the Abbotsford bakehouse, but when negotiations fell through the family decided to venture out. 

In 2005, John and Thais were traveling with their children to the Lerderderg gorge for a picnic, “on the way, we stopped at the pub in Trentham because our kids needed to use the toilet. John saw the chimneys so he went around the corner and spotted the woodfire oven.”

Thais says the decision made sense for the family too, “We had three little kids and we thought it'd be really nice to move to the country to have them growing up with fresh air and a sense of adventure.”

Together with John’s brother Alan, they decided to take over the lease. “We went to our first market, and I think we sold about 20 loaves of bread. And we thought, ‘we just haven't found our people yet.” John’s sister Jude Reid was also deeply intwined in the business, “Jude gave John all the recipes and told him what to make. They invented the hot cross bun recipe together. Jude’s food has always been the benchmark.”

What keeps the fire burning, is the spirit of Red Beard; a family affair. “I think some people love the flavour and they don't really always understand the story,” says Thais. “My mother-in-law always bottles the tomatos. Ronald is one of the local growers who grows tomatoes for us. My sister-in-law turns it into chutney. The flowers are from Woodstock. We use local Tuki beef.”

John’s dream was essentially for everyone to be cooking their own bread. In doing so, we would learn some spirited life lessons, “How important it is to eat fresh. How important it is to have no preservatives and how important it is to shape with your hands.”

Red Beard Bakery

0417 008 388

www.redbeardbakery.com.au

Wolff Lane, Trentham