“Bread was always a dream for me,” says Christy Auer, one half of the Christy’s Good Bread partnership that she shares with husband, Richard. “The first time I went to Europe… we travelled all over parts of Austria. When I came home I looked at bread in the store and just thought, this is impossible. I just can’t eat it! So I started to make bread.”
Christy is now a highly accomplished, self-taught baker with five years of successful farmers’ market stands in both Squamish and Whistler. She has a following of devoted customers who will happily join a line-up for her bread.
The popularity is well deserved because a great deal of care, attention and hard work goes into preparing for a market. On bread-baking day, there are truly never enough hours in the day, she explains, but it’s worth it. “I really love to make the bread and I really enjoy the response I get back from people of their enjoyment of it. It’s helping keep them healthy. It’s kind of a nice feeling.”
What also matters, Christy explains, is flavour, nutrition and a good-looking loaf.
“Flavour is very, very important to me,” she says, noting she includes freshly picked herbs from her garden in her loaves.
“I always want to try and have two or three $5 loaves that are some of my most nutritious. I use the best ingredients I can and a lot of good grains. For many people, particularly in Squamish, $5 is still an expensive loaf, so I want to be able to provide that good home-baked bread for them, at that price, because I know they could just as well go to Extra Foods and buy two for $3.”
While her husband Richard bakes all day Saturday to be ready for the Whistler market, Christy rises early to set up and manage their stand in Squamish.
“I have huge enjoyment setting up… and I love it when I hear people talk. Someone said to me in Whistler, ‘I feel like I’m a bread voyeur.’ Mission accomplished, right? If you think you’re at a peep show on bread, that’s great.”
Among Christy’s enticing bread display are seasonal focaccias, challah with golden raisins, apricots and saffron (a loaf she perfected last year), potato bread and her ever-popular bagels.
This winter she’ll also be baking warm cinnamon buns, exploring ancient grains and practising her shaping with some fruity Christmas challahs. “They’re just very pretty and attractive. They’re the kind of things you can freeze and put away and have at Christmas.”
Life for Christy and Richard has always been based around food. “He’s the cook, and I’m the waitress. That’s how it started out,” she says, although Christy is every bit as involved in the kitchen these days making the doughs while Richard is baking.
“When everything’s going really well and the products are turning out well… it can be very satisfying. But it’s a lot of work.” Despite the long hours, her husband always has time to deliver a fresh loaf of bread to an elderly friend.
Christy’s Good Bread will be at the Winter Farmers’ Market throughout the season, on alternate Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Squamish Elementary School.
