Spelt it out at Hildegard’s

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This article was published 09/04/2018 (2948 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Big windows, leafy plants and the smell of fresh-baked bread — it’s no wonder Hildegard’s Bakery had a full house on one of their first official days open.

The new shop, located on the southwest corner of Maryland Street and Portage Avenue, had its soft opening in March and is now running regular hours. Dave Newsom and his wife Judith Friesen, together with friend Michael Harms, are running the business as an offshoot of Friesen’s parents’ company, Integrity Foods.

“There’s no Hildegard involved,” Newsom clarified.

“The name comes from an interesting historical figure called Hildegard of Bingen… there’s not a lot of writing of women that have survived from (medieval times), but we have a lot of her stuff. She wrote a lot about science and plants and the nutritional benefit of certain grains, especially spelt.

“That’s one of our distinctions, is that spelt is one of the main ingredients we use.”

Newsom explained that spelt is an ancient cousin of the kind of wheat we use in today’s bread. It’s not an alternative for celiac folks, but it tends to be a better option for those who have gluten sensitivities. It’s also a way to pack more nutrition into baked goods, because of its mild flavour.

“It behaves like a very soft wheat, with a milder flavour,” he said. “You can produce whole grain things with it that you can’t do with a whole grain or it would be really gross… a lot of our baking uses 50 or 100 per cent spelt.”

Newsom added that they have a access to a great local supplier of spelt, which they then mill in-store before throwing it into the wood-burning oven. He says the open concept allows him to interact with customers about their process.

“I like people being able to see me shape bread, ask questions and really do some education about the grains we work with, and the techniques we use and why we’re doing things in this sort of outdated, labour intensive, silly way.

“Most of our breads are mixed by hand… and divided by hand, and baking in an oven we fire with wood, you have to split the wood and bring it inside.”

The location in the west was ideal for Newsom and his family, who recently had a baby. With their home just a few blocks away, Newsom said it’s easier to balance family and work. And the building itself met a lot of the “weird technical requirements” of their business.

“Like you need room to support an eight-ton oven and you need to put in a very tall chimney, and the landlord was willing to work with us on that.”

The character building was once a car dealership and later turned into offices. While most of Hildegard’s interior is new and minimal, the tiled floor hails to another time, some 100 years go. They expect to welcome flora & farmer, a local preserve company, into their subunit rental, in the next few months as well.