Rotary Visits the “Crusty Baker”

Posted 
on Aug 08, 2012
 
As part of its continuing speaker series supporting local businesses the Rotary Club of Kemptville visited the "Crusty Baker"
 
Image 
 
Cora Beking (foreground with, in the background, from the left, Rotarians Keith Rolston, Brian Cassidy, and Larry Donoghue) was among the members of the Rotary Club of Kemptville who enjoyed a “Baker’s Lunch” at the Crusty Baker, 16 Prescott Street, Kemptville, on the 7th of August.  The meal featured the owner’s signature breads—focaccia with brie and walnuts, rustic rye-wheat-oats-and-buckwheat bread, French baguettes and others—as well as bean and tomato salads, dolmades, spanakopita, sliced meats, an assortment of soft and  hard cheeses, and champagne grapes.  Desserts included Breton specialties “Kouign amann”  (a cake made with equal quanitities of bread dough, sugar and butter) and “Far” a custard-filled concoction.
 
Image
 
After the meal, Jamie La Brash, the “Crusty Baker” herself, (shown above) explained how she got started making bread 12 years ago following a nasty allergic reaction to the shellfish she was preparing.  After many years working and teaching in restaurant kitchens, she did not want to give up what was fast becoming a lifelong career, but how could she avoid the menacing shellfish?  She decided to try bread and began in a small way, selling the results in the parking lot behind Amanda’s Slip (predecessor of The Branch restaurant).  This led to a stall in the Kemptville Farmer’s Market and, on last October 21st, to the opening of her own business: fast becoming indispensable to shoppers in Kemptville and regional markets.