As a dedicated sourdough fan, a chat to a super enthusiastic Jon from Crabbes Creek Woodfired had me completely convinced; it’s the best foodstuff on the planet and there is no wonder it has been around for millennia.
Jon originally worked in construction but always knew food was in his future when, along with wife Gina, bread just came their way.
Working as a woodfired oven builder, mostly with pizza ovens, Jon and Gina decided to install an oven on their property in Crabbes Creek. They began baking bread from the pizza oven but weren’t getting the results they’d hoped for. Jon travelled to Tasmania to research purpose-built, dedicated woodfired ovens, and there he discovered the Allan Scott brick ovens. Allan Scott was a blacksmith and baking traditionalist who designed and built bread ovens. They built an Allan Scott oven at home, and now have the perfect oven for sourdough baking. After producing some loaves for the local store they found they couldn’t keep up with demand and decided to give the markets a go.
Their oven now holds 70 loaves at a time and Gina sells their bread at three markets, including Mullum and New Brighton. They live and breathe bread, which has its benefits. As the oven loses only 30 degrees a day, from the Markets’ bake on Thursdays they can still enjoy a slow-cooked roast on Sunday.
The wood is sourced from sawmill offcuts and the flour comes from Gunnedah, they grow their own pumpkins for seeds, or source seeds from other stallholders, along with macadamia nuts. The olives are from another market stallholder; Grumpy Grandma.
Crabbes Creek Woodfired now bake 14 varieties of sourdough, from white through to pumpkin, khorasan, ancient grains and 100 per cent rye.
When asked about their bread-eating habits at home Jon laughed: ‘I don’t think Gina eats anything else, she loves it fried in olive oil with avocado and red cabbage,’ he says.
‘People shy away from bread because they are worried about intolerances, but the great thing about sourdough is, it is literally just flour, water and salt, and with the slow 16 hour process it is really very digestible and great for your gut’.
Jon and Gina are rightfully very proud of their product – and support from the locals makes the long hours and six days of work per week worthwhile. ‘The markets are so much fun! The stallholders and also the customers, it’s a vibrant community, and they’re all really supportive of us, we’re really lucky.’
New Brighton Farmers Markets is held every Tuesday and Mullum Farmers Markets every Friday, from 7–11am.
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