Grain and Goods Bakery in Sydenham

Jeff Green | Jan 12, 2022

Roland Jensch was born in Hamelin, in the northwest part of Germany.

“You know, the town with the pied piper,” he said from his new bakery on George Street (next to the One Stop) in Sydenham this week.

His grandfather was a master baker and Roland helped out in the bakery when he was a child, learning some of the craft. He never thought much about it at the time.

He is now living, with his wife Liz and their young sons Caleb, who is four, and Elijah, who is one and a half, at her families hobby farm at Stagecoach and Forest Roads just south of the village. Liz is a yoga instructor and they run the Groove Yoga Festival at their property in the summertime.

Over time, Roland has returned to his love of baking bread, and that is where the Grain and Goods Famestead and bakery idea came from. In collaboration with Fat Chance Farmstead, Roland has started growing Red Fife Wheat for use in the bread that he was baking at home, and now at the new bakery in Sydenham.

“Red Fife is a heritage variety of wheat that was developed on by David Fife on his farm near Peterborough in the 1840's. It is very good for bread, very healthy, and since it is not a commercial variety we can keep the seed from year to year,” he said.

Aside from Red Fife, Roland uses stone ground flours that are carefully sourced, to make the crusty sourdough, a hearty seed bread and flavour packed 100% rye loaf, as well as German style soft pretzels at Grains and Goods.

“Due to the grain varieties, stone milling process, fresh ingredients and long fermentation used at Grains & Goods, our products are more nutrient dense, digestible, healthier, (and tastier!) than conventional breads and baked goods. We are currently using a combination of locally sourced, high quality organic flours and some of our own fresh-milled flours, and are increasing our capacity to produce more fresh milled flours each growing season. No short cuts,” is the promise that is made on the Grains and Goods website.

For those with a sweet tooth, sweets are available as well, including sweet buns and cookies.

The breads are produced using sourdough fermentation for the most part, and take two days to produce from start to finish.

The Rye Bread is actually baked the day before it is sold, because it takes a full day after baking to fully develop its flavour. It has stout in it as well, sourced from Stone City Ales in Kingston.

So far, the community response has been strong.

“We are very pleased. “Lots of people are interested in tasting our bread,” said Roland.

He is hoping to increase store hours in the spring and summer, but the baking is labour intensive and at this point he is doing everything himself, and is hoping to find another baker and some store help.

The bakery began having regular hours just last week, on January 4. At this time it is open on Tuesdays, from 3pm – 6pm, and Saturdays from 10am – 1pm. Items can be pre-ordered from Grains-and-goods-bakery.square.site and walk-ins are welcome as well.