This week a popular local food vendor opened for business in a new location at 330 Queen St. E.
“It’s a much bigger space. It’s really wonderful,” said Kaitlin Kazmierowski, owner and operator of the Bread Hag.
The Bread Hag will be open from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday and Friday for now, with plans in the works to expand those hours.
“This is like a new space because the Mutos have been lovingly restoring this building. It’s lovely to be right next door to Cafe 4 Good . . . they’ve got such a great community of customers and staff coming and going,” Kazmierowski told SooToday.
She specializes in baking naturally leavened sourdough bread.
“I use wild yeast, so there’s no commercial yeast in my bread. That means my bread is way better for your gut health,” Kazmierowski said.
“It’s naturally fermented, it’s gentle on the system. I find a lot of people who are gluten-sensitive or have other digestive issues who can’t eat store-bought bread can eat mine, which is wonderful.”
She bakes and sells a wide variety of breads.
Types of bread on her shelves include seeded rye, cinnamon and raisin as well as roasted garlic and asiago with black pepper.
“Usually I try to make six different kinds of bread a week,” Kazmierowski said.
Then, there’s dessert.
“I make sourdough scones, cookies, brownies, and then I’ll do specialty items like cinnamon buns, Swedish cardamom knots, and babka. I’ll do hot cross buns and things like that as well.”
Kazmierowski said her Country Boule is among her most popular baked items for sale.
“Boule is French for ball, so it’s a round loaf. But I also make it as a baguette which is more of an oval loaf. You can use it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, whatever you want.”
Her Power Cookies are another favourite with customers.
“It’s a cookie that I invented, essentially. It’s a sourdough cookie and it’s caught on like wildfire. I actually have a hard time keeping it in stock and sometimes I think I could probably just make Power Cookies and be fine.”
Kazmierowski started baking out of her home during the pandemic.
“I had actually been interested in doing it for years but then I found myself with some time to do it.”
After selling bread from her home through social media, Kazmierowski opened a commercial location on Bruce Street in 2023 before making her move to Queen Street East.
“I just kind of dove into it and became obsessed. I realized that in order to get better at it, you really have to practice,” she said when recalling her start as a baker.
“Once I got something that looked nice, I just put it up on Instagram and said ‘if you’re interested in bread like this, contact me.’ And it just grew from there. It totally ballooned.”
Kazmierowski imports her flour from across Ontario.
“All my flour is organic. I source everywhere from Guelph to Thunder Bay. It’s really important for me to do that because I come from an organic farming background. I see what that means, and how hard those farmers work.”
Describing herself as a person who has always been very interested in healthy food, Kazmierowski enjoys being an entrepreneur in the food industry.
“Everybody loves bread. Bread is in every culture. I’ve had people use my bread in very important family events, all the way from birth to end of life, to be honest.
“To be part of that or to bring that feeling to people is just wonderful. It’s so wonderful to bring people joy,” she said.