Introducing: Little Stream Bakery Organic Baking Without Compromise
- Elizabeth Papadopoulos BSc, CNP, ROHP, Founder, The Institute of Holistic Nutrition
Little Stream Bakery is a Canadian based small business with environmental integrity. From the beginning, Little Stream has been a leader and innovator in the natural foods sector. It has always been an organic bakery, and is still one of the few bakeries in Canada to use only sourdough starter, with no yeast added to any breads. All Little Stream breads are vegan.
Graham Beck opened Little Stream Bakery in 1992, and due to the high quality of the products, developed a loyal following right from the start. The bakery has grown in popularity not only for the distinct, complex flavour of their bread, but because since 2003 they have offered a variety of gluten free breads to meet different dietary needs and preferences. In fact, Little Stream makes the only gluten free breads on the market which are organic, made with whole foods, and use a complete sourdough process. These breads are dense, moist and cake-like, without sugar. They are easier to digest than most gluten free loaves, while giving you abundance of nutrients.
Dedicated Employees Make Consistently Good Bread
Little Stream is a small, low turnover company. The experienced and conscientious staff of 4 full-time and employees, understand the importance of paying attention to detail. Little Stream tracks the origin, provenance and inventory of all ingredients. This experience is easily transposed to the requirements of producing gluten-free breads. Owner/founder Graham Beck works in production as well as administration.
Walking the Walk: Green Power and 1% For the Planet Support
Little Stream Bakery contributes 1% of sales to environmental groups committed to creating a healthy planet, with a particular focus on the local Tay Valley watershed.
Little Stream cares about leaving as small an energy footprint as possible. Solar panels are in place to generate electricity and heat water, and deliveries are made with fuel-efficient minivans.
Little Stream Ingredient and Process Standards
Sourdough & Yeast Don't Mix: Little Stream breads are leavened with sourdough culture, a mix of flour and water allowed to ferment in a controlled way. For gluten free breads this involves mixing a ferment made from rice flour, millet or buckwheat and water. This gives the bread a deeper more complex flavour and makes the bread easier to digest as the starches and bran are partially broken down. Sourdough culture is incorporated into the dough and allowed to rise for 18 plus hours. The rising process releases valuable nutrients. True sourdough breads like Little Stream's have a lower glycemic index than their yeast bread counterparts.
No baker's yeast is allowed on Little Stream premises, because its organisms can compromise the sourdough culture and its nutritional qualities.
Unrefined Sea Salt: Little Stream uses premium unrefined sea salt which is sun-dried with no addition of whitening or anti-caking chemicals. This traditional dried sea salt contains traces of essential minerals and is necessary in bread to control the leavening process and aid in digestion. Little Stream gluten free loaves contain 0.66% salt (not sodium) by weight. This is significantly less than is seen in the baking industry in general — the industry average is about around 1.35% of bread weight. Unrefined sea salt is surprisingly uncommon in use by natural/organic food processors. It is an excellent source of trace minerals.
Pure Water Makes Better Bread
As water is the second ingredient in bread, it is vital that it comes from a pure, life sustaining source. Little Stream has its own deep artesian water well at the original bakery in Glen Tay, located in an unspoiled pastoral setting in Lanark County Ontario. It is drilled into a confined aquifer in the Canadian Shield. The water is regularly tested and found to be free of any biological, agricultural or industrial pollutants.
The minerals found in deep well water are beneficial to sustaining a healthy sourdough culture and fermentation process.
Buckwheat is sourced from Quebec Organic producers from Quebec & Ontario buckwheat. Buckwheat is not a grain, rather a legume which is a member of the rhubarb family and a good source of balanced protein. It is of course the main ingredient in Little Stream Buckwheat Loaf, and is also used in the Grain-Free Protein Loaf.
