Breaking bread, building community - The Bethel Citizen

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JAY — Father Paul Dumais of St. Joseph Parish in Farmington and St. Rose of Lima Parish in Jay still reminisces about his first taste of sourdough bread when he worked on a wheat farm in Kansas over 20 years ago.

“I still can remember biting into a chunk of sourdough, wood fired, walnut raisin … boule that kind of awakened in me this sort of recognition that bread was actually food,” Dumais said while standing in the Jay parish kitchen with yeast permeating the air. “I had never thought about it as food before, I thought about it as a carrier for food.”

After developing baking into a hobby and attending workshops at Skowhegan’s bread kneading conference, Dumais established Ora Breads in 2018, a volunteer-based baking guild. About 12 volunteers and one paid intern rotate through the Jay parish kitchen throughout a month to produce sourdough boules, loaf breads and dinner rolls for local grocery stores, the Farmington Diner and for parish suppers.

Thursdays are busy in Jay’s parish kitchen. Ora Breads intern Ganchimeg Gombojav weighs out portions of sourdough to be baked off later that day. In the background, Father Paul Dumais shows newest volunteer Ava Moffett how to make dinner rolls that will be sold to the Farmington Diner. Andrea Swiedom

“That was our idea, to provide bread for the community in a variety of ways, community suppers, the blessing boxes, the free meals as well as outlets like Tranten’s and the Better Living Center,” Dumais said while watching 19 year old intern Ganchimeg Gombojav mix a new batch of sourdough that would ferment overnight.

“This is part of the whole process, is to look for young people in the community that would want to grow into this process, assist and potentially lead, and potentially even a paid internship,” Dumais said.

Gombojav, who plans on attending culinary school at Southern Maine Community College once in-person courses are a guarantee again, has been working with Ora Breads since March. She handled the previous day’s sourdough with a confident ease as she portioned the dough into individual boules to be baked off after another slow rise.

“I do like this job. It’s not just like a fast food job, it’s baking. Even though it’s pretty stressful and there’s a lot going on, it is fun and it’s interesting to do and there’s a lot to learn,” Gombojav said while inspecting steaming buckwheat for a future batch of prairie seed loaf bread.

Dumais said that he was impressed with Gombojav’s dedication as she learns the process of different breads and that he was even able to take a vacation recently while she oversaw Ora’s production. After working for the guild, Dumais suspects that Gombojav will easily find employment at a bakery.

“What she’s learning and what we’re doing is really a professional method and that’s the point,” Dumais said.

19 year old Ganchimeg Gombojav has been interning with Ora Breads since March and said that her favorite dough is the sourdough, pictured above, because of its smooth texture. Andrea Swiedom

The name of the guild also reflects the dedication to one’s labor as Dumais explained that the word Ora comes from the Benedictine Latin motto ora et labora, meaning pray and work.

“I think parish churches should be productive in the sense that we should as a community, we should be giving. I think there’s kind of a tired stereotype that churches take,” Dumais said. “But I mean, we depend on people’s generosity, their charity but it’s not, it shouldn’t be, take, take, take. It should be productive in the sense that if people are entrusting us with their hard-earned money, there’s a sense of responsibility and partnership.”

Dumais views the guild as a creative way to engage with Catholics and even those with no religious affiliation since the group not only feeds the community at parish suppers and provides bread for the blessing boxes, located outside of both parishes, but it also teaches people the baking process through periodic classes and offers a volunteer opportunity.

“I really enjoy not only what it’s about, but the fact that I’m part of a very successful community-involved program. So it’s not just about volunteering, it’s about what it’s doing,” volunteer Terry Cullenberg said while flouring baskets that would house the sourdough boules in the oven.

Because the guild is dedicated to producing artisanal breads and always striving to reach the level of quality of that memorable walnut-raisin sourdough, Dumais views Ora Breads as a way to equalize relations between people.

“We’re in this cycle that’s so divisive, there’s nothing more unifying than, I mean, I presume that’s where this expression comes from, breaking bread. It becomes an expression of friendship and so we want that,” Dumais said. “We want friendship for ourselves and the community and we want our bread to be a catalyst if you will, for friendship and for conversation in the most basic, universal and unifying way.”

As Dumais continued to explain his belief in good food and good bread unifying people, Ora’s newest volunteer, 15 year old Ava Moffett informed him that she was ready to learn how to make three dozen dinner rolls.

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