Body of the Year Story
We are a wholesale sourdough bakery in Dunedin. We provide a range of sourdough breads for retail purchase and wholesale supply to top cafes and restaurants across Dunedin. Our aim is to produce the most delicious and healthiest Bread For Your Body from locally sourced flour and a natural fermenting process.
Body of the Year bakery began in January 2019 when Jed began experimenting with different bagel recipes to help a flat mate who wanted to source better tasting bagels than could be bought commercially. Trained in visual arts and with a back ground in food science, Jed’s creative instincts kicked in and after lots of trial & error, Jed nailed the recipe. This early success ignited a passion to create delicious and nutritious bread using simple, organic and wholesome ingredients.
Values matter to Body of the Year. Underlying Jed’s desire to produce healthy, delicious and affordable bread are the company’s core values of staff development and wellbeing, food consciousness (production and affordability), use of organic ingredients, waste minimisation, no plastics and environmental sustainability. Jed couldn’t have achieved as much as he has without the great team of bakers who work with him.
Where did the name for the bakery come from? Body of the Year was printed on the front of an old baking apron that Jed came across in a Dunedin Op shop. Jed loved the irony and business relevance of the apron and bought it on the spot. It’s now framed and hangs on the wall in the bakery.
Body of the Year Bakery is committed to the production of the healthiest, best quality and most delicious bread for Your Body. Our customers frequently tell us that Body of the Year makes the best sourdough bread in Dunedin......which makes it all worth while.
Food Consciousness via Sourdough Bread Workshops.
Helping our customers understand the centuries old process behind making sourdough bread to create bread good for your health is important to Body of the Year. Also important for Body of the Year is providing affordability bread options. Jed runs bread making workshops for groups of work colleagues/friends/social clubs who are interested in the history and process of sourdough bread. The added benefit is that learning to make your own sourdough bread is an affordability option to enjoying the health benefits and deliciousness of fresh sourdough bread.
The workshops take approximately one and a half hours . Jed will provide you a history of making sourdough bread and the associated health benefits of the process. You'll be taught all the necessary techniques in mixing, folding, shaping and baking your own sourdough bread. At the end of the lesson you'll walk away with your own freshly baked sourdough wheat bread loaf, ingredients recipe, mixing/folding/shaping/baking instructions and your own Body of the Year sourdough starter to kick start your own bread making at home.
If you are interested, get in touch via our Contact page. Optimum group size is about 6 to 8 people. We can tailor a workshop to your requirements and provide workshop details including a quote. Here are some testimonials from groups who have experienced one of Jed's workshops.
" We loved spending time at Body of the Year. Jed is a pro baker and a fantastic teacher, patient with beginners and generous to share his knowledge, plus the bakery is a really unique space......We especially liked the hands-on dough shaping and being able to take a freshly baked loaf home. We all left with new found confidence to bake at home and when we don't bake ourselves we'll be back to buy some more.....Thank you Jed, we're looking forward to coming back"...The Dunedin Fisher and Paykel Team.
"We are friends from Invercargill, Wanaka and Dunedin who went to the All Blacks/England rugby test in July. We had heard about Jed's workshops so arranged a bread making session with him on the day before the test. Jed ran a great workshop both informative and humorous . He was very patient giving hands on guidance when it came to mixing and shaping the bread loaves. Using the bread starter we have started baking our own bread at home sending photos to Jed with our results. He has been very encouraging, sending us tips to making each bake better"......Sharon & Dave, Rachel & Doug, Sheryl & Ross.
Environmental Sustainability.
Environmental sustainability is an important business value to Body of the Year. We are always looking to find ways to reduce waste, recycle more, limit plastics and lower our carbon footprint.
We are now using Pedals Dunedin's EV bike courier service for daily deliveries to Body of the Year customers withing Dunedin's CBD.
Pedals have proven to be quick and reliable providing delivery resilience. We have definitely noticed a reduction in our fuel use and weekly mileage. The delivery service has also provided time savings to our bakers who can now spend more time making "Dunedin's best sourdough bread".