Breadwinners Wildflour Bakery in Steuben nurtures a community with lovingly kneaded creations

Flannery O’Connor may have thought a good man was hard to find, but she probably never tried to find good bread in Maine. As with taste in men, the idea of good bread is complicated by personal choice. Everyone has an opinion on what makes a good loaf. But once you find the right one, it’s a match made in Heaven.

Karen Dantonio has found her match. Every Saturday she drives from her home in Corea to Steuben to buy the week’s bread from Wildflour Bakery, a small caf? bakery on Village Road about a quarter of a mile off Route 1.

“I’m Italian. I can’t live without bread,” said the retired schoolteacher, who left behind a variety of bread options when she moved from New Jersey to Maine a few years ago. “To have a baker who uses whole-grain organic bread is great. The focaccia is outrageous.”

Not all of the bread at Wildflour is organic, say owners and partners Richard Chevalier and Jessie Costello. But all of it is made by hand with the freshest possible ingredients, including organic flour and local, organic eggs.

Still, everyone knows it takes more than freshness to make an excellent daily bread.

“Rich’s bread is an art form,” said Jamie Hanlon, a farmhand from Milbridge. “He knows how to use healthful ingredients and still make excellent bread. Usually when you use whole grains and whole-wheat flour, you end up getting hardy, dense bread. This isn’t dense. It’s light. It’s best with toast and butter.”

Chevalier has been selling his bread for the last couple of years at Washington County farmers markets in the summer. Last fall, he and Costello converted an old building on their property into a caf? and bakery, where they now offer fresh loaves of “mostly organic” bread each Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon. The loaves cost between $3 and $4.50 each.

The native of Rye, N.Y., started baking bread for himself in the 1970s when a friend gave him a copy of the now-classic Zen-influenced “The Tassajara Bread Book,” but his interest in food goes back further – to his mother’s kitchen.

“My mother was the daughter of immigrants from Italy,” said Chevalier. “My grandmother was always in the kitchen when I was young, and my mother carried on the tradition. I was always interested in the flavors. By my late teens, I was cooking.”

His partner is another story.

“I don’t cook,” said Costello. “I was ruined on it when I was a kid. He’s the cook in our relationship. We balance each other. He loves to do that. I love to organize. I even like to do dishes.”

But the couple, who moved here from Cape Cod five years ago, is committed to offering a nurturing product to the local community. And not just the bread.

“When we moved here, we saw a town that wasn’t really a town,” said Chevalier. “After school is out, after the library is closed, there’s nothing happening. I was thinking this little bakery could help make a town, could help make a village. It comes from the way my mother felt about food. She was always making a huge dinner at the drop of a hat. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do my whole life: make some sort of food as a vehicle of my friendship and love.”

Chevalier begins baking at 4 a.m. on Saturdays. When the first pot of organic coffee is steaming hot for the public, 30 loaves line the racks behind the counter, where Costello greets customers. By noon, the bread is usually sold out.

Each week, the couple offers four or more types of bread, as well as cookies and muffins. Chevalier’s favorite bread is a rye pumpernickel with raisins, molasses, coffee and cocoa. But he offers more standard loaves, too: sesame wheat, olive, seven-grain, and rye and wheat sourdoughs. A yeast corn bread, which is similar to a challah in flavor and texture, is a popular with regulars.

“I just love the simplicity of bread, especially sourdough because you don’t have to depend on anything other than flour, water and salt,” said Chevalier, sitting in the sunlit caf? one Saturday after several families had had their fill of raspberry-chocolate muffins and hot tea. “Those three ingredients can make a wonderful loaf of bread.”

For some patrons, stopping by Wildflour has become a regular weekend activity as well as a boon to the local food scene. By summer, the owners will increase both their hours and output to accommodate their patrons.

“Bread is my way of life. I don’t eat store bread,” said Nancy Kendall, who was staying in the area during a road trip last fall. “I make my own when I can. But he’s got a good solid bread.” She bought a sesame loaf and was on her way.

Wildflour Bakery is open 8 a.m.-noon each Saturday and is located at 314 Village Road, about a quarter mile off Route 1 on the right. For information or to pre-order bread, call 546-0978.