Your Daily Bread

Young Lions Bay bakers deliver the best

Lions Bay Bakers Eva and Julia Polyakova display their wares. Photos courtesy Polyakova family.

If you live in Lions Bay, Eva and Julia Polyakova want to bake you some bread.

They've been baking (and delivering!) bread to friends and neighbours since 2020.

The girls were in Grade 7 when Covid hit, and their grandmother sent them a bread recipe to try. The first effort was such a success that it was gone within half an hour. More baking ensued, and after taste tests from local neighbours came back positive, a local business was born.

Eva says that even after more than five years of baking, the pair are still experimenting.

"We learned everything from our grandma," she says. "We did take a food safety certificate course, but that doesn't really teach you the tricks of baking. We're still learning, even now."

Looking back on old photos makes Eva think the product has gotten prettier every year.

"A couple of years ago we learned how to do patterns on top, which really stepped up the look. The recipe itself has stayed pretty much the same, though. The main thing is to follow the process, let the dough rise properly, and make sure the oven is fully preheated."

Their market has grown, too, as bread-lovers have spotted their posts on the local Facebook page. However, the sisters disagree on the number of loaves baked since they started.

"I think it's around 500, says Eva, "but Julia says it's more like a thousand. One time we ran a fundraiser for the Red Cross and baked 16 loaves in a single day, in an oven that fits only two loaves at a time."

The pair have a group of regular customers who order almost every week, and who Eva says have collectively eaten about half of all the loaves they've ever made.

Each loaf of bread is hand-delivered by the bakers, which Eva says is a big part of the package. "I like to think about it this way: we’re selling an experience, not just bread. Delivering it straight out of the oven also means it tastes and smells the most delicious, and I think it's really nice when you can tell someone put effort in for you."

While the pair have experimented with other baking from doughnuts to caramel-filled cookies called Oreshki, their grandma's loaf remains their standard.

"Baking bread in Lions Bay has been such a cool experience," Eva adds. "My mom says she loves our little business because our house smells amazing on the weekends. And one of the best parts is actually handing the bread over to people, because everyone in our village is so kind and welcoming."

Keep an eye out for when these young bakers will next be plying their wares on the local Facebook page under Lions Bay Bread.

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