Leanne Mazurick poses outside the Verve Vertu art studio on Main Street in Dallas, near the cabinet she has stocked with bread that she offers free for the taking. (The bread is only available on certain day that Mazurick announces via social media.)
Submitted photo
Dallas woman bakes organic sourdough bread, gives it away
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Fans of Leanne Mazurick’s organic sourdough bread check social media to know when she will stock the cabinet outside the Verve Vertu Art Studio on Main Street Dallas with fresh loaves
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Leanne Mazurick uses a stencil and a dusting of flour to decorate her freshly baked loaves with peace symbols.
Submitted photo
“Now I’ve been smiling lately, thinkin’ about the good things to come. And I believe it could be, something good has begun. Oh, peace train sounding louder, glide on the peace train, hoo-ah, ee-ah, hoo-ah, come on now, peace train.”
For Leanne Mazurick of Dallas, listening to a recording of musician Cat Stevens singing those hopeful words about peace and unity inspired the name for her bread-baking project.
She calls it Peace Grain.
The project is her way of making the world a better place, one loaf at a time, as she bakes organic sourdough bread and gives it away.
Just this past week Mazurick baked a batch for children who attended Grief Camp at the Lands at Hillside Farm. She’s also supplied bread for a Ukraine benefit at The Gathering Place in Clarks Summit as well as for the guests at the Ruth’s Place shelter for women in Wilkes-Barre.
There also are certain days, on a regular basis, when she stocks a cabinet at the Verve Vertu art studio on Main Street in Dallas and anyone, alerted by social media post or word of mouth, can stop by and help themselves.
“It’s scrumptilicious bread,” Verve Vertu director Gwen Harleman said with smile.
Mazurick knows not everyone can afford quality, artisanal bread. But she’d like to see more people, regardless of means, enjoy the nutrition of her organic, whole-grain loaves — along with the taste and aroma.
“I have really good memories of my mom baking, and my grandmother baking,” Mazurick said, noting it was her grandmother, the late Verna Grega, who was especially adept at baking bread.
”We’d go to my grandmother’s house at Christmas and Easter and her kitchen always smelled like paska bread,” she said. “We’d get out the butter and we’d be waiting for it. It was such a good experience.”
Mazurick, who grew up in Beaver Meadows, studied occupational therapy at Misericordia University. But a service trip to Haiti nudged her toward another path.
“I really felt called to go in the direction of helping students understand issues like homelessness, food insecurity, sustainable agriculture and immigration,” she said, explaining that’s why, after graduation from Misericordia, she took a job at King’s College arranging service trips.
On one of those trips, students visited Camden, N.J., and had an assignment. Armed with the limited spending ability of SNAP benefits, they went to a Camden grocery store and tried to buy the ingredients for a nutritious meal. It wasn’t easy. And the available bread was made from refined white flour, which Mazurick pointed out is high on the glycemic index and can contribute to chronic health problems.
“People should be able to eat bread that’s not going to cause a big spike in their blood sugar,” said Mazurick, who buys organic whole grains through a co-op and grinds them into flour using a small mill.
While the baker began giving loaves away during the pandemic, she had been baking for several years before that. She keeps her sourdough starter in a small crock that she occasionally takes along on vacation so she can keep baking.
No longer working at King’s, Mazurick’s current full-time job involves working from home as an outreach coordinator for AmpleHarvest, an organization that encourages gardeners to give surplus produce to food pantries.
But baking is her passion. “I love baking bread and giving it away,” she said.
And a larger oven would help her bake more than the eight to 12 loaves she bakes in a typical month.
She’s trying to raise $8,000 for a cottage oven, saving money from the friends and family members who insist on paying her for bread, and hoping a t-shirt sale (more info at axelradshop.com) and her Go Fund Me account will help.
“I feel like Jimmy Stewart at the end of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ ” Mazurick posted on the Go Fund Me page where, as of Friday, you could read that she had raised more than $3,000. “I’m just so amazed at the outpouring of kindness and for all the generous donations!”
If anyone wants to help her purchase an oven by sending a check, it may be made out to Leanne Mazurick and sent to Verve Vertu art studio, 24 Main St., Dallas, PA 18612.
