IF you can taste the gravelly, sandy loams of the Great Southern in its grapefruit-accented chardonnnays and herby-undertoned rieslings, could you find the expression of that terroir, too, in the dark nuttiness of bread made from a locally-grown rye?
Albany chef Sam Dawson thinks so.
"It's a great question... wine people have a language for it,'' Mr Dawson said.
"We haven't reached that stage, but we are working on it.''
But if the language of flavour of provenance remains elusive, Mr Dawson certainly knows how to describe the type of local bread he was hoping to find when he moved back home to Albany from Perth about five years ago.
"Really dark, really well baked, with high hydration, so the interior is a bit more custardy, and well-fermented,'' were prerequisites firmly on his wishlist.
"Breads that are well-fermented and have more water in them are healthier, they are easier to digest and the flavour is usually better too.
"And we wanted whole grains.''
Mr Dawson and his partner Rhiannon Moon now run a busy and growing bakery, Bred Co, in Albany, which turns out hundreds of such well-fermented, dark loaves each week from a renovated shop front - and which are made from locally-grown grain which they mill themselves.
They started the business more on a whim than with a plan - nobody in town was making the good-quality, fermented, dark bread they wanted to eat.
"I didn't really want to make good bread, I just wanted to eat good bread,'' Mr Dawson said.
"We just started making bread for ourselves and then went down the rabbit hole a bit and thought there was an opportunity here.
"We wanted jobs for ourselves and I imagine it's a lot harder starting a restaurant than a bakery.''
Bred Co began humbly, the couple worked out of a shed making loaves to sell wholesale to local restaurants and cafes and at the weekend farmers' market.
"And we started milling ourselves as well,'' Mr Dawson said, using a hammer-driven flour mill, which wasn't ideal, but did the job.
"We have grown little by little, with lots of little baby steps, it has probably been the safest but the most boring way to grow a business,'' he said.
Two years ago the pair moved Bred Co to a new premises in a renovated former bakery retailer, which allowed them to upgrade to their first 'bricks and mortar' shop front.
The renovated building meant they could also take delivery of a $20,000 Austrian flour mill, which now takes pride of place on the premises.
Mr Dawson considered mill options at the "big two" mill companies - New American Stone Mills in the United States and Osttiroler Getreidemhlen in Austria - which made the kind of commercial, small-scale flour mills suitable for their space and size of operation.
"We now have a beautiful Austrian timber and stone mill,'' he said.
"It is a beautiful bit of equipment.''
Mr Dawson said from the outset, they aimed to have a sense of place come through in what they produced - for their own satisfaction and because it made financial and business sense.
The simplicity of Bred Co's small supply chain - which relies on local ingredients, in-house production and local distribution - also meant that it couldn't easily be disrupted.
"It makes a difference - big time,'' Mr Dawson said.
"People talk about terroir in grapes, but that exists in every plant.
"If you are using whole grains that have all the flavour, and you are using local whole grains, then you are making a bread that truly tastes of the region.
"That is really important to us.''
To that end, the whole grains which go into all Bred Co's loaves and pastries come from about 70 kilometres away - from farmers Dale and Penny Goodwin, at Goodies Farm, Kendenup, who operate on regenerative farming principles to grow chemical residue-free produce.
"Goodies Farm is a bit more natural, rather than bending the land into submission,'' Mr Dawson said.
"They are letting the land tell them what to grow and then what they grow, is what we use.''
Mr Dawson buys about 200 kilograms a week of the Goodwin's grain - at the moment that comprises Calingiri wheat, triticale (a wheat and rye crossbred) and rye - which is milled to produce hundreds of loaves across eight-to-10 varieties plus pasties, sausage rolls and sweet treats, such as danishes and croissants.
"We are changing the bread specials all the time, plus we are always talking to the restaurants and cafes about what they want on their menus,'' Mr Dawson said.
He sees widespread benefits in Goodies' triticale and rye crops, in particular, as the varieties were known to grow well with low pesticide use.
"They grow tall so they can outgrow the weed, so you don't need to use glyphosate,'' he said.
"We are making some pretty good bread out of those.''
Bred Co now employs 16 staff - including five bakers and four prep chefs - and the loaves are baked overnight, with shifts starting at 11am, midnight and 6am.
"We are job creators,'' Mr Dawson said with pride.
"And everything we make from scratch, from the mayonnaise to the mustard.
"We use whole grains where we can, or if not, it's sifted local flour, and we work closely with local farmers.
"We have just taken the last of a local farm's green jalapenos... we ferment them and turn them into a sriracha hot sauce to have in one of our baguette sandwiches.''
The company distributes products in Albany and Denmark, and occasionally to Mt Barker, and though expanding beyond the Great Southern would be possible, it remains unlikely.
"I think if we expanded beyond Albany it would miss the point a little bit,'' Mr Dawson said.
"If we wanted to sell in Perth, we would have to set up a bakery there and find some grain grown a bit closer to the location.
"We are making local bread, from local wheat and selling it to local people, decentralising the system a little bit - that's what we wanted to do from the start."
