Feeling PECish

Sweet treats at new bakery in Milford

On Friday mornings, Matti Matyassalvi is awake by 5 a.m. and heads over to the PECish bakery in Milford where he takes the croissants that he had rolled and refrigerated the night before and places them in the proofer to be ready for baking later in the morning. He then whips up a few batches of cookies before heading back home to prepare dough for bread that will be baked later that evening. Then it’s back to the bakery with his husband, Stephen, to bake everything— croissants, Danishes, cookies—for the nine o’clock opening. Stephen and another staff member will hold down the fort while Matti makes trips to County Sunshine for their flour order, or to Laundry Farms for fresh fruit for the Danishes. The bakery is open until 2 p.m., but often sells out of product well before that. “Then I go home and start the croissant process for [Saturday], then the assistant baker shows up and we do bread production until the wee hours. Then when I wake up I bring all the bread to the bakery and start to bake the croissants, and when we close, I fall asleep, usually until Sunday,” says Matti.

(L-R): Matty and Stephen Matyassalvi operate the PECish bakery in Milford, providing a selection of fresh-baked goods on Fridays and Saturdays.

Opening a bakery had been a dream of Matti’s for a long time. Matti started his career as an apprentice in a hair salon, before changing gears and going into IT, moving to Los Angeles to work for an investment bank. That was not the ideal fit for him, and he ended up in Toronto where he worked in the fashion industry and is now a partner in a modelling agency. Stephen began his career in aerospace engineering, and then became a chartered financial analyst working with firms on Bay Street and Wall Street, before starting a management consulting business. The couple had been visiting the County for more than 20 years, and got married here, eventually having their own place here about a decade ago. Matti had been baking bread at home, and he and Stephen often spoke about opening a bakery in Milford sometime in the future. Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck. With both their business prospects languishing, they began to seriously consider opening a bakery. Family circumstances kept Stephen in Toronto for several months at the beginning of this year, and Matti started baking in earnest, building up a dedicated Instagram audience, and creating far more than he could eat. Soon he was delivering baked items to friends and neighbours in the County, and was encouraged to start his own bakery. The stars aligned and a property in Milford became available. They took possession on March 5th, and then spent the next month renovating, opening the first week in April for pre-order sales. “At first people came to the door and picked up, but more and more folks from Milford said ‘Hey, I know you can order online, but can I just come in and buy?’, so we started baking more available in-store, and now we’re actually selling more in-store than online,” says Stephen. They’ve installed a take-out window, so people don’t have to wait in line for pre-orders, but Matti says that many people also come into the bakery to see what new products are available. “The local support has been phenomenal. We have customers literally from day one that place a weekly order, and we know them by name and feel like we know their families because we just see them all the time,” says Stephen.

All the baked goods, except for gluten-free products, are made in-house. “Our goal is that everything is local source or heritage or organic, so ingredients are of paramount importance. We want to make sure we have a quality product. Sometimes it’s a little bit more expensive, but that’s just what we have to do,” says Matti. “This is something that gives me immense joy. It’s really nice to be face to face with my own customer, and it’s nice to see people week after week enjoying the products.” Matti and Stephen are extremely grateful for the outpouring of local support, which started even before the bakery opened. One of the first things they did was to clean up the exterior of the building and clear out the brush that had taken over the back yard, something the neighbours really appreciated. During renovations, Nat and Drew Wollenberg of the nearby Jacksons Falls Inn gave them a head’s-up of when contractors or specialized tradespeople were available. They’ve been approached by a number of County businesses to provide wholesale contracts, but have chosen to remain small for now, supplying the Curious Goat General Store and having an arrangement with 555 Brewery for a spent grain bread, using grains from the brewing process. “We want to build the café. We want to have a little general store,” says Stephen, “ We have a lot of visions, but we want to do it at our pace and with our involvement.”

PECish Baking Company is located at 3020 County Road 10 in Milford and is open on Fridays and Saturdays. Please visit pecishbaking.co for online orders.