From Backyard Oven to The Evergrain Bakery: A Chat With Doug Rae

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One of the great things about living in town is that my apartment sits just above Evergrain Bakery. And yes, you can smell the blueberries and sourdough rising in the ovens. It didn’t take long to realize a good story was baking right beneath my feet—though it took a little longer to get to it.

Recently, I had the chance to spend a morning with Doug Rae as he prepared a large batch of sourdough “Miches.” For someone like me, whose baking experience begins and ends at pizza, the process felt like a kind of modern-day alchemy. It was more intricate than I expected: Rae mixed the live yeast culture with flour, coaxed water into a giant mixer, added a scoop of salt, and after cutting and hand-shaping the dough, ended up with elastic globes that looked a bit like curling stones that would eventually find their way to the oven. All of this, of course, was measured out in increments of time as as the fermenting process took place. Yet he moved through it all with the casual ease of folding laundry. He’s been doing this for years.

At 15, Rae and his father built a brick oven in their backyard. A few years later, he enrolled at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, home to one of the nation’s top baking programs. There, he trained under master bakers like Mitch Stamm and worked alongside Team USA as they prepared for the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie in Paris. “That exposure shaped everything,” he says.

Rae opened Evergrain Bakery in Chestertown in 2010 with a simple plan: “Bake as much bread as possible and get it to as many people as I could.” The shop quickly became a local institution, known for its sourrsough, rosemary focaccia, cinnamon raisin loaves, cheddar and herb rounds, and a New York–style bagel that sells by the dozen at farmers markets. On the pastry side, Evergrain produces laminated Viennoiserie like croissants and pain au chocolat, aliong with the aforementioned blueberry muffins, cookies and brownies.

Teaching is just as important to Rae as baking. “The only thing I love more than baking is teaching,” he says. Whether training staff or guiding college students through the alchemy of sourdough, he sees bread as a tool for connection and education.

Evergrain’s approach blends traditional and modern techniques—what Rae calls “retro-innovation.” By combining old-world methods with newer equipment, he says, “we get the highest quality product possible.”

Like many small businesses, Evergrain faced uncertainty during COVID. But support from the community turned 2020 into their busiest year. Today, they sell at farmers markets across Maryland—from Easton to Havre de Grace.

Looking ahead, Rae plans to open an offsite production facility and mill his own flour using heritage grains and working with local farmers. “Decentralizing food systems is a no-brainer,” he says. “It builds food security and identity.”

With plans to restore indoor seating and expand offerings, Evergrain remains grounded in Rae’s original vision: “What we make isn’t from a factory. It’s from people you know. And it’s for a cause we believe in.”

For more about Evergrain Bakery, go here.