Get some holiday baking in Alfred!
The shelves at Bakery of Heidi and Willy in Alfred are filled daily, but you need to move quickly because the store itself will close in a few weeks for winter.
The business model of being open early October to December 31 represents a life choice made by the husband-and-wife team of veteran bakers, Heidi and Willy Suter, yet it has become a very successful one.
“People have asked us, ‘Why only three months open? Why can you not open the whole year?’ I tell them, it’s a choice of living for us. We’ve worked all our lives. Very hard,” says Heidi.
After their arrival in Canada in 1992, the pair operated several commercial bakeries before settling into a smaller, and simply named, business on County Road 17.
The bakery with stainless-steel pastry sheeter, Hobart floor mixer, ovens, pastry tables and other equipment was established in 1994: it’s at least three times the size of the more recently added retail store, sales counter and shelves packed with cakes, cookies and other assorted and sundry pastries.
It’s a culmination of two lives spent as bakers …
For more of this story, visit Andre Paquette Editions.
Gabrielle Boelsterli
Met Heidi at the Museum of History on November 21, 2024. Bought two items from her Wasp Cake au miel et aux noisettes; and Gingerbread with marzipan inside. Absolutely delicious. It was great meeting Heidi, for I come from Switzerland as well, yet I haven’t spoken Swiss it’ over 40 years, so I lost a lot, yet I still understand, and could speak a little. Heidi even took the time to wish my dad a happy birthday who turned 91. My dad was so happy to be able to speak swiss with Heidi.