Try saying Dooher’s Delightfully Delicious Donuts five times in a row really fast. The customers who frequent the bakery have been saying it for a long time. The small bakery in Campbellford has been frying donuts and other treats for 68 years.
The bakery is quaint with two grand fridges separating the customers from the kitchen. From the back, the click and clack of hard working bakers comes floating through the air to the front. Regulars sit and enjoy coffee and treats. The smell of fresh breads, cookies, pies and of course donuts wafts through the bakery. The air is heavy and warm, almost engulfing the customers as they enter.
Harry and Muriel opened Dooher’s bakery in 1949. Sixty-eight years later, Cory Dooher, their granddaughter is running the business. Jeremy, her son, and a dozen other staff have been there since three a.m. to prepare for the day ahead.
“On a busy day, we can be here until 2 p.m. Particularly in the summertime, we have longer days or around the holidays. During Christmas time my dad will come out of retirement to help. He will bake all night and day to keep up with the demand around that time of year,” said Cory.
Cory Dooher went to school for early childhood education. However, after having her second child she underwent a severe postpartum depression. She says it brought her back to the bakery and she’s been there ever since. Kneading dough, being around family or even creating something from scratch can be extremely therapeutic. Perhaps, for Cory, feeling closer to her grandparents is why she came back.
“Neither one of my grandparents are alive anymore, it’s important for me to carry this on for them. I used to go and visit them, we would talk about the bakery of then and now. It was always one of my greatest pleasures spending time with them, we had a special connection,” said the granddaughter.
“The gingerbread cookies are my personal favourite. Growing up, going over to their house, my grandpa always made them for us, we would get to watch eagerly as we waited. Even after he stopped working he would still make them when we came over,” said Cory.
On the bakery’s busiest days, they can have up to 22 staff. Compared to the small crew of three her grandparents started with. She is proud to think how far they have come.
Cory is not only a baker, she is also a mother, a recently divorced one. The father of her children had recently relapsed into addiction. The strain on her face is visible. Having to take care of the shop, her children and if she has time herself. Despite all of this, she is positive. It is obvious to anyone who walks in that this place is important to her.
She talks about having the demand to expand. The lot next door she says could make a great addition as well as give us more space. However, she laughs nervously at the thought of ever taking on more responsibility than she already has.