Stuck in Vermont: Trent Cooper Celebrates Three Years of Trent’s Bread in Westford

Trent Cooper is obsessed with perfecting his loaf of pain de campagne — a naturally leavened country-style bread. For three years he has made more than 77,000 of these oblong loaves, also known as French sourdough. But only in the past few weeks did he feel that he achieved some nearly perfect specimens.

Trent began as an apprentice to well-known local baker Gérard Rubaud in 2012 and took over his bakery in 2020, two years after Gérard’s death. Trent makes about 600 loaves per week in the winter and each bâtard takes a huge amount of effort. He bakes solo on weeknights with only the company of his dog, Benny, who spends most of the shift sleeping.

Eva joined Trent and Benny at the Westford bakery on a recent Tuesday night to watch two batches of dough get mixed, shaped and baked in a wood-fired oven. And at 2:30 a.m., she ate the fresh, hot bread smothered in butter.

Trent’s Bread can be found at multiple locations, including Rail City Market, Intervale Community Farm, Jericho Center Country Store and City Market, Onion River Co-op.

Filming date: 2/14/23

Music: Reed Mathis, “Moonrise”