LEWISTON — The Rev. Paul Dumais of Lewiston’s Prince of Peace Parish isn’t your typical Catholic priest.

At 42, he’s young for a priest.

When he’s not offering sacraments or counseling at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, Central Maine Medical Center or Bates College, he’s into “real food,” concerned that food has “become too commercialized.”

Dumais belongs to a community-supported agriculture group where he buys from local farms.

Last summer, he took a group to the Common Ground Fair, where he celebrated Mass on a lawn.

He’s involved with the Kneading Conference of Skowhegan, “a serious seed to bread” group.

And Dumais is about to unveil a food project he’s worked on since last fall: The Acadian flatbread.

On Thursday, Dumais will lead a cooking class at the St. Mary’s Nutrition Center, “reintroducing the authentic, naturally leavened Acadian ploye” perhaps for the first time in 125 years, he said.

What’s different about his ployes is they’re made with “wild yeast,” or naturally leavened, as opposed to baking soda or baking powder.

He jokes that he’s treading dangerous water to suggest his ployes are better than his 93-year-old great aunt’s and other cooks in the St. John Valley. But Dumais said some ploye fans, himself included, prefer the taste of naturally risen ployes.

“The flavor is more complex. It has a little tang like sour dough,” Dumais said. “It’s a bit more sophisticated like so many naturally fermented food.” When you roll up his ploye and eat it with beans, cretons or chicken stew, it would be less likely to crumble.

Dumais got the idea for his ployes last fall when attending a potluck dinner at the St. Mary’s Nutrition Center.

He watched a Somali woman make a flatbread. Dumais asked if she used baking soda or baking powder.

“Every time she said ‘no,’ I was more intrigued,” Dumais said. “I knew about ployes and natural starters, but I never made the connection until I saw her mixing pancakes.”

He went home and experimented. As he worked, he talked to his mother and great-aunt in Madawaska. Later, he talked to experts at the Bouchard Farm, which markets ploye mix, and University of Maine at Fort Kent historians.

“When I asked, ‘Have you ever made ployes without baking powder, they said ‘no, why would you do that?’” Dumais said. When he asked his 93-year-old great-aunt how her mother made ployes more than 100 years ago, he said his aunt told him, “‘Oh yes. She had this bucket on the shelf of the cookstove. She would take from that to make batter from ployes.’”

This month, he’ll give a demonstration to the Kneading Conference in Skowhegan. Thursday’s Lewiston cooking class will help prepare him, he said.

He plans to show participants three ways to make ployes: from a mix, from making them from scratch with baking soda, and ployes from Dumais’ starter batter.

They’ll sample the three kinds of ployes with beans, chicken stew or cretons and decide which they like, Dumais said.

Asked why he would make ployes with wild yeast, Dumais said he has an interest in naturally leavened breads and in buckwheat, which is produced by his great-aunt’s Madawaska farm.

He believes in simple, affordable, healthy food, and sees a connection to religion, he said.

“We can’t do without food,” he said. “It’s holy. It’s good, wholesome. When you combine good food and good people, that’s also holy.”

He preaches to traditional church-going Catholics, and mingles with young adults who frequent the nutrition center. He’d like to see the two groups interact.

The food crowd is “raising gardens, going to the farmers’ market.” They believe “we’ve lost control over our food culture; we’ve contracted it out to China,” Dumais said. “I think they’re right.”

There’s an important conversation that should happen between the foodies and Catholics, Dumais said. “They each have something very beautiful to contribute, but they’re not talking.”

bwashuk@sunjournal.com

Ploye cooking class Thursday

LEWISTON — The Rev. Paul Dumais will be a guest instructor leading a ploye cooking class from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, July 10, at St. Mary’s Nutrition Center, 208 Bates St., Lewiston.

Reservations can be made until noon Wednesday by calling 513-3847, or  nutritioncenter@stmarysmaine.com. Space is limited.

There is a suggested donation of $5 to $10, but no one will be turned away form lack of money.

Dumais is also presenting at the upcoming Kneading Conference, for more information, go to http://2014kneadingconference.sched.org/speaker/fr.pauldumais#.U6kDz_5OVdi

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