The next time you exit the back door of Reny's in Damariscotta, you may notice some dreamy aromas wafting around you. There are some first-rate artisan breads being baked in a small kitchen nearby.

Hootenanny Bread is located in the PREPKITCHEN underneath the Damariscotta River Grill, and master bread maker Derek DeGeer and his friend and co-worker John Merry are doing the making and the baking.

DeGeer's grandfather was a baker, and he said he has always had an interest in baking bread.

Around seven years ago, he attended the Kneading Conference in Skowhegan, a convergence of bakers, millers and oven builders organized by the Maine Grain Alliance, and an idea began formulating.

Shortly afterward, DeGeer heard that Borealis (Breads) had stopped doing the Monday farmers market in Damariscotta, and they were looking for a bread vendor. “I started fantasizing about making bread at that point,” he said.

He talked to his friend Rick Hirsch, a co-owner of Damariscotta River Grille. Hirsch told him he could use his restaurant kitchen during off hours.

“I would go in at night after the restaurant closed and in the morning before they opened up and bake bread in their little convection oven,” he said. DeGeer signed up for the Damariscotta Farmers Market.

“It was a hit. People were so eager to support a young business, even though sometimes I didn't know what I was doing and I'd screw up the breads, but people just responded really well. The combination of making stuff all day and talking about myself was great. I loved it.”

The next year he signed up for the Friday Damariscotta market and then the Boothbay and Bath ones. “It just started to snowball and it went from something I was doing one or two days a week to something I'm doing all the time,” he said. ‘I've got three guys working with me now.”

Merry, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, runs a farm and was a neighbor at farmers markets. “John would always critique my breads when I took them to markets,” he said. “I finally said, 'Well, if you think you know so much why don't you come bake bread with me.' And he did.”

DeGeer said when they joined forces and started honing in on their skills, they began making better breads together.

Prior to becoming a master at making bread, DeGeer, a painter with an MFA from Boston University, was involved in the art world in New York City working at a large museum and gallery, Gagosian Gallery. His wife, originally from Waldoboro, was working for a law firm. They moved back to Maine in 2009. “We had just had a child and decided to move back here. I started teaching movement music and movement classes for kids, playing guitar, and installing art at the Farnsworth in Rockland and teaching art at the Maine College of Art.

Now DeGeer is focusing on breads — ciabatta, multi-grain sourdough, rustic sourdough and olive, among others— as well as bagels and pretzels. Along with selling the items from the PREPKITCHEN and at local farmers markets, Hootennany supplies the Damariscotta River Grille with its ciabatta and rye breads.

“The business has taken off, and it's sometimes hard to keep up with it,” DeGeer said. But compared with the life he left behind in New York City, he loves almost every minute of it. “Now I’m paid to make stuff, play music and talk about myself all day,” he said. “In New York I was just another manager of the Death Star.”

On Friday evenings from 5 to 7, in a joint venture between DeGeer , Merry and Damariscotta River Grille, the bread kitchen doubles as a pizzeria. DeGeer and Merry continue baking bread while taking orders for, and making, pizzas. And once you've had one, you'll be back. Call 207-350-9371 to place an order next Friday.