How we got here.
A few hands, a stubborn starter, and a little building on Big Blue Rd at the edge of Sequoia National Forest.
A starter from a borrowed jar.
We didn’t set out to open a bakery. The starter came in a mason jar from a friend in Three Rivers — wild yeast caught off her kitchen window. We named her Old Growth and started feeding her every morning, and the bread got better. Then a building came up for lease, and the bakery decided itself.
We mill our own flour from the valley below the pass, draw water from the same Kern that runs past the front porch, and bake on a stone hearth that holds heat the way granite holds the sun.
A summer in Kernville
Kitchen experiments at home, neighbors as testers. Most of the loaves came out flat. The good ones we kept making.
The lease on Big Blue Rd
We found the old building near the bridge. Sanded the counters by hand. Painted the front porch the color of pine needles after rain.
Doors open at 7:30
First loaf out of the hearth. Sold out by 11. We learned to make more.
Still small, still slow
Same starter. Same hands. Better at it. We bake what we can sell same-day, and we close when we run out.
“We’re not trying to be the best bakery in California. We’re trying to be the best bakery on Big Blue Rd. So far it’s working.”