We make our sourdough slowly, by hand, and in small batches.

Every loaf gets a lot of attention along the way, from the flour we choose and the health of our starter to fermentation, shaping, scoring, and baking. We’re always chasing better flavor, a great crust, and that chewy, tender crumb that makes you immediately reach for another piece.

There are faster ways to make bread. We’re just not particularly interested in them.

Sourdough is beautifully simple and ridiculously complex at the same time. Flour, water, salt, and a living starter can behave differently depending on temperature, time, hydration, flour, fermentation, and about a hundred other tiny details.

There’s always something to learn, tweak, and improve.

Instead of relying on commercial yeast to make our sourdough rise quickly, we use a living sourdough starter made from flour and water.

That starter contains naturally occurring wild yeast and bacteria that slowly ferment the dough over time. The process takes patience, but it’s also what develops the flavor, aroma, and texture we love about a great loaf of sourdough.

Basically, the starter does things on its own schedule.

Longer than you might think.

A loaf of Charm Type Bakery sourdough is a process that stretches across multiple days. There’s feeding the starter, mixing the dough, fermentation, folding, shaping, proofing, scoring, and finally baking.

There are no shortcuts between “we need more bread” and a finished loaf cooling on the rack.

It’s also one of the reasons preordering matters. By the time Saturday rolls around, your loaf has already been in the works for quite a while.

Good bread doesn’t need much, but what goes into it matters.

At the heart of our sourdough you'll find quality flour, water, salt, and our naturally fermented starter. From there, things get more interesting.

Depending on the loaf, we might add whole or heritage grains, seeds, cheese, roasted garlic, herbs, honey, oats, peppers, or whatever else has earned its way into the dough.

Ingredients vary by product, so check the individual menu listing for the specifics of what’s in your favorite.

We keep some favorites in rotation while making room for seasonal flavors, specialty loaves, and exciting new things Troy’s been tinkering with behind the scenes.

Sometimes an experiment becomes a regular. Sometimes something great only makes an appearance for a weekend.

Checking the menu each week is part of the fun.

We’re a tiny family bakery, not a production facility. Our bread is mixed, shaped, scored, and baked in quantities that allow us to give it the attention it deserves.

That also means there’s a limit to how much we can make in a week. We plan carefully around preorders and make additional goods for the Bread Tent when we can, but sometimes we sell out.

We'd rather make a limited amount really well than make more just for the sake of making more.

Nope.

Sourdough may have started this whole thing, and it remains a big part of what we do, but Troy is interested in good bread in all its forms.

Some of our breads and baked goods use different fermentation methods because that's what makes sense for that particular product. We’d rather use the right technique to make something delicious than force everything into the sourdough category just because we can.

The common denominator isn't always sourdough.

It's making really good stuff.