Kristyn Suemnick with Old Oak Sourdough

The Forrager Podcast for Cottage Food Businesses

Kristyn Suemnick lives in Murrieta, CA and sells organic sourdough bread with her cottage food bakery, Old Oak Sourdough.

Kristyn had long struggled with gluten intolerance and had not eaten gluten for many years, but once she discovered authentic sourdough bread in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic, everything changed.

She made sourdough bread for just her family for over a year and a half, but once she decided to start selling it, her business took off and she hasn’t been able to keep up with demand since!

In this episode, you’ll hear how Kristyn’s love for sourdough has turned into a thriving home bakery that allows her to stay home with her kids and connect even more with her community.

What You’ll Learn

• Why Kristyn fell in love with sourdough baking due to her gluten intolerance
• When to step into bigger equipment to scale and meet increased demand
• Why Kristyn uses high-quality, organic ingredients for her bread
• The benefits of changing up your menu each week
• Why you should consider offering a subscription service for your products
• Variables for pricing premium sourdough bread
• The importance of community in a cottage food business
• A perfect example of how starting a business can lead to opportunities you’d never expect
• The pros and cons of running a business from home
• How to balance running a home bakery, parenting, and being employed full-time

Resources

Old Oak Sourdough website (Instagram)

Simply Bread oven

Central Milling (flour and grains)

Annie Clapper’s sourdough cookie recipe

California Cottage Food Law

Sponsor

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To check them out, go to forrager.com/simplybread

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/105