More than Bread and Butter
The Heart of Dunsmuir’s Knead Micro Bakery…
For Julia Simon and Adam Norvell, real-life partners and co-owners and operators of the Knead Micro Bakery in Dunsmuir, home is truly where the hearth is. “We have a cottage license bakery, so we have a permit to operate food production out of our home. We put a commercial residential bread oven into our dining nook that just fits in with a refrigerator and two shelves, and we had to custom make a table and stand for the oven to accommodate it. If we get much more going on as far as volume, we might really grow out of the space,” explains Norvell. But it’s not just the family business that’s been growing, it’s the family as well. Currently they work around one young son at home and have another child on the way. “Some of our regulars love to tease us that all of our ovens are full,” jokes Simon.
When it comes to Knead’s offerings, Simon and Norvell each have a different focus. “Adam does most of the dough side, where we do naturally leavened products ranging from classic sourdough loaves of bread to an aged cheddar soft pretzel. And I kind of specialize in what we consider alternative sweet treats, most of which are gluten-free. We use unrefined raw coconut sugar, so no refined sugars. Many of the treats are also dairy-free. So, we each kind of fill a little niche of very specialized baked goods,” describes Simon.
But when it comes to their company’s business ethos, they are very much of one mind, using family values like health, wellness and sustainability as their guiding principles. “We get asked all the time, ‘what’s in the bread?’ and it’s such a simple, short list, especially for our sourdough country loaf. It’s just flour and water and salt. We want to use as few ingredients as possible, which also translates to the sweet treats.”
Norvell explains that in procuring those ingredients, the couple tries to keep a small footprint. “We source all the best and mostly organic ingredients as locally as possible. The whole wheat that is 50 percent of our breads is from a small farm in Scott Valley, and the other two flours we use are from a mill near Eugene, Ore.” Simon details some of their other conscientious choices to that end. “Since our home is solar-powered, the bakery is ultimately run off solar as well. And, all of our packaging from bags to labels are 100 percent home-compostable.”
Knead has only been on the Siskiyou scene for the last year or so, but Simon and Norvell have more than a decade of experience working in the food industry, both in the kitchen and management. “We met in San Francisco in 2012, and we ran a cafe in the Mission District alongside Julia’s brother,” explains Norvell.
Then, after a stint in Sebastopol, the couple ended up in Paradise, until 2018. “We lost our home during the Camp Fire, which obviously prompted a move,” Simon recalls. “So, we packed up what we had left and traveled around in a camper van for about a year. We went all up and down the coast hoping to find the next spot to settle, and we ended up here in Dunsmuir right before the quarantine set in. So, we bought a house and hunkered down. Once we could go out again, we each worked a couple of jobs in the area and loved engaging with the community, but once our son came into the picture, we really wanted to be as available to him in all the ways that we could. So, that prompted launching a home-based business doing what we know and love.”
So far, Dunsmuir has been a great fit, both in terms of local business resources and a like-minded community. “Dunsmuir is this kind of unknown mecca of local makers. There are so many people doing creative, fun things. The more we engage with our business, the more we get to learn and the more people we get to meet,” says Simon.
Knead now supplies bread at the Bee Kind bakery in Dunsmuir, as well as through the Mount Shasta and Dunsmuir farmers markets. But Simon says they are open to conversations with other potential outlets. “We’ve been building an email signup list at the markets for those who are interested in staying in the loop. The baby is due in December, so we’re looking to take a little pause, but when we’re ready to resume, we’re going to do some subscription-based home delivery breads and see how that goes. As for wholesale, we’re just trying to get the word out there, so anyone who’s interested, we’re super ready to have a conversation and figure something out.”•
Find Knead Micro Bakery on Instagram or email [email protected]
