Our Daily Bread: The Bakers Who Keep Central Oregon Rising

If you were lucky enough to snag a crusty loaf or flaky croissant at the farmers markets this summer, you already know that Bend’s small-batch bakers are doing something special. Their stalls were often lined with early risers and bread lovers, hands clutching paper bags filled with sourdough, seeded loaves and buttery pastries still warm from the oven.

Now that the market tents have folded for the season, those bakers haven’t gone into hibernation. They’re still mixing, fermenting, shaping and baking right here in Central Oregon, and there are plenty of ways to keep their bread on your table through the winter. At the heart of it all is the simple act of transformation. Grain becomes flour, flour becomes dough, and dough becomes something alive and deeply human.

Mill Fire Baking

For baker and miller Timothy Currie of Mill Fire Baking, the transformation begins with the grain itself. His small bakery and mill are built around one central idea: fresh-milled flour makes better bread. It took him nearly a decade to get his own mill, and he says learning the craft of milling is an ongoing process.

“All of our breads are naturally leavened,” Currie explains. “Bread is love. Eating and the sharing of foods is one of the most intimate things we do.”

Mill Fire’s lineup includes the Pan Suegra, a tangy sourdough he affectionately calls “Mother-In-Law Bread,” a San Francisco-style sourdough with rosemary, a butter dill sourdough Pain de Mie, and the Staff of Life sourdough baguette, made with whole grains. There are also seasonal breads, baked spice bars, Tuscan fruit and nut cakes and other baked goodies.

Currie, who refers to himself as a recovering academic, is modest about his baking skills. “The dough knows what it wants to do,” he says. “At best on a good day, I’m a shepherd or a steward.” He also believes that breadmaking is both art and diplomacy. “The more of us baking and sharing food, the less we might argue.”

Mill Fire’s weekly bread list goes out by email. You can sign up through Instagram at @mill_fire_baking or by emailing love@millfirebaking.com.

Curmuffins

Across town, Lillian (Lilly) Owen, founder of Curmuffins, brings her humor and heart to the oven. The name itself, a mashup of “curmudgeon” and “muffin,” was born during the pandemic, when she was a self-described grump of a chef trying to find joy in the kitchen again. Baking became both therapy and a tribute to her late mother, who first taught her to knead dough and trust her instincts.

Curmuffins’ rustic French sourdough, wheat seeded sourdough loaves, English muffins, brioche braids and puff tarts are all made with the kind of care you can taste. Now that the farmers markets are over, Owen bakes out of Bend Roots Mercantile on the east side, offering Saturday and Sunday morning pastries (think croissants and cinnamon rolls) along with a rotating supply of breads every day of the week.

“I like the visual,” Owen shares. “I don’t have a polished, neat style. With bread, I like the fact that the bread grows and becomes its own thing. People at markets will handpick something that speaks to them and I love that.”

Find Curmuffins’ baked goods at Bend Roots Mercantile, Locavore, Local Acres and even downtown at Dudley’s Bookshop Cafe, where her banana bread, coffee cake and chocolate babka make fine reading companions.

One Loaf

What started as one loaf of bread baked for the menu at San Simón has grown into a full-fledged micro-bakery for Jessica Dunaway, founder of One Loaf.

Her bread journey began as a passion project, something she did for herself and a few friends. Now, her artisan loaves are served at restaurants including Amaterra Kitchen + Social Club and Olvidemos wine and oyster bar. Her ciabatta rolls are the base for sandwiches at ‘Wich Doctor Sandwich Co. Her other bread offerings include a sandwich loaf, a cinnamon raisin loaf (a household fave and a by-product of her kids wanting softer bread) and ciabatta rolls. “I don’t bake or offer anything that I wouldn’t order for myself,” Dunaway says.

Beyond bread, she’s expanded into pastries and cookies, gluten-free muffins, scones and biscuits, many which make the coffee shop circuit around town. Palate, Still Vibrato, Fox & Fern, and Wild Roots Coffeehouse all carry One Loaf pastries. Seasonal favorites include a pumpkin-pecan maple muffin and a ginger molasses cookie, plus a tropical “tiki muffin” with mango, blueberry, coconut and lime.

To order directly from the cottage bakery, email jessica@oneloafbend.com.

Leaven & Love Organic Bakehouse

For Jeff Stratman, founder of Leaven & Love Organic Bakehouse, breadmaking began as a family necessity. His family needed gluten-free, dairy-free bread that still tasted like something you’d want to eat every day. So they started baking for themselves, then for other families, slowly refining their process until their bread had its own identity and soul. Every loaf at Leaven & Love is naturally fermented, made from certified organic ingredients, and crafted through a three-day gluten-free sourdough process.

“Bread is more than a product,” Stratman says. “It’s a relationship. It’s slow. It asks you to pay attention. It rewards care, patience, curiosity, and presence. Good bread brings people together. And that’s the real work we’re doing.”

Right now, the bakehouse has paused production while they secure the right kitchen setup. But their online community keeps rising through Leaven & Love at Home, a weekly Substack where Stratman and his daughter Freya teach others how to make their gluten-free sourdoughs, bagels, pastries and more. Each lesson includes a printable recipe card and a video guide, often with a vegan alternative. Anyone can join. Updates and classes are available at leavenloveathome.substack.com.

In a time when a lot of folks buy bread in plastic bags without thinking twice, these local bakers are keeping something ancient alive. They’re working by hand, trusting time and fermentation, guided more by feel than formula. Their work feeds the body, yes, but it also restores a sense of community and patience that’s easy to lose in the rush of modern life.

Whether you prefer your loaf rustic and wild or soft and seeded, you can still find it, made fresh each week by the people who believe that real bread is worth the effort.

This article appears in the Source November 6, 2025.