Raven Bakery

Sophie Williams started Raven in 2014 with no commercial baking background at all, working out of borrowed commissary kitchens and delivering by bicycle. She stopped using white flour after a stage in Toronto and never went back. Nearly a decade later, at the start of 2023, the bakery finally got a shop of its own on Prospect Street.

Everything is wholegrain sourdough and the calendar matters. Mountain Rye, the flagship and a loaf built for people who think they do not like rye, comes out Wednesday through Saturday. Great White and its small sibling the Sharklette land on Saturdays. Vollkornbrot appears in the first week of the month, Black Rye in the third. As the menu puts it, some breads some days, some breads every day.

Three quarters of the ingredients by weight are grown in Washington, from Cairnspring Mills in the Skagit, Chimacum Valley Grainery, and Holmquist hazelnuts up the road in Whatcom County.