― New Beginnings ―
Kick-started by a pandemic.
Since moving to Wellington New Zealand in 2001, I have always had my foot in the hospitality world from cheffing to event management.
Whilst New Zealand was in lockdown, I had a lot more time on my hands to drive my family mad. Eventually, they sent me off on a walk to collect some 10 year old sourdough starter. I think their hope was for me to leave them alone whilst they worked and I created in the kitchen. As a chef by trade, creating great food has always been my passion and their plan worked! I nurtured my sourdough starter, every day, feeding this bubbling jar of goodness and experimenting with pancakes, breads, & crackers until one day I tried sourdough crumpets and our world as we knew it changed.
What began as a hobby or should I say obsession, quickly turned into an online shop, a stall at the local Wellington Harbourside Market and now producing crumpets for local cafes & deli.
Our handcrafted crumpets are now becoming very well known in the artisan world becoming a must-have item in the pantry for a breakfast, lunch or dinner. The supermarket variety is now becoming a thing of the past for our regulars, swearing they can never go back.
I am so thankful to all my family & friends for their support in making my dream a reality.
“These are incredible, I can never go back to the supermarket ones!”
— Jacqui
“Just wanted to say - I've had to seriously ration my crumpet intake as I want to eat them all at once as they taste so good!! They're so delicious! Thank you.'“
— Hayley
“Wow these crumpets are incredible! I don’t think my children will accept anything else from now on. How can we order more?“
— Luisa
The science behind Sourdough.
Sourdough is a natural yeast. There’s yeast all around us: in the air, on our hands, on surfaces. Sourdough captures those natural yeasts and uses them as a raising agent.
It also contains strains of the beneficial bacteria Lactobacillus, which helps with the raising process as well as fermentation. Together these microorganisms work to create carbon dioxide, which is what raises bread, waffles, biscuits, etc.
In sourdough, the concentration of gluten is decreased by about 97% during the fermentation process essentially the sourdough is eating the nasties found in non-sourdough items. Eating sourdough can be a safe and healthy way to consume grains for nearly everyone.
Before shelf-stable yeasts were invented, sourdough is what people used to bake bread. It’s easy to understand why commercial yeast is so popular: it requires a fraction of the time! Sourdough takes much more patience and loving care, but it results in a far superior flavour (in my opinion).
