Breadwinner Series: Truckee Sourdough Company

I opened the door and the intense aroma of freshly baking bread almost knocks me over. As I’m sure you’re familiar, bakeries always do this. What about freshly baking bread in the oven makes us feel so heady and deeply giddy?

I found myself in the bakery of Truckee Sourdough one Sunday to fill my curiosity about breadmaking. I've always had a profound curiosity for where our food comes from and in the most basic level, I never really understood what makes sourdough sour. For posts like these, not only do I want to convey the passion behind the local food brands we know, but I also hope I am able to infect the same curiosity in others about caring about where our food comes from.

The Rise of Truckee Sourdough

I shook the hand of Keith Nikkel, founder of Truckee Sourdough, and his wife, Dianne, and we sat in their office to chat about the roots of what started as a one man-operation back in the 90's and is now a sophisticated bakery operation churning an average of 25,000 breads daily, year-round (with the exception of Christmas and Thanksgiving). Keith used to own and run Ponderosa Deli in downtown Truckee and Truckee Sourdough was borne out of his desire to make their own breads, to make better bread.

Without any experience in breadmaking and with Google being virtually unheard of at that time, Keith sought out to create the best sourdough, literally from scratch. Experimentation and research eventually struck gold and over two decades, Truckee Sourdough has edged its way to stores and tables of our favorite local restaurants like St. James Brasserie and Midtown Eats.

That is why when Keith took me around for a tour of their bakery, I could sense his quiet pride for what Truckee Sourdough is now today. It was the kind of pride that only comes from those who truly started something out of dedication and hardwork, out of passion and perseverance. Nowadays, they make all sorts of bread from loaves to buns to rolls to bagels. We stood in front of a huge stone hearth oven and observed as ciabatta went in. We came back around on our way out just as the golden, crusty, ciabatta loaves were coming out of the oven. Fancy pastries and cakes are nice, but there is something very puritan about freshly baked bread. They were beautiful.

Why So Sour?

Sourdough is a type of bread with a natural tart taste cultivated on purpose by leaving out dough between 24-72 hours (also called fermenting), depending on the type of bread, so that naturally occurring yeasts attach themselves to the bread to give it depth and complexity. Yeast is naturally occurring in flour and in the air, and Truckee's elevation and unique alpine climate lends to sourdough breads with distinct flavor that cannot be replicated in lower lying areas.

Truckee Sourdough today has strived to keep true to the integrity of old world style bread by not adding commercial yeasts to most of its breads and by not using any chemicals or preservatives either. Flour, water, and yeast is what you'll get - no complex, hard-to-pronounce chemical list.

Depth and Breadth

I went to Truckee Sourdough to learn about bread, but here I am, walking away with more. I learned about entrepreneurship and risk taking, that "impossible" is often just a story of fiction we tell ourselves. To learn that Truckee Sourdough was started by a visionary who had no idea how to make bread in the beginning is very telling of that. We hear about stories like these all the time and what separates "them" is that they are unrelenting and that they were brave enough to risk failure.

As I walked to my parked car to leave, it had started to rain. There was a slight chill in the air, as it does when it rains in Truckee. I inhaled sharply that distinct fresh, crisp mountain pine air, dancing with that aroma of fresh baked bread. It hit me that at that moment, I was possibly also inhaling that which is elemental to the loaves of sourdough I am such a puddle for.

It's time to rush home and make a bowl of soup, and tear apart some of this warm crusty bread.

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Truckee Sourdough Company breads are sold at Whole Foods, Safeway, Costco, and other grocery stores. You are also most likely to find their breads at local restaurants in Reno and Tahoe. For more information, check out their website here.

P.S. I did not have time to make soup when I got home, but did break out a crusty Truckee Sourdough Roasted Garlic loaf. Slathered with butter or dunked in extra virgin olive oil (I use Calivirgin from Lodi, CA) scarpetta style, my day was made.

| A big shoutout to Maggie of Sourdough Truckee Company whose trust I don't take for granted! A big thanks to Keith and Dianne Nikkel for being generous with their time, stories, and bread.|

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