What’s with the crow?

Thousands of crows call Grover Beach home seasonally throughout the year. These inky black birds are bright and resourceful, passing information down from generation to generation…just like family bakers do. We love our living mascots and hope you do too.

How about your Sourdough starter?

Before The Spoon Trade opened in 2015, Jacob and Brooke were shopping at local farmer’s markets almost every single day, where they were lucky to meet growers and makers from across the community.

At the time, Jacob was experimenting with baking bread and practicing recipes. After countless trials, he chose to use
native yeast* found on blueberries from Two Peas in a Pod farm in Arroyo Grande to create his own Sourdough starter.

He crushed the fresh berries together with some flour and water…and waited. The sugar from the berries would become the food for the yeast to grow and multiply.

If it sounds like a magic potion, that’s because it is.

*What’s native yeast?

If you’ve ever picked a plum off a tree or enjoyed fresh grapes toward the end of summer, you may have noticed a white powder coating on the fruit. This coating is yeast, which is native to whatever location the fruit was grown.