A Bit About Us.
Our Story.
We’re a husband-and-wife team—Jim Petrusich and Sonja Pearson—former seasoned bakers who’ve found our way back to the craft. Every baker has a favorite: a perfect baguette, sourdough loaf, or flaky pie crust. For us, it’s Swabian-style pretzels that have captured our hearts with their rustic charm and endless versatility. We take pride in our local partners and we look forward to sharing our passion with fellow pretzel lovers for years to come. When we’re not baking, we enjoy a rural lifestyle in the Columbia River Gorge with our daughter, Frieda, and a lively household that includes a dog and two cats.
Our Vision.
Whenever possible, we source locally. Like many passionate bakers in the community, we aim to revive a time-honored craft that supports local farmers and millers in our region. In the commercialized world, the disconnect between bakers and farmers/millers is evident. Inspired by many trail-blazing bakers and chefs who have closely collaborated with local grain growers, farmers, and millers, setting an excellent example for respecting the craft, we set out to follow that example.
Our Method.
We use a one-sponge dough method, also known as the yeasted pre-ferment method.
It’s not a natural fermentation, such as wild fermentation or the use of wild yeast, typically employed for sourdough and levain bread. Yeasted pre-ferments include poolish, biga, sponge, and pâte fermentée (old dough). While we love and enjoy whole-grain sourdough bread, we opt for yeasted pre-ferments over sourdough starters or levains because we prefer our pretzels to be nutty, savory, and rich, with no hint of sourness.
Three-day-long process:
- Day 1: flour + water, a pinch of dry instant yeast. Ferment overnight in the walk-in cooler for 10-12 hours to create the pre-ferment.
- Day 2: mix all ingredients with pre-ferments. Process and shape by hand, then place in a walk-in cooler overnight for cold overnight fermentation.
- Day 3: dip in lye bath and bake. When pretzels come out of the oven in perfect harmony and unison, pure baker’s joy follows. If not, misery follows.
Facts:
- We offer both classic and vegan pretzels!
- The benefits of gentle dough mixing and using pre-ferments and cold fermentation include flavor, aroma, structure, digestibility, and shelf life.
- The aim is that the wheat we use is only grown in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Utah.
- We are continuously experimenting and tinkering with higher extraction flour (Type 85 and Type 110) and 100% freshly stone-milled whole wheat pretzels, as in a limited edition. Someday this will be available.
