Orcas Bakery is Coming Soon!

I love bread.

If you do too, consider being a founding member of Orcas Bakery, set to open in the spring in the building where Tide Pool Coffeehouse used to be.

They were giving hours of various warm, buttered samples at Island Market in December and WOW, were they good!!

Here are the different subscriptions you can pre-order…

Okay, I’m drooling.

And here’s the scoop from their website, orcasbakery.com:

News flash: Orcas Bakery is happening!

Wonderful news: thanks to you, Orcas Bakery is coming to Eastsound this spring!

Three things made this possible. First, there’s everyone who purchased memberships and bread subscriptions. Second, a small handful of enthusiastic community members have agreed to loan startup money to the bakery. And third, we’ve deferred some nice-to-haves and found some less expensive buildout options, which lowered our capital needs by $50,000.

So we’ve begun work on the new space: returning the floors to concrete, painting, and preparing to install equipment. There’s lots to be done, but we’re full steam ahead with the goal of an April opening.

Meanwhile, we’ll keep the pre-sales campaign going until the bakery opens to give more folks the opportunity to become members and/or purchase subscriptions. Every purchase also allows the bakery to reduce the loans and lower future debt payments.

Want bread before we open?

There’s another reason to buy a Founding Membership: you can get bread sooner! Because once we get the bread oven installed, we’ll start baking to dial in our recipes and workflow before the bakery opens. During that time, all Founding Members will be welcome to start picking up bread for their subscription, limited only by availability (no weekly limit during this pre-opening time). This will be open to everyone that has a subscription (bread, bagels, cookies, or granola).

Payment plans and $99 bakery co-op memberships

Payment plans are now available for Founding Memberships and bakery subscriptions! You can help launch the bakery and spread the purchase over 12 months. Regular memberships (without the bread subscription) are now available for a one-time $99 payment.

About Orcas Bakery

Imagine nourishing, handmade sourdough breads and baked goods, made with high-quality grains and wholesome ingredients from Orcas Island and the Pacific Northwest. 

Envision passionate and experienced island bakers loading the giant bread oven from Roses Bakery, a hundred loaves at a time to make bread for the community.

Orcas Bakery will be a member-owned co-op, dedicated to enriching our community through nutrition, education and mentorship, opportunities to participate and learn, and school programs to embrace future generations.

Orcas Bakery will be opening in the Tide Pool Coffeehouse space at the corner of North Beach Road and A Street. We hope to make our bread available at Island Market, Orcas Food Co-op, other island stores, school programs, and other local organizations.

Make it happen

After months of researching and planning, we are ready to launch. We have:

• a long-term lease for the former Tide Pool Coffeehouse space
• a team of professional bakers and advisors
• equipment from Roses Bakery (including the 100-loaf bread oven, hot tub-size commercial mixer, and vintage bread slicing machine)

You can help make this happen by becoming a Founding Member today. Every Founding Membership includes a 50-loaf bread subscription* plus a lifetime 20% discount.**

More ways you can help

• Buy additional Founding Memberships as gifts
• Treat yourself (and others) with additional subscriptions for bagels, granola, and/or cookies
• Show the community your support with Orcas Bakery hoodies and t-shirts

Who we are

Shawna Hanan is a passionate baker and chef/owner of Three Sisters Bakery, former chef/owner of Luna’s Cafe, and previously owner of a wholesale bakery in Ashland, Oregon. She is well known for her pies and granola sold at the Orcas Food Co-op. Shawna’s passion for bread took her to London to attend The Sourdough School, where she obtained (and smuggled home) the 100+ year-old sourdough starter that will be used at Orcas Bakery.

Murph (Michael Murphy) is a notorious island bread baker and barterer, the sourdough maven behind the Tide Pool Coffeehouse Pizza Fridays, baker of the “best on the West Coast” East Coast-style bagels made with local seawater, and co-owner of Wanderlust + Wildhearts store in Eastsound.

Plus, Shawna and Murph have assembled a team of advisors with extensive experience in retail and wholesale bakeries, business planning, marketing, accounting, finance, legal, real estate, supply chain, operations, retail channels, modeling, and community outreach. (Special thanks to Georgette Wong, Pi and Darryl Duke, Philip Emanuele, and Lisa Murphy.)

How the funds are being used

We’ve done extensive financial planning to ensure success, and established the following budgets: startup capital (space acquisition, legal, initial lease payments), bakery buildout (space improvements, equipment, installation), and first-year operating reserves.

Raising these funds through founding memberships ensures that Orcas Bakery can launch successfully, with enough funding and minimal debt payments, to ensure we can bake your bread while we build our wholesale and retail business. Please contact us for more information.

These funds are NOT being spent on fundraising efforts. All materials and services so far, including artwork, baking, photography, video production and voiceover, website design, fundraising site design, signage, flyers, Roses equipment storage, and bakery co-op incorporation, has been generously contributed by Orcas Island residents. (Special thanks to Shawna Hanan, Michael “Murph” Murphy, Georgette Wong, Pi and Darryl Duke, Caleb Summers, and Mary & Joel Schroeder at the Making Dept.)

The fine print

* All subscriptions are good for ten years, limit one item per week. For example, if you have a bread and a granola subscription, you can redeem one loaf of bread and one pound of granola per week for 50 weeks, or spread them out through Spring of 2034.

** Every $599 Founding Membership includes a refundable bakery co-op membership ($99) plus a 50-loaf bread subscription ($600 value). Bakery co-op members receive a lifetime 20% discount off the retail price of items made in house by Orcas Bakery. 

Orcas Bakery is a Washington State-registered cooperative association (UBI 605-370-224).