Anna’s @BreadinBlaine comes to Birch Bay

Anna’s @BreadinBlaine, a Blaine micro bakery that started selling sourdough bread last November, has partnered with Birch Bay farm stand Home Farm to offer fresh bread to Birch Bay residents.

Every Thursday at 2 p.m., co-owner Anna Johnson brings 30 loaves of sourdough, half rosemary and half original flavors, to Home Farm’s farm stand at 8020 Kickerville Road. Johnson said the $7 bread has sold out every Thursday since the partnership started mid-July. Home Farm will also offer the sourdough bread every Tuesday now, too.

“We are thankful to be part of the community and offer more bread out in Birch Bay,” she said.

Johnson’s husband Mark Johnson, head chef at the Vault Wine Bar & Bistro, makes the European-style no-knead bread while Johnson organizes pickup and delivery for the bread Tuesdays through Fridays.

The couple hoped to transition the home bakery to a brick-and-mortar business on Peace Portal Drive once their children started school in the fall, but Covid-19 has delayed the opening. To make the bread more accessible for the community, Johnson said she has been brainstorming other places where she can sell the bread so customers don’t need to do pre-orders.

The couple doesn’t offer deliveries to Birch Bay so the farm stand is the first time residents can get the bread without driving to Blaine.

“People love it,” said Bridgette DiMonda, who is the co-owner of Home Farm with her husband, Daniel Burdick. “A lot of people don’t know about her bread so they’re getting introduced to it here.”

DiMonda asks that people who visit the farm wear masks when they are at the farm stand and physically distance.

In addition to carrying Johnson’s bread, Home Farm will host its fourth pop-up market on Saturday, August 29. The farm started the pop-up market this year after canceling its yearly sunflower festival due to Covid-19 and physical distancing guidelines. Find more details about the market at homefarm.farm.

The farm stand, which sells other local items like cheese, honey and vegetables, has an honor-system cash box that allows customers to purchase their items from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week. The stand accepts U.S. cash, local checks and Venmo, a money transaction app.

For more information on Anna’s @BreadinBlaine, read a previous The Northern Light article at bit.ly/3kspm8h.