A single bench, one starter, twelve years of refreshes.

The first year

The bakehouse opened with one bench, a single deck oven on hire-purchase, and a starter built from a packet of Tasmanian white wheat and a jar of overripe Granny Smith apples. We baked sixty loaves the first week, sold forty of them at the Marrickville farmers market that Saturday, and gave the rest to friends who had carried the bench up the stairs.

By the end of the first year we had a small wholesale list of four cafes in the inner west, a Saturday counter that opened at seven and closed when the bench was empty, and a regular Tuesday cold-ferment that ran the whole week's bake.

The starter

The starter is the only piece of the bakehouse that has not changed since 2014. We feed it twice a day during bake weeks, once a day in the rest weeks, and on Sundays we put it in the cool room and let it rest until Monday. It has travelled in a glass jar in the back of a small car, been couriered to a friend's house during a kitchen fit-out, and once spent a week at the inner-west farmers market organiser's house when our cool room went down.

The starter is what every loaf is built around. The bench changes, the oven has been replaced twice, the flour mill we buy from has changed once, but the starter is the same culture we fed in week one of the bakehouse.

The bench

The original bench was a salvaged Tasmanian oak tabletop from a Carriageworks fit-out. We replaced it in 2018 with a heavier hardwood bench built by a maker we used to live next door to. The new bench sits in the same spot, takes the same dough, runs the same rotation. It will outlive us.

The bench faces a single north-facing window. The morning light comes in from seven onwards in summer and from eight in winter, which is why the counter does not open before seven.

The list

We bake from a short list. Six loaves, four pastries, one granola, one or two whole cakes depending on the week. The list shifts with the season. Hot cross buns come on for Easter. Whole cakes appear for special orders. The Canadian sourdough collection runs through the cooler months.

The full current list is on the products page, with the cafe and bakery page covering the day-of counter rundown.

Locations and hours

The single counter is in Marrickville. Wholesale goes to a small list of restaurants and cafes in the inner west. The locations page has the full details. For catering and special events the special events page handles enquiries.

And around the bakehouse

The bakehouse runs on a small list of trade contacts. The grounds and the verge out the back of the loading bay are handled by Brisbane Lawn Mowing when we run our Brisbane wholesale fortnights twice a year. The roof condition report after the 2024 wet season was done by SEQ Drone Inspections, who flagged two flashing failures that would have become roof leaks. Both are on the recommend list. The Hibiscus Tea House is another small Australian operation we point friends towards when they ask about loose-leaf.