Written by BRITNEY NGUYEN
When thinking of a name for her bakery, Janee Allen wanted people to know her schtick — sourdough.
Everything at Sour Bakery, which sells at the Chapel Hill Farmers’ Market and the Fearrington Farmers’ Market, is made with wild yeast culture, typically known as sourdough.
“My scones are actually yeasted scones,” Allen said. “Which is weird and rare.”
Along with scones, Allen makes croissants, sourdough crackers and many other types of bread with the wild yeast culture. She also has sweet baked goods like chocolate and almond croissants and pretzels. The raisin water culture Allen uses for the scones and other breads is named Stella.
Originally from the West Coast, Allen graduated with a psychology degree and worked as a counselor at a level 12 group home before deciding to attend the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.
“It was a whim to go to the Culinary Academy, I don’t why I wanted to do it,” Allen said. “I think I wanted to live in San Francisco but I felt like I had to have a purpose.”
At the Culinary Academy, Allen liked learning about pastries and bread.
“I really enjoyed the sourdough part of that because it’s maintaining a yeast culture and learning when it’s ready and how it develops its flavor,” Allen said.
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When Allen and her partner moved to Seattle, she met other creative people brewing their own beer and roasting their own coffee, so she started sharing and trading her baked goods. She was also working at Starbucks and found some customers who were interested in trying the breads she was creating.
Allen and her partner decided to come to North Carolina to be closer to family. They picked Durham because they wanted to be in an area that felt like the West Coast.
“We got here and I had a hard time finding a job at first so I spent a lot of time at the apartment baking things and trying new flavors and things I never tried before,” Allen said.
Her partner took Allen’s baked goods to his co-workers at Trader Joe’s. He ended up giving some of Allen’s bread to an assistant of a city planner in Graham.
“They were the first people that asked me to come and do a sample of what I do and meet some of the entrepreneurs,” Allen said.
From there, she worked her way into a farmers market near Graham. While Allen eventually found a job at The Cookery in Durham, at this point she was also trying to start Sour Bakery.
Finally, she got into the Chapel Hill Farmers Market in 2018.
Now, Allen is in her second year of running Sour Bakery without having a second job. She also has two employees that she can pay above minimum wage — something she never thought she would be able to do.
Most of the produce Allen uses in her breads and pastries come from other vendors at the farmers market. Her eggs come from T5 Farms and the kimchi for her kimchi croissant comes from vegan kimchi vendor The Spicy Hermit.
Allen works out of Kitchen Archive, a 24-hour access kitchen in Durham. She spends between 60 and 80 hours a week at Kitchen Archive because the sourdough process takes almost all day.
Allen said she would eventually want her own space for Sour Bakery, but is still comfortable at Kitchen Archive.
“It seems daunting to think about being open for six hours or eight hours and having enough product to sell but not so much that it’s a waste,” Allen said.
Sour Bakery can be found at the Chapel Hill Farmers’ Market on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon and at the Fearrington Farmers’ Market on Tuesdays from 4 to 6 p.m.
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