Old Oak Sourdough: From gluten free to running a sold-out sourdough microbakery
đź“Ť Murrieta, CA
đź”— hotplate.com/oldoaksourdough
For nearly a decade, Kristyn Suemnick avoided gluten completely. After years of stomach pain, testing, and trying to navigate gluten sensitivities for both herself and her son, bread had mostly disappeared from their kitchen.
Then, during the early months of 2020, she started researching sourdough.
“I continued coming across information about organic, long-fermented sourdough bread and how many people with gluten sensitivity or intolerance could often enjoy authentic sourdough,” Kristyn shared in an interview with Front Porch Life Magazine.
At the time, she didn’t consider herself much of a baker.
“I really love savory cooking but honestly, all of my baking experience was really just boxed cake mixes or cupcake mixes for my kids’ birthdays,” she said.
Still, she decided to give sourdough a try.
That decision eventually became Old Oak Sourdough, a thriving Southern California microbakery focused on organic artisan sourdough breads made with ancient grains, house-milled flour, and long fermentation techniques.
Discovering sourdough through health and healing
Kristyn originally started baking sourdough to see whether properly fermented bread would be easier for her family to tolerate.
“I had never baked a loaf of bread in my life, but the joy I felt in that accomplishment and the discovery that I could tolerate and digest it well just blew me away,” she said.
Her research quickly expanded beyond sourdough itself and into whole grains, fresh milling, and ancient wheat varieties like spelt.
“Another whole layer of flour education began to unfold for me,” she wrote in an Instagram post.
That philosophy still shapes her baking today. Old Oak Sourdough focuses on organic grains, naturally leavened breads, house-milled flour, and long fermentation methods designed to produce the best flavor and digestibility.
Kristyn says many of her customers have shared similar experiences with being able to tolerate her sourdough more comfortably than conventional bread.
Building a sold-out sourdough business on Hotplate
As friends and neighbors started trying her bread, demand grew quickly.
She began taking weekly requests for what she called “Saturday Sourdough,” increasing production while balancing a full-time job and raising her children. This worked until the demand outgrew a side hustle.
Today, Kristyn runs Old Oak Sourdough full time. Her Hotplate drops go live every Sunday at 6pm, and her weekly menus regularly sell out in 30 seconds.
Customers return each week for a rotating selection of artisan sourdough loaves, focaccia, granola, cookies, cinnamon rolls, English muffins, and seasonal specialty bakes, all made with the same focus on organic grains, house-milled flour, and long fermentation.
Every week follows a carefully structured production schedule that allows Kristyn to manage fresh milling, multi-day fermentation, pickups, and family life while consistently delivering a menu that sells out almost instantly.
A typical week
For Microbakery May, we asked Kristyn what a typical week in her life looks like!
Investing in her business and customers
Along the way, Kristyn continued investing back into her business.
She upgraded into large-scale stone and steam deck ovens to expand production while staying focused on ingredient quality, fresh milling, and ancient grains.
Many customers discover her while searching for breads made with better ingredients. Others return simply because it’s the most delicious bread they’ve ever had. Either way, Kristyn has built the kind of direct customer relationship that increasingly defines successful modern microbakeries.
And while Old Oak Sourdough has grown drammatically since those first experimental loaves in 2020, Kristyn’s purpose has stayed true to what started it all: nourishing her community well.
