Orcas Bakery is open!

Hours

Hours are 8am – 2pm, Tuesday – Saturday.

Co-op memberships

Bakery co-op member shares are available for $99. It's a one-time payment, and members receive 20% off everything made in house by Orcas Bakery. (And we'll buy back your share if you ever decide not to be a co-op member.)

T-shirts and hoodies are here

Orcas Bakery t-shirts and hoodies are here! Stop by the bakery to pick up your order (or buy one–we have limited stock).

About Orcas Bakery

We craft nourishing, handmade sourdough breads and baked goods, using high-quality grains and wholesome ingredients from Orcas Island and the Pacific Northwest.

Orcas Bakery is 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 is located at the corner of North Beach Road and A Street. We will offer retail and wholesale sales, and hope to have our bread available at island stores and restaurants, and through school programs and other local organizations.

You can support Orcas Bakery by becoming a Founding Member. Every Founding Membership includes a 50-loaf bread pre-purchase (subscription)* plus a lifetime 20% discount.**

Who we are

Shawna Hanan is a passionate baker and previously ran Three Sisters Bakery, Luna’s Cafe, and 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 baker and bread barterer, and has become known for his seawater bagels that have been called “best bagel west of the Mississippi” by many East Coast transplants. He is also co-owner of the Wanderlust + Wildhearts store in Eastsound.

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.

Building update

As we mentioned in the last update, the owner of the bakery space, Katie Gaible, has decided to sell the space to the bakery. This means the bakery can have a permanent home on the island. The bakery has secured a two-year rent-to-own purchase option agreement, and exclusive use of the entire building. Salish Sea Yarn Co. is now operating online with shipping or local pickup, in-person at the weekly Farmer's Market, and community events and classes at the Orcas Public Library. The two-year closing window allows the bakery to focus on opening and fine-tuning operations now and to ideally find a mortgage lender willing to offer the bakery friendly terms down the road.

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, so 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, Philip Emanuele, Lisa Murphy, Pi and Darryl Duke, Caleb Summers, and Mary & Joel Schroeder at the Making Dept.)

The fine print

* All pre-purchases (subscription) are good for ten years, limit one item per week. For example, if you have pre-purchased bread and granola subscriptions, 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 pre-purchase ($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).