This made-from-scratch bakery in a tiny Siskiyou County town attracts tourists, locals

Hikers for 100 miles up and down the Pacific Crest Trail seem to know about the crusty country French loaves, shatteringly-flaky croissants and other dreamy treats awaiting them at the Farmhouse Bakery in downtown Etna, a well-known trail town where hikers often resupply.

“I picked up a couple of PCT hikers on the summit one time, and I said, ‘hey, where do you want me to drop you off in town?’” recalled Craig Thompson, director of Rockside Ranch in Etna, which owns Farmhouse Bakery on Main Street. “And they had no idea that we were connected to a bakery. But they said, ‘we hear there’s this bakery in town. We’ve been hearing about it for 100 miles on the trail.  Drop us off there.’”

The bakery that is the talk of the trail among hikers also doubles as a semi-community center, employee development program and a cornerstone of community life in this Scott Valley town of 700 residents.

“There’s a chess club on Wednesday nights. We’ve had different community groups, like a quilting club or book clubs. Even the Lion’s Club has met here a few times,” said Thompson, counting off some of the activities that have surfaced at the bakery.

“People come in here, they’ll get a cookie or an ice cream or a coffee and walk across the street and watch a classic movie on the big screen and it’s like, ‘that’s a cool Etna activity.’ And you can’t just find that in every town,” he added.

Bakery's founder first sold bread 'on the corner'

Farmhouse Bakery started as the Grain Street Bakery in 2018. It was founded by former Etna resident Erik Ryberg, who Thompson said “actually started by selling bread on the corner.""The demand was so huge from the community,” recalled Thompson.  “Erik poured his heart and soul into getting this bakery started.”

Grain Street, located on Main Street in the bright and airy 1940s-era building with the classic phone booth outside, quickly became “a favorite spot in town,” Thompson said.

Ryberg moved back East in 2022, much to the community's disappointment.

“We were literally crying when we heard the bakery was going to close,” Thompson said.

That possibility is what prompted Rockside Ranch — a non-profit working ranch with a mission toward self-improvement for young men in crisis — to move forward with an offer to purchase the business.

The bakery was not a part of the original vision at Rockside Ranch, which was started in 2011, Thompson said. With other locations in Rapid City, S.D. and Allegan, Mich., the nonprofit organization is structured as an eight-month residential program and works to help young men develop job and life skills, with a strong focus on Christian discipleship.

Learn leap year folklore, hear from a 'leapling' and discover why we add a day in February

“But probably in the last five years it’s always been something that has been in the back of our mind, of having some type of a regular opportunity to interact with the community because the community is so involved with Rockside," Thompson said. "And without the community, Rockside doesn’t exist. And that’s true of any nonprofit.”

Officials at Rockside were interested in exploring other business opportunities, which would give the young men going through the program additional skills to develop, as well as employment opportunities.

Since the business changed hands in 2022, the bakery has expanded into the space next door, essentially doubling the bakery’s size. The area includes additional seating, made inviting with its secondhand furniture, plants and broad view of Main Street.

Trained and ready to bake

The bakery business now includes about 25 workers, staffed with professional bakers, high school students and others from the community.

About two to five graduates from Rockside’s eight-month program will go on to work in some capacity at the bakery. Proceeds from Farmhouse Bakery go on to support scholarship opportunities at Rockside Ranch.

The bakery turns out about 36 to 50 loaves of bread a day, as well as prepares breakfast and lunch sandwiches and sells other items like salads, ice cream and coffee. This spring, the menu will expand again when they start offering soup.

The volume of pastry sales has increased somewhat from the early days of Grain Street.

That's due in part to longer hours. Farmhouse opens daily at 6:30 a.m. — capturing the morning breakfast and coffee crowd — and doesn’t close until 9 p.m., offering  a cozy coffee shop setting for the community or people who are just passing through.

“We really wanted a place in town, where people can go, read a book, or study,” said Thompson, who added that students from the nearby Saint Photios Orthodox Theological Seminary often turn to the bakery as a study spot. Hikers from the Pacific Crest Trail are common customers, too.

This spring, Rockside plans to open a butcher shop in a space just a few doors down from the bakery. It will include a deli, as well as custom cuts and will sell meats and produce as well as other local products.

At the bakery one recent morning, Anna Gosling was moving a large glob of dough to her workbench. It would eventually become about 16 loaves.

“This is tomorrow’s bread,” said Gosling. “It will make, like, three different shapes.”

The long lead time from mixing the dough to pulling a loaf out of the oven has been one of the challenges Thompson and others at the bakery had to understand.

Naturally leavened breads — which make up many of these loaves — tend to take longer to develop, made even more tricky by changes in season and temperature.

“All of sudden, the first time we got to winter, everything changed. And we said, ‘oh, we’ve got to figure this out. How is this going to happen,’” recalled Thompson. “And then compounding on all of that is I have almost no experience in baking.”

But luckily, other people who have entered the bakery’s orbit were baking savvy and quickly adjusted. Ryberg, the bakery's original owner, also made sure the new crew was trained and ready to bake.

“Erik was just amazing. He came over and over again in the first month and really provided that training,” said Thompson. “We were very fortunate for his generosity there. He made the transition so smooth.”

It was also important that Farmhouse maintain Ryberg’s level of quality, making virtually everything from scratch. Beyond baked goods and pastries, this includes items including yogurt, salad dressings, hummus, granola, sauces and fillings for the pastries.

“We make all of these things from scratch,” said Thompson. “We make the simple syrup that goes in the danishes, everything. That was a challenge at first, to get all of the processes down that go into the daily production schedule.”

“We really have been fortunate to have the people that we’ve had,” he continued. “It’s been absolutely amazing to me how the people have come in just the right time, who do have the experience.”

What to know if you go

• Cost: Loaves of bread start at $7.50, breakfast special is $10 and cheesecake is $8 a slice

• Hours: Sunday and Monday closed. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

• Where: Farmhouse Bakery, 445 Main St., Etna CA

• Phone: 530-467-3003

• Website: facebook.com/farmhousebakeryetna

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Made-from-scratch sweets await at this Siskiyou bakery, community hub