This story is part of our August 2026 issue. To read the print version, click here.



Carolyn Villaverde does not have a stomach or small intestine and
gets most of her nutrition through a central line, the result of
a panoply of autoimmune diseases attacking her body. But she can
eat about a tablespoon of food a day, and she puts as much effort
as possible into making sure that spoonful is the best it can be.
That includes learning to bake her own sourdough bread — an
effort that eventually grew into her home-based business Around
the World Bakery.

“I know it sounds a little crazy, because sometimes my bite can
cost like 100 bucks,” she says, as her husband and co-owner
Voltaire Villaverde laughs. “He’s like, she’s always spending
money on food!”

The Villaverdes started their bakery in 2025 as a way for Carolyn
to express her love of food and stay active after her illness
forced her to leave her 25-year career in nursing. The name
reflects the diverse flavors they infuse into their baked goods,
including sourdough bagels inspired by New York and ube bread
that pays homage to Voltaire’s Filipino heritage. “We can’t
travel, so I thought I’d bring the world to us,” Carolyn says.

Around the World Bakery is just one of a growing number of
bakeries — including both pop-ups and brick-and-mortars — that
are reinvigorating Northern California’s sourdough heritage with
flavors that evoke the region’s diversity. Some are motivated by
the belief that naturally fermented bread contains less gluten
than that made with commercial yeast and is therefore easier to
digest for people with gluten sensitivities; others simply prefer
the taste and texture of bread made with natural leavening rather
than commercial yeast. Whether for health or for pleasure, it’s
clear that sourdough is still on the rise (no pun intended).

Around the World Bakery: Traveling through flavors

Carolyn first tried baking sourdough after a nutrition
class that she took to keep up her nursing license. In the class,
she learned about the science of fermentation and how sourdough
can be easier to digest and process, especially for diabetics.
One of the Villaverdes’ grandchildren has Down syndrome and is
borderline diabetic, so Carolyn tried baking a loaf for the
family, “and it just worked out,” she says.

Around the World bread can be found every Friday at the Mexican
restaurant Masa Masa in Roseville, which is owned by the
Villaverdes’ daughter Emily Torres and her partner Ashlie
Millington, as well as at the monthly Mahany Park Night Market in
Roseville. Carolyn also plans to start running classes out of her
home for people interested in making their all-natural baked
goods.

“That’s exactly what drove us to it: health and seeing if I can
find a way to tolerate more food, and my grandson as well,”
Carolyn says. “And I think that’s what has helped us be
successful so far: the cleanliness of our product. … If you look
at our sourdough, it literally has flour, salt and water.”

Mellobun: From finance to fermentation

Mellobun owner Theresa Nguyen says the name of her Elk
Grove sourdough bakeshop combines her usual mood (mellow) with
her love of buns. She says her sourdough passion began when her
sister-in-law gave her a starter, eventually leading her to leave
her job in finance and start the bakeshop in March 2025.

Like Villaverde, Nguyen is motivated by the health benefits of
sourdough. “I had always wanted to try it, but I never knew
anything about it,” Nguyen says. “And then, once I started
practicing more and more, and eating it, testing and stuff, I
realized that sourdough-based pastries and breads don’t make me
feel heavy and bloated, like I used to feel when I would eat
regular bread, and so then I was like, when I do pastries to
sell, I just wanted a more gut-friendly option, especially for
people like me who are just more gluten sensitive.”

In her cinnamon buns, cookies, salt breads and milk breads,
Nguyen uses Asian flavors such as matcha, hojicha, Vietnamese
coffee, miso and black sesame. She says her inspiration comes
from her heritage and the countries she has visited.

“My mom cooked all of our meals every day and took care of us,
and when she would take us out, like on the weekends to eat or
things for fun, we were always going to Asian bakeries in San
Jose, so I got to eat a lot of like those types of flavors, like
red bean, black sesame, things like that, that I didn’t find in
my hometown of Modesto,” Nguyen says.

Nguyen sells her bread at pop-ups at Cà Phê Haru in Elk Grove and
through her website for pickup at her home each Friday. She
doesn’t plan on opening a brick-and-mortar bakery and is more
interested in developing her wholesale client list. “I feel like
I can focus more on just creating the product and focusing on the
quality,” she says about wholesale.

Flour & Whisk Co.: A creative outlet

Ube, the amethyst-purple Filipino sweet potato, is
reaching a zenith in its fad cycle, with even chains like
Starbucks getting in on the action with coffee and sweets
flavored with vaguely lilac-colored foams and pastes. But there’s
nothing vague about the ube sourdough from Rocklin-based cottage
bakery Flour & Whisk Co. In addition to infusing the dough with
real ube, owner Jestyne Esquivel swirls ube halaya — a sweet
spread made with the tuber — into the loaves. The result is a
loaf as vibrant in flavor as it is in color.

Esquivel started her sourdough business in April 2026, and it has
already attracted attention from some of the Sacramento area’s
most-followed food influencers. Her precisely scored ube
sourdough translates well to the visual mediums of Instagram and
TikTok, as do other striking loaves like lemon blueberry and
chocolate.

“Sourdough became special to me because of how intentional the
process is,” Esquivel says. “As a mom, so much of my day is
focused on taking care of my child, and baking became something
that allowed me to slow down and create something with my own
hands.”

In addition to loaves, Esquivel makes other sourdough baked
goods, such as bagels, and is developing a sourdough chocolate
chip cookie recipe. She sells her products for pickup at
designated locations in Rocklin and Sacramento and hopes to
collaborate with local coffee shops and markets in the future.

“There’s something special about buying something made by a local
baker who has poured time and care into the process,” she says.
“People appreciate knowing the story behind their food and
supporting small businesses in their community.”

Faria: French technique meets Asian flavors

While Sacramento’s cottage bakeries are building a lot
of buzz, stalwarts like the Oak Park bakery Faria remain
cornerstones of the local sourdough scene. Faria opened its
brick-and-mortar location in the fall of 2019, just in time to
catch the pandemic-spurred sourdough trend in 2020.

Founder Christopher Beattle started the business as a cottage
bakery in his garage in 2018. Co-owner Natalie Quach started as a
barista at the Oak Park location but soon found herself helping
out in all parts of the business and is now Beattle’s life
partner. Eventually, her Chinese-Vietnamese heritage began
infusing the French-Italian foundation of Beattle’s original
menu.

“I think the first time I realized that there was a market for
Asian baked goods was probably the first mid-autumn festival that
I worked while at the bakery,” Quach says. “I think that was
probably in like 2020. I wanted to make moon cakes and sell them,
and I wanted to share that part of my history or that part of my
culture, and the response we got was insane.”

Faria’s expansive menu includes miso-flavored sourdough,
pillowy-soft Japanese milk bread made with sourdough starter, and
a spelt oat porridge bread dotted with “Eight Treasures,” the
auspicious combination of dried fruits, nuts and grains
associated with Chinese New Year.

“As I became more entrenched in pastry and baking, I just found
new ways to bring flavors that I grew up with to our menu,” Quach
says.

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