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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