💛 Local Love Spotlight | Summit Sourdough: The Sherwood Park Baker Turning a Failed Starter Into a Canadian Sourdough Movement

Happy Friday, Edmonton!

Welcome to this week's Local Love Spotlight, where every Friday we hand the floor to a local business owner with a story worth telling.

This week, we are heading to Sherwood Park to meet a baker who turned a stubborn sourdough starter and her own health journey into a Canadian brand that has taught thousands of people how to bake with confidence. We think you will be glad you did.

What is Summit Sourdough in Sherwood Park, Alberta?

Summit Sourdough started with a starter that would not cooperate.

Kristy Crosbie had been baking sourdough for more than fifteen years, teaching herself through trial and error while living with Crohn's disease, the diagnosis that first pulled her toward traditional fermentation and real food made from simple ingredients. Even with all that experience, her homemade starter never had the strength she needed.

"I used to joke that I wasn't making bread, I was making frisbees," she says.

Everything changed when she was handed a family heirloom starter that had been sitting dried in the back of her grandmother's cabinet for years. She was not even sure it could be revived, but she spent days coaxing it back to life, feeding it patiently and hoping.

"When it finally did, the difference was incredible," she says. "For the first time, I was baking the kind of bread I had been trying to achieve for years."

Then COVID sent her home like everyone else, right before flour disappeared from grocery store shelves. Kristy started posting online, simply introducing herself as a home baker with a heirloom starter she loved.

"Hi, I'm Kristy. I've been baking sourdough for over fifteen years, I live with Crohn's disease, and this is the heirloom sourdough starter that I bake with. Let me show you why I love it and help you learn too," she remembers telling people.

People wanted to learn. Then they wanted the starter itself. Summit Sourdough grew from there, now offering that same heirloom starter alongside carefully chosen baking tools and a Canadian made reusable product line, all built around one goal.

"My goal is to simplify it, explain the why behind every step, and give people the confidence to bake successfully," she says.

Kristy works with everyone from first time bakers overwhelmed by conflicting advice online to experienced bakers refining their skills, along with schools, charities and sports teams using Summit Sourdough for fundraising, and couples putting together custom sourdough favours for weddings.

What sets her apart, she says, comes down to two things. Every product on her site is something she uses and believes in, and every customer is talking to her directly.

"I am a one person business. I answer emails at all hours, I troubleshoot bakes, I celebrate their successes, and if something isn't going right, I'm invested in helping them figure it out," she says.

Ask her for the moment that reminds her why she does this, and it is not the big orders. It is the emails from people who are ready to give up.

"I'll get an email from someone saying, I've tried everything, I've killed starter after starter, every loaf has been a failure, and I was about to quit," she says. They work through it together, the starter, the fermentation, sometimes just room temperature. A few days later, a photo arrives with a note that says, "I finally did it."

"Those moments never get old," she says. "I know exactly how that feels, because I was that person."

Looking ahead, Kristy is developing a flexible, self paced way for people to learn sourdough on their own schedule, along with a second ebook and an expanding line of baking tools, fundraising programs and custom gifting.

What she wants you to know

Ask Kristy what she wants people to know about Summit Sourdough, not what she sells but who she is, and she comes back to trust.

"When someone shops with me, they're not just placing an order through a website. They're buying from a real person who has spent more than fifteen years baking sourdough, testing products, making mistakes, learning from them, and genuinely caring about helping other people succeed," she says.

That is Summit Sourdough. If you have ever wanted to bake your own bread and did not know where to start, now you know where to find her.

Email Address
[email protected]

Business Location (City and Address)
Sherwood Park, Alberta, online only

Website or social link
summitsourdough.com

Instagram @summitsourdoughyeg