When I left Alaska I tried every brand of sourdough bread on the market. But none of them tasted the same as the ones back home. Something was missing. Then I noticed a sign above a small storefront that read Crusty Crumb Bakery — Sourdough Baked Goods and More. Well I had to give it a try.

I was greeted by Tom Nall, the owner. His smile could, excuse the cliche, light up a room. Before purchasing a loaf, I told him I had yet to find a sourdough bread that tasted like the ones back home in Anchorage. When he said that he was from Alaska too, we reminisced a bit and as with all Alaskans, connected in a special way.

As soon as I got home, I buttered a slice of Tom’s sourdough bread, took a bite and said to myself, ‘Oh my gosh. This is the real thing!’

The next day, I went back to the Crusty Crumb Bakery at 1433 W Sims Way. I gave Tom a big hug and told him that his bread was the real thing.

Three years later, I decided I wanted to learn more about him, his business and his future in order to do a story about him. I learned more about sourdough bread over those next two hours than I had never known before.

The first thing I asked him was why his specialty was sourdough bread. “In Alaska, the little town of Girdwood where I grew up, is the Alyeska Bake Shop in the old Alyeska ski resort. They’ve been there 75 to 78 years and would make their sandwiches on these sourdough buns that I was eating since I was 4½ and knew someday I wanted serve sandwiches on these buns. Their sourdough starter was 150 years old.”

I asked Tom if he had brought some of that starter back.

“No, because I wanted to make a Port Townsend starter. That’s now six years old.” Covid had made its presence felt when Tom started Crusty Crumb. He obtained a license through the Department of Agriculture and used his house as a bakery for the first three years before moving to his current location.

I asked if he sold just the starter, and he did. The cost is about $5 “for approximately four cups, which you can make 12 loaves with. You use it up and you can come back for more free of charge,” he said. “Sourdough starter is hard to take care of and time consuming, but rewarding when you can keep your own growing.”

I asked if instructions were included and he shook his head. “Just face to face instructions.” The next question was how many gluten-free products he had.

“Currently we only have four. The gluten-free buckwheat bread is our best selling item in the bakery. I have people come all the way from Spokane once a month to buy 12 loaves. It took me a year to develop that bread. We also do a gluten-free millet sorghum bread, an almond cookie and scones, which we get great reviews on.” He also said that he’s working on making gluten-free cinnamon rolls.

Not all of the products made are made with sourdough. “We have a Brioche, a sourdough-like little pizza, and our croissants are made up of 108 layers.” Customers tell him “that our Scandinavian creampuffs, called Semlors, are perhaps the best thing they ever tasted.”

I had to agree with that, but said I wasn’t able to eat them slow enough to savor the distinct layer. “We make a Brioche, which is the cup. In that we put marzipan, top it with Bavarian cream then homemade cardamon whipped cream and top it off with a snappy raspberry or blueberry,” snapping his fingers and giving me a wink. Those are available on Saturdays and Sundays. “My intention is to have them everyday in the future. My intention is to be open seven days of the week from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., so people will have some healthier choices for breakfast as they drive into work.”

“Is sourdough bread healthier?”

“Absolutely,” he said, becoming more animated and excited to share his knowledge and commitment to offer healthier alternatives. “The sourdough starter itself is packed with millions of probiotics. When you introduce the starter to flour the enzymes break the flour, down and eat the gluten so they’re consuming the gluten directly and converting that gluten to sugar. Other enzymes in the starter consuming the sugar bring the glycemic level down. If people are sensitive to gluten, they can eat our bread and get no reaction at all. And we have the sourdough rye, which brings the levels down even more.”

“Does that make it okay for Type 2 diabetics?”

“Sure, but not on a daily basis. You see when you buy sourdough store bought bread you still have the gluten in it because they don’t have the four to eight hours to make it. So when you eat it, everything breaks down in your stomach and creates havoc in your system. Sourdough bread is dense and takes 3 times longer to digest giving you the ability to work it all off doing your daily activities. You’re gonna work those calories off, get that sugar out of your system and metabolize those carbs slower.”

After that enlightening lesson I said I thought it was only the taste and the texture that was important to find the real thing in sourdough bread. On top of all that, most of the breads and bagels are vegan!

Tom’s dream for the future of his business was to expand his floor space. He had purchased a commercial hood oven, but there wasn’t enough power in his 3,000 square foot place to operate it. He had to use the commercial kitchen located next door, but only for five hours a day. He wanted to buy the building behind his bakery owned by the Port Townsend Creamery. That would give him twice the square footage with the power he needed already installed. However, it cost $50,000.00 just to move in and with his running capital dwindling nobody was willing to loan him money at a reasonable rate.

He filled out an application with LION (Local Investing Opportunities Network), which invests in small businesses in Port Townsend and have lower rates on set loans. Then he crossed his fingers and waited. In his favor, half of the administrators are customers. Dreams do come true.

When Tom told me that he got the money to expand, I wanted all the details, so we again met. This time we talked for more than an hour.

In January, Tom received a $145,000 personal loan with a 5% interest rate for five years. This wasn’t from a bank or a lender, but from customers.

I told him it showed how much he was appreciated for providing quality baked goods and that I also wanted to see it keep going.

Leaving the bakery to see the new building was like going from a small pantry into a huge walk-in closet.  Tom took me on a walk through explaining what was going to go where. Remodeling was underway, but I could see what it was going to look like.

The first item on the tour was his new mixer. “This can mix 300 to 400 pounds of dough,” he said. Next was a commercial hood oven. “Our jewel,” he said. “When this is installed, what takes us, (he and assistant baker Mikie) five hours to bake now will take us two and a half. That leaves us eight to ten more hours to bake. Now we’ll be in a position to go wholesale.” The Food Co–op, Chimicum Corner Stand and Aldrich’s all want to carry a line of products, as does the Nordland store on Marrowstone Island. “The manager at QFC and the store in Port Ludlow called interested in carrying our products. Practically every coffee shop in town has contacted me. They want cookies, bagels, croissants, pastries.”

That meant he would be able to deliver, I said. He looked at me with a contagious smile and nodded.

The last stop was the freezer, which happens to be bigger than my apartment.

As I was preparing to leave, Tom had one last thing to say. “I’m dumbfounded that those customers came through for me.”

“If I had the money,” I said, “I would’ve too. You are much loved here.”

After getting a big Alaska bear hug, I was on my way home thinking about his passion, joy and love of his work..

Tom said he hopes to have his new location open in November and to expand business hours and days.

Marci Peterson is a freelance writer who lives on the Olympic Peninsula.