A variety of artisan breads cool on racks behind the counter at an organic sourdough bakery in Grand Junction. In the cold case are sandwiches — egg salad stuffed baguette, a baguette filled with an olive tapenade, roasted turkey on a croissant, baked ricotta smothered in roasted, sundried tomato puree on focaccia. All breads and pastries, including cinnamon rolls, pop tarts, coffee cakes and muffins, are made with sourdough starter.

A steady clientele has grown each week since Pam and Shane Harsh opened Kulina Lani Organic Sourdough Bakery in November 2021. Customers appreciate the bakery’s dedication to using organic and local ingredients whenever possible. The shop is located at 664 North Ave. #4.

“We hear over and over from people that they’ve been waiting for something like this,” says Pam Harsh, who grew up in Paonia with a mother who baked with sourdough all the time. She recalls her fruit farmer grandfather, Shyrl Knight, always keeping a sourdough starter, which is created by allowing flour and water to ferment to become a leavening agent — a technique used by bakers for tens of thousands of years.

During that fermentation process different types of bacteria eat gluten and sugars contained in the grain; the resulting carbon dioxide allows bread dough to rise. Gluten levels drop significantly during the fermentation process; thus, many people who are gluten-intolerant consume Kulina Lani bread with no problems, explains Pam Harsh.

Fermentation causes the sugar level to drop, too, which makes sourdough bread a low-glycemic choice. “We have diabetics that shop with us,” as well as people who’ve been sensitive to gluten, Pam Harsh adds.

“When you use commercial fast-acting yeast, you skip all of that just so it can be made fast. Commercial yeast has 75,000 parts per million of gluten in a loaf,” she notes. “My loaves have 12 parts per million of gluten.”

Pam Harsh recommends the double-fermented porridge loaf to people who’ve been avoiding bread due to gluten. She named it porridge for its mix of ingredients: spelt, buckwheat, oats, amaranth, rye, flax seed and heirloom wheat.

“Gluten is hard for our bodies to break down,” she explains. “I left commercial yeast long ago. I use sourdough for everything — pastries, pizza, pie crust.”

Kulina Lani purchases its grains locally whenever possible. For example, the Jefferson Wheat loaf is made from grain grown in Hotchkiss (Jefferson refers to the seed strain). Spelt grain comes from the Cortez area. All grains used at the bakery are milled fresh in-house and grown organically on rich, biodiverse soils.

For its sandwiches and quiches, Kulina Lani uses organic eggs from Field2Fork Farm in Palisade and organic veggies from Field2Fork and Gro Fresh 365, an organic garden and greenhouse in Grand Junction. The bakery sells candy carrots and lettuce greens from the farms.

The bakery also serves organic and locally-roasted coffee from Roastiva in Grand Junction.

Additionally, Kulina Lani offers kombucha from Grand Jun Beverage Company, owned and brewed by Sarah Wood. “She makes a signature flavor for us,” Pam Harsh shares. “Her fermentation and our fermentation are a beautiful partnership.”

Harsh met her husband Shane in Greeley where he owned an organic farm before moving to Hawaii’s Big island.

Kulina is Hawaiian for “corn” and Lani means “heavenly” or “from Heaven.” Kulina Lani was the name of a farm and bakery the couple owned in Hawaii where they spent seven years farming, baking and raising three kids.

In Hawaii, Harsh, who has always loved to bake, began making bread for sandwiches for a friend’s gourmet grilled cheese food truck. People began asking where they could purchase loaves of the bread, which led to selling sourdough bread in farmers’ markets full time on the Big Island.

“On the first day we sold 40; on the last day (four years later) we sold 500 loaves.” The couple moved back to Colorado in 2020.

Pam and Shane rise early to arrive at the bakery by 2:30 a.m. where they work 14-hour days, six days a week. Harsh calls her crew of 13 “the best staff on the planet” — talented professionals who “have a heart for really good food.”

Harsh says they don’t mind keeping baker’s hours. They spend their days doing what they love with employees they appreciate and respect. “We love this; it’s what we do,” she says. “We enjoy our team.”

The bakery is closed Sunday and Monday — the day they bake for wholesale accounts like Bin 707 Foodbar, Devil’s Kitchen Restaurant and Bar, Café Sol and Rooted Gypsy Farms.

Kulina Lani is open Tuesday through Saturday, 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. The bakery can be reached at 970.539.5444. Visit their website at kulinalani.com.

Originally published in the Summer 2022 of Spoke+Blossom.

Kulina Lani: Organic Sourdough Bakery In Grand Junction Uses Locally Grown Grains Milled Fresh In-House