Artisan loaf from Verdant Bread. Photo courtesy of Verdant Bread

If you haven’t heard of Verdant Bread yet, you’re missing out. The three-person pop-up bread company has quickly gained a presence in Charlotte over the past year. Co-owned by Tanner Fink, Jaymin McAffrey, and Ryan Faircloth, the three bakers started testing bread recipes at home while quietly holding regular pop-ups at Hex Coffee selling a variety of tartines, savory bread puddings, and a handful of sweet options. After a few successful events, the trio expanded their pop-ups to other businesses and began the work building relationships with restaurants. Soon enough, Verdant Bread was in demand outside of their regular gig, so the team quickly found a production space to rent out and started producing bread daily while maintaining their day jobs to meet the demand.

Their bread is classic artisan bread, with robust worldly flavors that pair with hearty stews and pastas or make for a killer tartine or sandwich. Their approach is honest baking, keeping bread as the centerpiece of a great meal and the community enjoying it together. Now almost a year old, the baker boys are official farmers market vendors and their breads are used in a few restaurants around the city, like Mama Ricotta’s and Suffolk Punch. Their first farmers market is the Matthews Community Farmers Market, starting this Saturday, April 6 from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. or until sold out. Verdant Bread also has a monthly subscription service for $25 per month; the bread can be picked up weekly at Hex Coffee on South Boulevard or The Pickled Peach in Davidson.

We are excited to see Verdant Bread showing up in more places around Charlotte and wait in anticipation to see if a brick and mortar is on the horizon. Until then, we will follow the baker boys around the city to get our weekly bread fix. —Justin Burke-Samson