“Every loaf has a story. Every story deserves good bread.”
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A wide banner — your kitchen counter mid-bake, a cooling loaf beside a mug, or a cozy candid that feels like home.
🐐 Hi, I’m Mel.
I bake, build, and occasionally wrestle rebellious sourdough starters from my little kitchen in Northern Nevada.
Loaf & Lore started as a cottage experiment – equal parts curiosity, coping mechanism, and creative rebellion – and somehow became a living, breathing reflection of everything I love about feeding people and telling stories.
My background is an odd but wonderful mix of radio, food service, and human resources; and while those worlds might sound unrelated, the thread between them has always been connection.
Whether it was a live mic, a plate of something warm, or a hiring conversation, my work has always centered on helping people feel seen, understood, and part of something that matters.
That’s exactly what I try to do here: feed people – with food, words, and community.
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A portrait-style shot: you at your worktable, maybe mid-laugh or mid-flour cloud.
🌿 The Heart Behind the Name
Loaf is the tangible – bread, cookies, kits, the work done by hand.
Lore is the intangible – the stories, laughter, lessons, and chaos we carry along the way.
Together, they tell a single story: that small, handmade things can still build something big; connection.
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A close-up of your hands tying a loaf, or the texture of your workspace — tactile and real.
❤️ Family, Food, and Feeding Adventure
I’m lucky enough to share life with the love of my life and two incredible teenagers, who’ve grown up on equal parts bread, burnt cookies, and big dreams.
Our family’s story has been one adventure after another – learning, laughing, starting over, and finding the good kind of wild in the middle of it all.
Loaf & Lore is my way of feeding other families so they can create their own moments of togetherness – the kind that taste like home and smell like possibility.
Bread is just the medium.
The real mission is helping families make room for adventure.
🧺 [Image Placeholder – Family Candid or Baking Together]
Something joyful and human — hands tearing bread, kids helping, or a kitchen scene full of life.
✉️ The Goat Notes
Every month, I send out Goat Notes – part kitchen diary, part love letter to creative chaos.
It’s full of recipes, reflections, and reminders that making things; even small, simple things, matters.
Join the herd here: Join the Loaf List →
🔥 What We Make
Under Nevada’s Cottage Food Program (License ST-090-31580), Loaf & Lore produces small-batch sourdoughs, cookies, and a rotating menu of experimental treats.
Everything is made by hand, with patience, laughter, and a little bit of stubborn goat energy.
You can see what’s baking next on the What’s Baking page.
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A natural, warm photo: loaves, jars, starter kits, or your signature flour-dusted counter.
🧺 Beyond the Bread
Outside the oven, Loaf & Lore makes small creative goods – sourdough starter kits, stickers, apparel, and handmade tools that celebrate the joy of making.
They’re a mix of practicality and whimsy – the kind of things that remind you that life (and bread) are both better shared.
If something earns a permanent spot on the favorites list, you’ll find it in Goat Gear.
💬 What the Herd Is Saying
The best part of all this? The people who show up for it.
Read what the herd (customers, friends, and fellow adventurers) are saying on What the Herd Is Saying.
Their words mean more than any marketing ever could.
🐐 In Case You Were Wondering… Why Goats?
Because goats climb.
They don’t wait for someone to clear the path – they find their own foothold and keep going, even when the ground is uneven or the view looks impossible. They’re scrappy, social, curious, and a little bit chaotic. They nibble the wrong things, make a mess, and somehow still end up right where they need to be.
I love that kind of energy; resilient, unpolished, and stubbornly joyful.
Goats remind me that life doesn’t have to be neat to be meaningful.
That connection is worth the mess, that creativity often comes from chaos, and that courage looks a lot like persistence.
If you’ve ever read my “The Goats Ate My Clothes” post, you know exactly what I mean.
That disaster was equal parts funny, humbling, and weirdly poetic – a reminder that sometimes what looks like ruin is really just a good story waiting to rise.
So yes, the goats are mostly metaphorical (for now).
But they stand for all of us who keep climbing – the makers, the parents, the dreamers, the people who refuse to quit just because the mountain won’t move.
If that’s you, welcome home.
There’s bread on the table and probably crumbs everywhere.
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A wide, exhale-style image — your kitchen table after a bake, your logo, or the Nevada mountains that frame your world.
🧾 Quick Links
What’s Baking • Shop • Join the Loaf List • Lore • Goat Gear