About

I'm Isabella, a licensed baker based in Santa Cruz, California where I live with my husband and children. I've been sharing my love for bread with family & friends for a while now, and after a brief gig at the local restaurant Emerald Mallard, where I helped start the bread program, I decided to step out and create Bread Meridian.

As I started to bake more seriously and with more intent, it became very clear to me the importance that flour had in the baking process. Being the essential ingredient that is, I started to notice how different types and brands of flours made different types and styles of breads. Good to great bread to not so good experiments at all! The truth about good flour is that it all starts with the grain at the farm: farmers and land working together. 

I focus on California regenerative grains that are stone ground by a fellow baker and miller in Santa Clara, Marc Benoit. I also enjoy working with Rye, Buckwheat, Einkorn, just to name a few. Loaves are made with whole wheat or high extraction flours for maximum nutrition and flavor & a ton of attention to fermentation. 

Bread is genuine contentment,

is latent movement. 

Bread is neighborhood, 

and I'm grateful we get to share it. 

Thank you 

~Isabella 

  • As I started learning about the history of bread, a sentiment I found to be universal amongst writers and historians is that the origin of bread is as symbolic as it is tied to our evolution.

  • From a nomadic lifestyle of mobile hunting and gathering societies to permanent settlements and communities, eventually one that made it possible to develop agriculture practices and grow crops similar to the way we know today. 

  •  I like to think of making and baking bread as a form of art. A rebellious one indeed. As a live food, it has shaped societies and is now in its renaissance, shaping small communities, fascinating people all over again.