Our Story

In the first Sunflower Oven email in August 2017, I wrote, 

“Sunflower Oven will be an art project for me. I have been resistant to baking professionally for fear of losing the joy, introspection, curiosity, and spontaneity that I find in baking. I think we’ve all experienced something we once enjoyed become more of a chore to which we feel beholden. I think the human-scale structure of this project will allow me to maintain the soul-feeding qualities of the baking ritual and the face-to-face conversations with you all that I so appreciate. I believe these are the kinds of economies and exchanges that we must foster in order to feel more fully human and create a more just world.”

What I started as a weekly popup bakery in a bar grew into a full-time cottage bakery selling at farmers markets. We are now a four-member team with a storefront in the Belhaven Heights neighborhood in Jackson, Mississippi. Through our slow and intentional growth, I still feel like this is more of an art project than a business. Our medium is grain, and our artwork is bread, and with it, we aim to tell a story and to transform our culture.

We envision a kinder, slower world. Our drive comes from the bacchanalian joy of two people grabbing a loaf of fresh bread and ripping it apart across a table. We believe that nourishing and delicious food is a human right, and we practice radical hospitality. We reject an economy that depends on poverty, racism, and environmental destruction. We desire to be part of a community that is creative, sustainable, leisurely, and just.

In February 2022, we moved into our current commercial space just a few blocks away on North Jefferson St. We are open most days with a selection of breads, pastries, and prepared foods.

We hope you will join us.

With love,

Robert Raymond, founder