The Field Guideby Moss & MarrowThe Field Guideby Moss & Marrow
Zuurdesembrood kopen: de Nederlandse pagina met bakkers per stad →
This page is The Field Guide's list of bakeries in the Netherlands that bake sourdough without added yeast or with organic or stone-ground flour, each one checked by us and grouped by province. A bakery is on this page when it bakes sourdough (desem) with no added baker's yeast and a long fermentation, or uses organic or stone-ground flour, as stated by the bakery on its own website. Ordinary bakeries and industrial chains aren't included, and vague words such as ambachtelijk aren't taken as evidence. Where a bakery calls its flour organic, we look the claim up in the register.
The long ferment matters for the loaf itself: it breaks down part of the flour's phytic acid, and in rye sourdough that continues during baking.
114 producers · every one checked against our inclusion criteria
Open on the map →114 producers across 4 provinces, most of them in Noord-Holland (52), Utrecht (23) and Gelderland (23). Each entry opens the producer's own page with what we checked, when we checked it, opening hours and how to buy; the names are listed by province, town by town, and the map lets you search the same list by postcode.
visited by moss & marrowBakery · EdeSourdough (desem)Desem, or zuurdesem, is the Dutch word for sourdough: a starter of flour and water that ferments with wild yeasts and lactic acid bacteria, which the baker feeds and keeps going from bake to bake. Desembrood (sourdough bread) can rise on this starter alone, which takes many hours. Bread in the Field Guide is sourdough without added baker's yeast, or made with organic or stone-ground flour. Bakeries on the map.
No. Some bread sold as desembrood is made with sourdough for flavour and baker's yeast (gist) to make it rise faster, so the name alone doesn't tell you. Read the ingredients or ask the baker whether gist is added. We include a bakery for its sourdough only when it states that no baker's yeast is added. Our criteria for bread.
Not in the sense most people mean. Real desem rises on wild yeasts and lactic acid bacteria over twelve hours or more, and that slow, acidic ferment is what makes sourdough sourdough: it changes the dough's structure and breaks down part of the flour's phytic acid. Add baker's yeast and the dough can rise in two hours with the starter as flavouring, and the word desembrood on the label doesn't tell you which happened. That is why we include bread without added yeast, or where the bakery states a long ferment. Our bread criteria.
Ambachtelijk means artisanal or craft, and on bread it says nothing specific about the flour, the leavening or how long the dough ferments. We don't accept it as evidence, any more than duurzaam (sustainable) or met liefde (made with love). A bakery is included when it states what it does: sourdough without added baker's yeast, organic flour or stone-ground flour. What we accept as evidence.
Stone-ground flour (steengemalen meel) is grain milled between two millstones, as in a windmill or watermill, rather than between steel rollers in an industrial mill. The whole grain goes between the stones, and the miller sieves it afterwards for lighter flours. Bread made from stone-ground flour is included in the Field Guide, and working mills that sell their own flour are listed under flour, grains and pantry.
Many working windmills and watermills in the Netherlands have a mill shop (molenwinkel) where the miller sells flour ground there, such as wholemeal wheat, spelt and rye. Mills that sell their own stone-ground flour are on our flour, grains and pantry page, with opening hours where the mill publishes them. Mills without a shop aren't included.
No. Organic (biologisch) describes how the grain was grown, without synthetic pesticides or fertiliser and under an EU certificate, while sourdough describes how the bread rises. An organic loaf can be made with baker's yeast, and a sourdough loaf with conventional flour. Either one is enough for a bakery to be included, and the certified organic filter shows the bakeries we found in the EU organic register.
No. Biologisch and organic are protected terms under EU Regulation 2018/848, so a bakery needs its own organic certificate, checked by SKAL in the Netherlands, to sell its bread as organic. We look up every organic claim in the EU organic register. A bakery that bakes with organic flour can still be included for that flour, but only bakeries we found in the register are shown as certified organic. How we check organic status.
Demeter is the international biodynamic standard, which asks more than organic. A Demeter certificate applies only to the business named on it, so a bakery that uses Demeter flour is only Demeter-certified when it holds a certificate of its own. We check every Demeter claim in Demeter's register, and the biodynamic filter shows the bakeries we found there.
A bakery is included when it states that it bakes sourdough (desem) without added baker's yeast, or uses organic or stone-ground flour. Other bakeries aren't included, and neither are industrial bakery chains or supermarkets. We take the claim from the bakery's own website, packaging or social media, or ask the bakery when it isn't published. Our full criteria.
Sourdough bakers often sell at a boerenmarkt (farmers' market) or an organic market as well as from their own shop. We list markets as a whole under Markets without checking each stall, so a bakery appears on the bread page only when we have checked the bakery itself. Markets are listed when they are a boerenmarkt, streekmarkt (regional market) or organic market, and general weekly markets aren't included.