vanmenno

vanmenno is a sourdough bakery on the Kamerlingh Onneslaan in IJsselstein, founded by a baker trained in France who started in Rotterdam in 2000 and built this bakery in 2009, and which now supplies restaurants, shops and online grocers across the Netherlands.

The sourdough breads are made with the bakery's own starter, first grown about 20 years ago and refreshed every day with flour and water. These desembol and desembrood loaves come in wheat, spelt, seeded, walnut and nut-and-raisin versions, are labelled organic, and the bakery is certified organic (SKAL); we found it in the register. The dough is slack, shaped by hand and baked directly on the stone floor of the oven, and the recipes use only flour, sourdough, water and salt. The rustiek and landbrood loaves are made with a small amount of yeast instead, so they aren't included here.

The bread is sold at Ekoplaza shops and through the online supermarket Picnic, and it can also be ordered through the shop on their website; their website doesn't mention a shop at the bakery in IJsselstein. Much of it is baked part-way, cooled and packed so it can be finished in the customer's own oven.

Part of the bread and packing work is done by young people who have difficulty finding work elsewhere, with their own job coaching.