The Folks Behind Baker/Potter

Ryan Lee

Ryan became obsessed with bread while baking at home. He decided he wanted to become a baker and found a job working through the night in a tiny bakery by the sea. He liked it well enough but discovered he was really only interested in baking bread so kept baking at home and dreamed of a life as a village baker. He even built a little wood fired oven in his backyard. One day, while sitting outside a coffee shop a guy named Josey rolled up with a bicycle loaded with bread. Turns out Josey was opening a bakery and needed some bread bakers to join the team. Ryan Joined the team at The Mill and honed his craft. During this time, Ryan decided he needed a new hobby so set up a pottery workshop in a little room connected to the bedroom he shared with Kristen. Slowly but surely, after work in the bakery and on the weekends Ryan learned to throw pots and folks started asking to purchase his pottery. Ryan spent some years baking and potting, learning, making mistakes, and clarifying the vision. In 2016, he and Kristen took a leap and moved to a little known island in Puget Sound. Over the next few years, while making pottery full time, Ryan built a little wood fired bakery/mill from the ground up on their land. In the fall of 2019 he finished the project and started his journey as a village baker. He couldn’t have done it without the encouragement and help of friends, the support of customers purchasing pottery, and especially Kristen who tolerated his crazy and is down for whatever.

Kristen Jones

Kristen grew up in Richmond, VA (also spent a few early years in the mountains of India). She and Ryan met one sunny day in the sand dunes at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. They went for coffee and then dinner and then moved in together. They decided they wanted to build a life together and realized the city wasn’t the place for that. While she probably wouldn’t agree, the bakery wouldn’t have happened without her support. Kristen was game to move to the country and work a job she didn’t love to support the family while Ryan built the bakery. Kristen has since quit that job to be home with our little one and to work in the family business. Kristen is the one that answers emails and keeps orders organized. She updates to web shop, does the accounting, puts the finishing touches on pots, glazes and loads kilns, and makes the pastries. She is also the face most often seen at the Olympia Farmers Market on Saturdays.