Two dozen or so people gathered outside The Bread Mine in Fruita on an early August morning, waiting for the long-anticipated sourdough bakery to open. Inside were multiple flavors of fresh-baked sourdough bread — whole wheat molasses, onion dill and marbled rye, chili cheddar and more — plus an array of delicious pastries like the almond croissants, cardamom buns and blue corn blueberry cookies.

Owner Ramona Weiss and her four-person crew — including son Desmond, 18, and daughter Mawusi, 24 — were ready for the crowd; they had extra help that day, including Weiss’ brother Jesse and sister Joanna, two nieces and a nephew, a brother-in-law who spent much of the day in back washing dishes, mother Joan and father Bob — who cheerfully greeted customers with samples of various goodies.

Weiss, 49, has worked around food all her life — from working in the deli at Sundrop Grocery — her parents’ natural foods store that operated in Grand Junction from 1978 to 2004 — to running a fruit snack company, and managing the deli at Skip’s Farm to Market store, located next door to The Bread Mine at 211 E. Aspen Ave.

“Working with food and feeding people is satisfying and nurturing to me,” Weiss says.

The Bread Mine owner Ramona Weiss. *Photo by Sharon Sullivan.*

Friends, acquaintances and other sourdough lovers have eagerly awaited the bakery’s opening, which has been four years in the making. Weiss faced numerous obstacles along the way, including a difficult marriage and divorce. When the marriage ended, so did plans to convert an old church building into a bakery and living space.

Weiss was baking and selling her bread wholesale when she met former employer Skip Doty. Doty was supportive of Weiss’ plans for opening a bakery, wanted to collaborate and made his property next door to Skip’s Market available. “Skip has been incredibly helpful in incubating my business,” Weiss says.

While the Aspen Street property is a better business location than the church, the 100-plus-years-old downtown building needed total gutting. Exterior walls needed redoing and some foundation work was required. The interior was freshly redesigned.

A beautifully framed “sourdough shrine” — created by Weiss’ mother, a stained-glass artist — is embedded in the west interior wall. Each week Weiss places a glass jar holding a portion of sourdough “mother” starter in the center of the shrine.

Sourdough bread is more digestible than yeast bread, supports a healthy gut and helps control blood sugar, according to the Mayo Clinic. Weiss says she “loves the texture and flavor” of sourdough.

On another wall a display built by Weiss’ father pays tribute to her great-grandfather, who had been a baker in North Dakota. It includes his antique rolling pin and muffin tin.

The Bread Mine is open 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. (or whenever sold out) Thursday through Saturday. Until Weiss is able to purchase a second, larger commercial bread oven (at a cost of approximately $35,000), the bakery is limited to being open just three days. A used commercial oven purchased years ago ended up needing endless expensive repairs. Unbeknownst to Weiss her former colleagues at Skip’s Market started a GoFundMe site, which will help greatly with the down-payment, she says.

Weiss and her four-person team are there all week, though, prepping ingredients, feeding the sourdough, checking temperatures, layering butter into the croissant dough — croissants take days to make. “Almost everything we make here is a three-day process,” Weiss says. “We have to plan so far ahead.”

She and her bread-baker son Desmond arrive at 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday to bake the first batch of breads, followed by the pastries that have been meticulously crafted beforehand. Once the pastries come out of the oven, a second round of breads are baked.

Weiss sources her heritage grains and organic flours from a supplier in Utah and Mountain Oven Flour in Paonia. The blue corn she uses is a non-GMO heirloom variety grown by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in the Four Corners region. The Bread Mine’s coffee is sourced regionally as well — from Bower Coffee in Paonia. Weiss makes her own chai tea in-house, with added oat milk and agave.

Everything about this bakery is artfully done — from the exquisite pastries and artisan breads to the interior’s delightful décor where there’s space to sit and enjoy.

To learn more, visit facebook.com/thebreadmine.

Originally published in the winter 2025-26 issue of Spoke+Blossom.

The Bread Mine: Family Is An Important Ingredient At This Fruita Sourdough Bakery