MADISON, Ohio — The third annual Harvest in the Harbor Festival in Ashtabula Harbor crowned sourdough bread baking champions Sunday, Sept. 21.
The winners are already shaping the future of Northeast Ohio’s artisan bread scene. One is opening a bakery in Madison Village this fall.
Taking top honors was Melissa Baumbick of Pointer Pastures in Jefferson, followed by Katie Swart of Daily Bread Sourdough in Madison in second place and Annie Jacobs of The Golden Crumb Sourdough in Ashtabula in third.
Baumbick and Jacobs sell their bread at farmers markets in Ashtabula County, while Swart is preparing to open a brick-and-mortar bakery in Madison Village next month.
For Swart, who began baking sourdough during the pandemic, the recognition is another milestone in a journey that started with health challenges. She turned to sourdough while looking for something easier to digest than conventional bread.
“I’m slightly gluten intolerant, and sourdough is ‘pre-digested’ so our gut doesn’t have to do all that work,” she said. “It became an obsession.”
Her first starter failed, but persistence paid off. On the eighth day of her second attempt, the bubbly mix of flour and water doubled in size.
“I started jumping around like a little girl,” Swart recalled. She named the starter “Ellie,” and it has been the heart of her baking ever since.
“Ellie’s never been refrigerated — she lives on the counter,” she said, noting every starter is different because every household environment varies. Ellie is differentiated by lower water content and acidity.
What began as porch pickups while Swart lived in Alabama grew into a wholesale business after her move to Madison. Today, Daily Bread supplies loaves to Patterson Fruit Farm in Chesterland and West Orchards Farm Market in Perry.
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Making up to 350 loaves per week, demand has quickly outpaced her home kitchen.
“We’re going crazy now — I just can’t contain it in my house,” Swart said.
The new storefront, Daily Bread Sourdough, will open in a former chocolate manufacturing space in the heart of Madison Village. It will stock loaves Friday through Sunday, with extras available during the week. Swart plans to expand the menu to include bagels, pastries, cinnamon rolls, muffins and European-style treats like babkas, croissants and German specialties — a nod to her family heritage.
“I’ve always wanted a storefront,” she said. “God just handed us this space, and everything has been falling into place sooner than we expected.”
Her two children, ages 2 and 4, serve as loyal taste-testers.
“They’re carb-obsessed,” she laughed. “They had three slices with butter and cinnamon sugar this morning.”
Swart shares her sourdough journey online, posting videos of Ellie’s jiggles on TikTok, where followers cheer on her baking experiments.
Known for her decorative loaves adorned with hand-scored wheat stalks, Swart says her craft now involves long hours and serious commitment.
“I’m scoring 300 loaves a week — 350 this week — and pulling three all-nighters,” she said. But for her, the reward is in sharing bread that carries both flavor and meaning.
As Ashtabula Harbor festival winners proved this year, sourdough isn’t just bread — it’s contributing significantly to the expanding artisan food culture in Northeast Ohio.