Holiday Bread
Hello friends-
I hope this update finds you faring well and making plans for gathering with your loved ones. As the cold and dark set in, we face many challenges, but together may the heat of our fires carry our hearts through.
The bakery is planning on being open for the first part of this coming week. We will have PIZZA on Tuesday 11/22— to order please give us a call on Tuesday morning starting at 9AM. We have dining in the barn still available, the woodstove is proving itself thus far! You can also of course order for takeaway.
And then we will be making a whole lot of bread and pastries on Wednesday 11/23. I strongly recommend that you preorder if you want to guarantee your loaves! Please visit our online preorder site: tinderhearthstore.square.site. It is open all day Sunday and until 2PM on Monday. Pickup is at the bakery on Wednesday, 9AM-1PM.
This Thanksgiving we are donating the proceeds of our bread sales to Land Peace Foundation. From their website:
"The Land Peace Foundation is dedicated to the protection of Indigenous rights and the preservation of the Indigenous Way of Life. Our work is focused on the protection and preservation of Indigenous land, water, religious and spiritual rights, and developing climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies that benefit Indigenous Peoples. We also consult with governments and NGO’s to engage the best practices for collaborating with Indigenous populations and Traditional Indigenous Knowledge.
We offer programs that proliferate cultural and traditional ways of knowing and being and foster culturally aligned leadership skills for Indigenous Peoples. At our Wicuhkemtultine location, we also provide ceremonial space for Wabanaki Peoples to meaningfully engage with and uphold our sacred ceremonial way of life."
Our preorder website has a donation item “for sale,” if you would like to add any additional funds to our donation. Or you can support their work directly by going to their website: landpeacefoundation.org
On our preorder website, you will see that we are making two special loaves: Cinnamon Raisin Boule, and Polenta Pumpkin Seed Herb. These will not be available for sale at any other location, so please preorder them now if you want them!
We will be delivering the usual bread and pastry to 44 North Coffee, the Blue Hill Wine Shop, and the Blue Hill Wineshop on Wednesday. Our goods are also available through FarmDrop, you can order from them now!
Tinder Hearth will be CLOSED for the rest of the week—no pizza 11/24, and no bread or breakfast/lunch on 11/26. We will be back on 11/29 with our usual offerings!
And for those of you who are thinking ahead to December, we are planning on doing a holiday bake on Friday 12/22 and then probably being closed until the new year.
Much love to everyone, and thank you so much for all of your support.
My best-
Lydia
Schedule Update
Hello friends of the bakery-
It’s October! Wow! Our schedule is shifting towards winter and we’re planning a short break at the end of the month, so we just want to give you the update. Starting on 10/3 our schedule will be:
Bread & Pastry
We are baking on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The bakery is open 9-1 on both days, and you can preorder for pickup at the bakery in advance if you would like. We also have items for walkup sale available as well.
Preorders are also available for pickup in Belfast on Saturdays, 1-2PM. See our online preorder site for more details.
We will be returning to MDI starting this month, via FarmDrop. FarmDrop MDI will be starting up again in a few weeks, and you can preorder and pickup our bread and pastry through them. Here is more info.
Bread & Pastry
We are now dropping to our winter pizza hours of two days a week, which are 4:30-7:30 Tuesday and Thursday.
Will will continue to take orders the same way we have been all summer via the “callback method.” If you are unfamiliar with this, more information is linked here. That being said, you are ALWAYS welcome to call us during our open hours to check to about pizza openings, we rarely get booked up this time of year.
The barn is proving to be a very cozy spot, so we are pleased to offer a mostly inside place for dining going into the colder months. We don’t know if it will continue to serve midwinter, but we will have to see!
Bakery Break
The bakery will be closed for one week, October 24th-30th for some rest and projects. We’ll be back in November with some new things—stay tuned for updates on all of that!
Thank you so much for your support this season. We are so looking forward to the months ahead with you all!
Our best-
Lydia and Tim
September Musings
Hey friends! I rarely post pictures of the two of us because, well, Tinder Hearth never feels like it’s about us in particular, but Rebecca Rose caught us at the fair… so, here you go.
It’s September WOW! and we’re feeling so full of appreciation and amazement over these last months of high-summer hoopla. Many thanks to every single one of you who come out to little ol’ West Brooksville in search of baked things and conviviality.
The way that you have integrated Tinder Hearth into the heart of your lives bowls us over on the daily. Thank you. Your joy is the fruit on the tree of Tinder Hearth.
And a dump truck load of flowers and honey to our glorious team—I’m not sure how it happens, but we consistently have the most stylish, competent, hilarious and dedicated weirdos walk through our door looking for work. You are the muscle, ingenuity, and heart of this place, and your genius is the yeast of the joy this food and experience brings to our community (haha yes I’m a weirdo too).
I am regularly asked how I manage to run an extremely seasonal, busy business (at my house) while raising my children and doing everything else life asks, without getting burned out and/or bitter. It’s a fair question, but my first response every time is it’s because our staff are truly exceptional. Y’all make me laugh, you care for our family, and take the spark of Tinder Hearth and make it into a fire. We’ll forever be in your debt. And not all of you will see this post I know, because you’re too cool for internet nonsense, but damnit I gotta say it publicly somehow.
FALL SCHEDULE UPDATE:
The bakery is currently putting out bread and pastry Wednesdays and Saturdays. Preordering ahead of time is still a great idea, as we’ve still been selling out most days. Information about how that works is here.
We deliver on both days to 44 North, the Blue Hill Co-Op, and the Blue Hill Wineshop. Find us on Wednesdays also via FarmDrop in Deer Isle or Blue Hill, and at Yellow Birch Farm. On Saturdays we are also at Roaring Lion Market, and now at The Salt Market in Northeast Harbor.
PIZZA is holding strong at FOUR NIGHTS A WEEK, let’s see how far into the fall we can keep that going!! Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. It’s likely that we’ll drop down to three or two nights by October—it just depends on how much you want pizza, and our own scheduling.
This weekend the barn is getting her final coat of oil on the floor, so within days we will be able to dine (slightly) indoors with lights and everything, which I think will make the fall evenings even more glorious.
We are still doing the callback system for pizza reservations, but last week we did call EVERYONE who put their name in, and still had lots of reservations open. Therefore it is no longer a lottery… it’s just a method to keep you off the redial button.
And we’re not getting fully booked via the callbacks, so that means we now definitely CAN take orders by the phone starting Tuesday afternoons when we’re finished calling out—so you have options. Come on over folks—September pizza is pretty amazing.
Much love to you all—together we can do anything.
—Lydia, with Tim and family
Summer Schedule 2022
Photo: Emily Delamater
Hello dear friends and neighbors-
This week we are launching our full summer schedule, and we want to make sure you know what’s happening over here! We are now open 4 mornings a week with bread and pastry, and 4 evenings a week with pizza:
Pizza: Tuesday-Friday 4:30PM-8PM
Bread & Pastry: Wednesday-Saturday 9AM-1PM
Closed: Saturday 1PM -Tuesday 9AM
See our reservations page here for info on how to order pizza. It’s a new system this summer, which has been working out great so far! It takes a lot less time on your end! Yay!
For bread & pastry, the bakery is open Wednesday through Saturday mornings for WALK-UP sales. We are still doing advance preorders online here for our Wednesday and Saturday bakes. But no preorder is necessary to purchase bread and pastry here!
We’re excited to soon start offering morning sales in our barn, but the space is not quite ready yet… we still need to build the doors and lights. So for now we’re still selling out our front door. Please park in the lot and walk on the front side of the barn up to where we can help you outside. Thank you!
If you are in Belfast, we are still offering, thanks to a host of wonderful volunteers, preorder pickups in Reny’s Plaza on Saturdays 1-2PM. See our preorder website here for more information. We have stopped offering preorder pickup in Town Hill for the summer, but plan to return in the fall!
You can also find the bread and pastry via farmdrop which has pickup locations in Blue Hill, Stonington, Deer Isle, Castine, Brooksville, and Town Hill, and which will deliver to anywhere on the Peninsula! Check it out—they’re stocked with all kinds of amazing local groceries!
We also deliver to a number of different wonderful locations around the Peninsula in the summer: the 44 North Coffee cafes, Yellow Birch Farm, Roaring Lion Market, the Blue Hill Wineshop, and the Blue Hill Co-Op.
We look forward to seeing you here at the bakery this summer!
All blessings-
Lydia and Tim
December Schedule & Announcements
Hello everyone-
Warm tidings to you all—we hope your winter season has brought you some respite and inspiration. We’ve got a couple of announcements and schedule details, so read on!
HOLIDAY SCHEDULE
The bakery will be closed for two long weekends around Christmas and New Years. We will be OPEN for PIZZA on Tuesday 12/21 and BREAD on Wednesday 12/22, and then close for the remainder of the week. The following week we will again be OPEN for PIZZA on Tuesday 12/28 and BREAD on Wednesday 12/29, and then close for the rest of the week. We’ll be back to our regular schedule the first week of January!
Everyone can now ORDER ONLINE for our WEDNESDAY BAKES! The online store will be open on SUNDAYS for Wednesday pickup. Mark your calendars! This will continue through the winter.
We will be making a couple of HOLIDAY SPECIALS on Wednesday 12/22. In addition to our regular bread and pastry, we will be making two holiday loaves: Apricot Fennel Walnut and Olive Lemon Herb. We recommend preordering for pickup that day. To order, please go to our online store on Sunday 12/19. The store opens at 9AM. Let us know if you have any questions at tinderhearth@gmail.com. Thank you!
BREAD & PASTRY TO MDI
For those of you on the Island—Tinder Hearth is planning to start a preorder pickup stop in Town Hill next week! Every Wednesday our delivery van will be at the Town Hill Community Center parking lot 3:00-4:00PM with bread and pastry that has been preordered.
To place an order please go to our online store at online store on SUNDAY, so that we have a few days to get orders ready. The truck won't have anything available for walk-up sales on Wednesday, so you must place an order online in advance on Sunday. Let us know if you have any questions.
Thank you all, and happy solstice blessings to your hearth and family--
Lydia & Tim
The Tinder Hearth barn looking tidy!
Thanksgiving 2021
Hey Folks!
Next week is Thanksgiving and we’ll be baking on Wednesday only. The bakery will be closed on Saturday the 27th.
On Wednesday we will be delivering all of our regular loaves and pastries to the stores: Deer Isle—at 44 North and FarmDrop, and to Blue Hill—at the Wineshop, Co-Op, and FarmDrop. We will also be baking a couple of special loaves which will be available for purchase only here at the bakery.
Are you interested in reserving your bread? You can preorder via Farmdrop for pickup at their Deer Isle or Blue Hill locations (click on the links < for more info, orders must be placed by Monday at midnight!), or email the bakery ASAP at tinderhearth@gmail.com for pickup here in Brooksville or at 44 North.
Preorder is not available at the Wineshop or the Co-Op. Preorders are also not possible to place via our online store, or available for pickup in Belfast—our apologies!
Blessings to you all-
Lydia & Tim
Open Again!
Hello dear bread and pizza fans-
We’re back in the bakery this week—thank you for hanging in there during the bread hiatus. Our family is definitely missing our daily loaves! We’ll be baking bread and pastries again on Wednesdays and Saturdays, which will be our schedule for the winter.
Two items of note: Our Belfast delivery is unfortunately on pause again until we find someone to take the trip. Let us know if that’s you? And 44 North in Deer Isle is closed for the next few weeks for their big roastery move, so Island folks you’re going to have to make it out this way—Or order bread and pastry via FarmDrop!
Pizza has now transitioned back to drive-through curbside pickup for the cold season, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4:30-8:00 PM. Ordering is the same—by phone starting at 9:00 AM on Tuesday morning each week—but please be prepared with your card information, as we’ll be going back to preorder to make pickup work smoothly! Please send us an email if you’ve got any questions, we’re always happy to illuminate our sometimes confusing changing protocols! Thank you!
With much gratitude-
Tim and Lydia
Fall 2021
photo by Jay Carroll
Hello dear friends of Tinder Hearth-
The very first maple leaves here in Brooksville are starting to lose their chlorophyll and try on their fancy fall colors. The revelry of the summertime is drawing to a close, and what a summer it has been! Many thank yous for spending this summer with us! It has been so lovely to have you here again in the Tinder Hearth gardens, and out finding the bread and pastries at all our locations to bring home with you! It has truly been grand.
Our baking schedule is changing with the season, and at Labor Day we will shift to our off-season program:
Fall Schedule
PIZZA: Tuesday & Thursday
BREAD & PASTRY: Wednesday & Saturday
This coming week (August 31st) will be a transition week, where we will have PIZZA all four nights (Tuesday through Friday) as we have this summer, but will only have BREAD & PASTRY available on Wednesday and Saturday.
After Labor Day we will continue to provide outdoor dining on Tuesdays and Thursdays until the frosts prompt us to go back to take-out only for the winter.
The bakery will be open on Wednesdays and Saturdays for bread and pastry sales, out the front door starting at 9AM. We will continue to deliver to 44 North Coffee, The Blue Hill Wine Shop and The Blue Hill Co-Op on Wednesdays and Saturdays. On Wednesdays you can also find us via Yellow Birch Farm, Deer Isle FarmDrop, and Blue Hill FarmDrop. And on Saturdays we will continue to provide online preordering for pickup here at Tinder Hearth, or in Belfast at the Reny’s Plaza 1-2PM.
As always, let us know if you have any questions, email us at: tinderhearth@gmail.com
With so much love and gratitude—
Lydia & Tim
Spring 2021
Hello friends and neighbors-
We have some exciting news to share about this coming season!
First, as you can see in the photo, we have built an addition onto the bakery, which soon should house a new bread oven. The oven building will take place the week of April 26th, and we will have to CLOSE for just ONE BAKE::: May 1st :::during the burn-out period. The rest of our current schedule during the week will be as normal, with pizza on Tuesday & Friday, and pastries delivered to 44 North in Deer Isle and the Blue Hill Co-Op on Wednesday.
SPRING 2021 Schedule
We are excited to announce that we plan to have outdoor dining again this year! We missed you all so much last season, and can’t wait to invite you back to our gardens. We will continue to make pizza on Tuesday & Thursday for the spring, and starting JUNE 8th you can choose to stay here and eat your pizza in the garden. Curbside take-out will continue as well. In the garden there will be a couple of changes to follow CDC safety guidelines, as to be expected. We can’t wait to see you here!
On JUNE 15th we will expand to our full summer schedule, with pizza available four nights a week: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
This spring we will continue to bake bread and pastry on Saturdays, and will expand our bakery schedule starting the week of JUNE 15th. We need to spend a little bit of time with our new oven before we finalize our bread and pastry schedule for the summer, but you can count on us continuing online preorders for Saturday pickup here at the bakery and in Belfast. We will also bake probably three other days a week, with deliveries to 44 North in Deer Isle and Stonington, and The Blue Hill Co-Op. More details about this schedule soon!
If you have any questions please send us an email at tinderhearth@gmail.com or find us on Instagram or Facebook.
With so much love-
Lydia and Tim
Belfast & Holiday Schedule
Hello all-
Just a quick note to update you on our Belfast delivery plans and our Holiday schedule.
Belfast
Dear mid-coast friends! We’re coming your way! Finally! Starting this week (Saturday the 12th), we will be doing a pick-up of pre-ordered bread and pastry at the Reny’s Plaza in Belfast, 1PM-2PM. We plan on coming down for the next few weeks on a trial basis to see if it can catch on… so tell your friends!
Ordering will take place online, at our online store tinderhearthstore.square.site each week on Wednesday. Make sure you choose the Belfast location when you order. Then come and pick up at Reny’s Plaza from 1PM-2PM on Saturday! Please park and walk up to our white van—with masks and distancing in place, of course. Thank you much!!
We encourage everyone to help friends out and pick up orders for each other if 1PM-2PM isn’t convenient for all— we don’t have a back-up location to leave forgotten orders, so set your alarms, and remember to come grab your baked goods! Thank you. We look forward to seeing you all again! And of course, shoot us an email at tinderhearth@gmail.com if you’ve got any questions.
And just to clarify—we won’t be making any sales from the truck. We will only be bringing pre-ordered, pre-paid goods. Thank you for making it work with us during these difficult times!
Holiday Schedule
Week of December 20th
Sunday the 20th: Online Store opens for orders for pick up on WEDNESDAY Dec 23rd
Tuesday the 22nd: No Pizza (we’ll be shaping bread dough instead!)
Wednesday the 23rd: Bread & Pastry! With SPECIAL HOLIDAY LOAVES
Thursday 24th-Monday 28th: CLOSED
Week of December 27th
We will be open and back to our regular schedule
Tuesday the 29th: Pizza yeah!
Wednesday the 30th: Online Store opens for orders for pick up January 2nd
Thursday the 31st: PIZZA! Celebrate NYE with some pies! <3
Saturday the 2nd: Bread & Pastry
The last thing to mention is that we will be making some of our favorite holiday bread again, which will be available on Wednesday the 23rd, (pre-orders online start on Sunday the 20th). We will be making: Olive Walnut Herb, Apricot Walnut Fennel, and Raisin Spelt. If you would like to reserve any of these special loaves in advance to the opening of our online store, send us over an email at tinderhearth@gmail.com.
Thank you much and all blessings to you and yours.
With love,
Lydia and Tim and Team TH
Thanksgiving 2020
Hello dear neighbors and friends-
Here we are, coming into the dark time of the year, and we hope that you are each finding new ways to bring warmth and light into your homes. The holidays for most of us will be rather different than usual—but over here at the bakery we are planning on baking some of our favorite holiday loaves, so maybe some things can remain familiar. See below for for details on our Thanksgiving schedule and how to order.
We are now delivering pastry and bread to 44 North Coffee in Deer Isle, and to the Blue Hill Co-Op in Blue Hill. We are also putting together a pre-order pick-up time in Belfast on Saturdays, probably 12-1, location TBA. Our first Belfast deilvery will be on December 5th. Send us an email if you want us to notify you directly about our Belfast plans when they are fully planned!
We love you, our people, so much, and are sending out our prayers with the bread steam for strength and new hope.
With love, Lydia and Tim
THANKSGIVING WEEK SCHEDULE
Bread & Pastry: Wednesday 25th
closed for pizza and Saturday bake
Place your order ONLINE—the online store opens at 10AM on Sunday 22nd
Pick up orders at the bakery Wednesday 25th, 9:00-1:00
We will be baking our regular breads and pastries, as well as three special loaves:
Walnut Apricot Fennel
Raisin Spelt
Polenta Pumpkin Seed Herb
Email us at tinderhearth@gmail.com with any questions!
We will be back to our regular schedule the following week:
Pizza Tuesday & Thursday 4:30-8:00 PM *** Bread & Pastry Saturdays
July
Hello dear neighbors-
Midsummer is here and walking in our backyard in the evening feels rather surreal—the lush green leaves of the maple tree riffle in the breeze, butterflies loop through the milkweed, the rascally bobolinks and lone sora out in the marsh talk a lot—but none of you are here! The picnic tables remain stacked in their winter storage arrangement, the children’s tractors usually sit idle, and Tim is keeping his surfboards in the oven house. No parties, no music, and no community joy among the flowers. We miss you!!
Most summers our business explodes into constant motion, a little bit like a chaotic yet joyful circus train climbing a ten-week-long mountain. Our two main summer goals have always been to (1) maximize our production while maintaining excellence, and (2) provide as many good jobs as possible. It’s a short busy season here, but the flurry of activity is hugely exciting and a wonderful juxtaposition to our quiet winters.
As most of you already know, this year we have decided to do things very differently due to concerns over the spread of Covid-19. We have not taken up our typical summer hours, and are basically going with a slightly expanded version of our winter schedule: bread and pastry are available on Saturdays only, and we’re making pizza for takeout on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings.
This spring, after much research, consultations, deliberations, and questions (sound familiar, anyone?), we decided to choose the safest route possible—for our family, our staff, and our community—without actually closing. The two most impactful results of this decision is that we are not allowing more than five staff members to work in the bakery space at once, and we’re not inviting guests to gather on the property. This means we’re producing far less than usual, and we’re offering take-out only.
To produce less is a hardship—financially for the bakery and our staff, and practically for all of you who rely on our products as staples in your daily meals and for fun evenings out. We are currently employing a valiant and vigilant staff of 9, rather than the typical summer team of 30+. We are making only a third of the bread and pastries that we produced last summer. And we’re making pizza only 3 out of our normal 5 nights a week.
That is A LOT less! We despise not making more food. It feels awful. But we cannot, in good conscience, crank this summer as we usually do, so this is where we have landed. We hope you all understand.
We are selling almost all our bread and pastry directly from the bakery, with the exception of a little bread and pastry at 44 North (this Island girl can’t not have a little Tinder Hearth presence down there). Many thanks to everyone who instantly got on board with mid-week online ordering and coming out here for pick-up. We’re so very, very grateful for your support.
Head’s up, now that July is here products are selling quickly online. It’s not ideal, but it’s where we’re at this summer. Our best advice to you is to set your alarms and get on the ordering as early as you can! Good luck!
We weren’t sure if take-out pizza would remain popular once other restaurants opened for dining, but it certainly has. We are starting to sell out, and ordering is difficult, to say the least. It’s kind of like a lottery for folks who are able to call us a million times. Not ideal. We know. We’re so sorry about the phone situation, and we’re working hard right now to come up with a solution. We might go to online ordering for pizza, or just get another line going so we can process orders twice as fast. Stay tuned for an update in the next week or so. But THANK YOU!!! Thank you for supporting us despite the difficulty and for your patience. Thank you.
Our hearts are in everything that we do, and we are so grateful to be in this incredibly beautiful place with all of you. There is so much to fight for, and here’s to the strength and creative power we can find anew together, here in our community. May the deep beauty of these shimmering lands and waters fill you up with mysterious forces for life and wellness. We love you and miss you—see you in the driveway!
With love,
Lydia and Tim,
with Kieran and Alva
ORGANIC SOFTSERVE!
Organic Blue Marble Ice cream is back! We are making cookie sandwiches to take with your order, rainbow sprinkles and all! The ice cream sandwiches get a stint in the deep freezer before you pick them up, so you’ve got around half an hour before they start thinking about melting. But we won’t tell if you just go for dessert first!
Love to all. . .
Take-out pizza from 4:30 to 8pm Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday! Call (207) 326-8381 to place your order!
CINNAMON BUNS + OTHER TREATS
The time has come- cinnamon buns are ready to play! Head over to our online store to order bread and treats for SATURDAY pickup!
Next week’s pizza nights are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 4:30 to 8PM; drive through/no-contact pickup.
Call to order: (207) 326-8381 and see you then!
THURSDAY PIZZA + SATURDAY CHANGES
Hey Folks! The peepers and bittern and woodcock are back in full force over here in the marshlands, making a right racket each evening; we’re so very grateful to live among such stunning beauty, and get to share it with you in these difficult days. Thank you so much for your support.
We’re continuing to shift around our schedule to try to offer all of you the best food we can while keeping things as spacious as possible within the bakery. Our staff are a bunch of rock stars, and have been working so hard and with so much love.
Take a look at our schedule changes, and don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions!
This week we are adding THURSDAY to our pizza schedule! And our Saturday PICK-UP time is now changed to 9:00-1:00 to accommodate more orders.
WEEKLY SCHEDULE
PIZZA Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 5-8PM
BREAD & PASTRY Saturday 9:00-1:00
How to ORDER? If you’re looking for PIZZA, you must place your order by phone. We start taking orders for the whole week on Tuesday at 8AM. The line has been very busy Tuesday mornings, but with 3 nights of pizza now, calling later on means you should still be able to get a pizza this week! Check out our insta or facebook (you don’t need an account to see our facebook posts!! Just click that link!) on Tuesdays to see the menu, and we’ll make updates if/when we sell out. Sound good?
For ordering BREAD & PASTRY we are now taking all orders ONLINE! Yeah! Our online store is open each week at 8AM on WEDNESDAYS. Pickup is at the bakery on Saturday, now 9:00-1:00. Thank you!!
We are sad to announce that for the time being, we are no longer delivering to the Blue Hill Co-Op or John Edwards in Ellsworth.
This was a difficult decision for us, but as we move into the warmer months, we will not be able to expand our bread production as much as we are accustomed to in the summers past. Our bakery space is very small, and for our employees’ safety, we are going to continue to keep the number of people who must work in the bakery at any one time minimal.
Please reach out if you have any questions! tinderhearth@gmail.com is the easiest way to reach us directly.
Thank you, and sending love,
Lydia and Tim