Annie Moen, owner of Flourish Bread Co., doesn’t change her menu from season to season.

“It stays pretty consistent throughout the year,” she said. “I really don’t do anything differently.”

But seasons change, whether or not menus do, and as summer gives way to fall, Moen’s products pair nicely with dishes that are considered traditional autumnal fare.

Flourish Bread Co., a cottage food operation permitted to be run out of Moen’s home kitchen, features sourdough loaves and boules, chocolate chip cookies, corn cookies, granola, scones, and ready-to-bake sourdough pizza crusts. She sells her products each weekend at the Turlock Certified Farmers Market, bringing about 200 loaves each Saturday.

“It’s getting to be soup weather,” said Moen. “And nothing goes better with soup than bread.”

Whether it’s split-pea, minestrone, or tomato — soup just seems better when there’s a hunk of sourdough bread on the side.

“A grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup … nothing beats that,” she said.

Autumn usually means that the summer heat has relaxed its firm grip on the Central Valley — enough so that heating up the kitchen to cook doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.

“I think in the autumn, as the weather starts to change, people are less reluctant to turn on the oven,” said Moen. “It’s a great time to make your own pizza.”

Flourish produces a 12- to 14-inch sourdough pizza crusts that come ready to slather with tomato sauce, cheese, and your choice of toppings. Just crank up the oven to about 500 degrees and put the pizza in for about six to eight minutes — just enough to melt the cheese and heat those toppings. 

Soon enough, it will be Halloween, and Flourish’s corn cookies are a great fit for the season.

“You can come to the farmers market in the morning, get yourself some corn cookies, and then head on over to the corn maze (Daubenberger Road and Canal Drive) and make a day of it,” Moen said. 

Soon after Halloween, of course, is Thanksgiving.

“People are always making stuffing or bread pudding or having French toast on a holiday morning when all the family is off work and you get to have a lazy, slow morning when you actually get a chance to cook breakfast,” she said.

But you don’t need a holiday to enjoy Flourish Bread Co.’s offerings.

“My friends and I love to do a fire-pit night,” said Moen. “That’s always fun to just sit around the fire and pass around a bag of cookies.”

Moen, a Turlock native and a 2019 graduate of Pitman High School, launched her business in the summer between her junior and senior year. This is now her seventh season operating at TCFM.

“I grew up in the kitchen,” Moen said. “My mom bakes. My grandma bakes. I used to have bake sales in front of the house at 10 years old. I love to be in the kitchen. I think 10-year-old Annie would be flabbergasted that I get to do this as a full-time job.”

After high school, Moen earned degrees in business and accounting from Trinity Western University in Canada — about 125 miles north of Seattle.

“This is definitely a full-time job and I probably put in 55 hours a week,” she said. “It’s a lot of work and it’s a lot more physical labor than people would realize. I’ve gone through probably five tons of flour already this season. It requires a lot of lifting. It’s tiring, but I love it.”