A New Chapter, One Loaf at a Time
Hi, I'm Chris Foster.
If you'd told me a few years ago that I'd leave a successful career in retail management to become a sourdough baker in my 50s, I probably would have laughed. But here we are!
My love for sourdough started long before Foster Sourdough Co. existed. When I moved back home to Amarillo after living in the Chicago area, I missed the authentic sourdough bread I'd grown to love. I couldn't find what I was looking for locally, so in the fall of 2023, I decided to learn to make it myself.
There was just one problem. I didn't know the first thing about baking bread.
So, I gave myself a challenge: bake one loaf every day for 30 days.
My family couldn't possibly eat that much bread, so I started giving loaves away to friends, family, and coworkers. By the end of those 30 days, people weren't just accepting my bread. They were asking for more.
And somewhere along the way, I fell completely in love with the process. The simplicity of flour, water, and salt. The patience it takes. The little bit of magic that happens when you give dough the time it needs.
I had no idea that those first loaves would change the direction of my life.
Where It All Began
The loaf that started it all
A little help in the kitchen
Sometimes You Just Have to Take the Leap
For a while, I was living two completely different lives. By day, I worked my full-time job in retail management. By night, I was mixing dough, baking bread, and sometimes packaging loaves until 2 a.m. so they'd be ready for porch pickups the next morning.
What started as a hobby had become something I couldn't stop thinking about. The orders kept growing, the farmers markets were taking off, and I was running out of hours in the day.
Eventually, I had to make a choice. I could stop baking, or I could walk away from the career I'd spent decades building.
I chose the bread.
It wasn't an easy decision. I had a good job, a steady income, and absolutely no guarantee this little bakery would succeed. I promised my family I'd give it six months. If I couldn't make it work, I'd find another path.
My first professional oven lived in my dining room. Eventually, I moved into a tiny corner of a shared commercial kitchen with an oven, a table, and a bread rack.
It wasn't much, but it was mine to build on.
And I never looked back.
A Little Corner Became Something Bigger
That little corner didn't stay little for long.
As more people discovered our bread, opportunities started opening up. Local restaurants began serving it, neighborhood markets made room for it on their shelves, and before I knew it, we needed more space, more equipment, and more hands to keep up.
Every step felt enormous at the time. Moving into our own kitchen. Buying another oven. Bringing on employees. Saying yes to opportunities that seemed almost too big for us.
And then came The Bread Box.
What had started in my home kitchen had grown into a real bakery with its own storefront, a wonderful team, and bread making its way into homes and businesses across the Texas Panhandle.
I'm incredibly proud of what we've built, but what means the most to me isn't the size of our kitchen or the number of loaves coming out of our ovens.
It's knowing that something I started because I wanted a good loaf of bread has become a business that supports other families, works alongside other local businesses, and gives people a place to find bread made the way I believe it should be made.
And we're still growing.
More Than Just Good Bread
I started Foster Sourdough because I believed people deserved access to real, traditionally made bread. But somewhere along the way, this little bakery became about so much more than what comes out of our ovens.
Today, I'm surrounded by a team of people who care about what we're creating. We make our bread with simple ingredients, long fermentation, and no preservatives or dough conditioners. We support other local businesses whenever we can, and every week, we donate our unsold loaves to a local food pantry because good bread should be shared, not wasted.
I'm proud of the bread we bake. But I'm just as proud of the people behind it and the community that has helped us grow.
And the Story Continues...
I still get excited about a beautiful loaf coming out of the oven. I still love experimenting with new flavors, learning new techniques, and sharing what I've learned with others.
The difference is that now I get to do it alongside an incredible team, in a bakery filled with people who share that same passion.
When I think back to that first loaf in my home kitchen, I never could have imagined where it would lead. And I honestly can't wait to see what comes next.
If you've been buying our bread since the porch pickup days, thank you for believing in us. And if you're just discovering Foster Sourdough, welcome. I'm glad you're here.
— Chris