By: Lindsay Cranford
There is no better smell than a freshly baked loaf of bread coming out of the oven. Except for the smell of dozens of freshly baked loaves of several different varieties of bread coming out of commercial ovens. I was welcomed by the latter when I walked into Sprout Momma Breads’ Beach City Road storefront to hang with the Lowcountry’s First Family of Bread. Racks of sourdough, olive, parmesan pepper, ciabatta, and black bamboo baguettes laid out in front of me – I had died and gone to carb Heaven (which in my book is really just regular Heaven).
Unofficially founded by matriarch Kim Tavino in “2011, 2012, 13ish?,” she questioningly chuckles, Sprout Momma Breads began out of Tavino’s home kitchen as an extension of her personal training business. She wanted a holiday gift for her clients that was healthy and nourishing, yet still considered a treat. Her sprouted grain breads were such a hit that orders began flooding in and she recruited her eldest child, son and chef Ryan Fennessey, shortly thereafter to help her both meet the growing demand, and to expand the business by creating new mouthwatering recipes. Fennessey grew up in restaurant kitchens where he learned to respect the process of creating wholesome food with real ingredients. Together, mother and son moved Sprout Momma’s operations from the home kitchen to Piggly Wiggly’s commercial kitchen, which they rented for several years until moving into the current location in 2017.
The Beach City Road location started as a production facility to churn out enough product to go to various farmers markets every week, but now includes a retail location with a few tables for to-go items and quick counter service. Kim’s youngest daughter, Abby Fennessey, joined the team to run the company’s marketing, and basically do anything that is asked of her, all of which she does with a perpetual, genuine smile on her face. Caitlin Anderson rounds out the team, and brings with her a background in pastry and cake-making. We have Caity, as the team calls her, to thank for blueberry crumbles and their recent ventures into wedding cakes! When asked how they like working together, the family laughs, side eyes each other, and make jokes, but you can feel the love that exists between this team.
Sprout Momma produces about 1,000 loaves of bread per week. Since the beginning, all of their products are all-natural and handmade from scratch; they never use bleach, bromate (an additive that allows bread to rise higher) or preservatives. “The mixer is really the only modern tool in here,” Fennessey says while looking around the bakery at his creations, which include tubs of cultivated wild yeast that will turn the flour in his doughs into even more nutrient-rich final products. It doesn’t hurt their flavor profiles either. The process sometimes takes up to a month to produce a loaf of bread; but, unlike store bought loaves that are full of preservatives, Sprout Momma bread won’t last a month on your shelf if you forget to eat it, which is what is supposed to happen to our food if isn’t made with real ingredients.
Sprout Momma’s has been making moves over the last couple of years, growing the “four pillars of our business – markets, the retail store, catering and restaurant suppliers,” as Ryan explains it. Their booths are wildly popular at farmers markets locally and in nearby locations like Savannah. Their mobile pizza oven and ginormous charcuterie boards, which are really works of art on their own, never disappoint. The crew loves attending festivals, Asheville Bread Festival being Ryan’s favorite even; their product has been featured in two James Beard dinners prepared by local chefs with fresh, local ingredients; and Kim is currently scouting locations for more space to expand their production and retail facilities, which will include more pastry offerings and lunch menus. Business is good and only getting better.
I walked out of our interview smiling, coated with a light dusting of flour, camera bag in one hand, bag of homemade bread in the other, seriously considering not telling anyone about the loaves I scored so I wouldn’t have to share. Sprout Momma Breads is the real deal in every sense of the word, and I don’t say that lightly when it comes to carb Heaven.
