The Story of a Loaf: How Reidar’s Sourdough Became Part of Our 'Light'

There’s a certain kind of quiet that settles over St. Shotts in the early morning — the kind where the only sounds are the wind brushing over the barrens and the slow, soft hum of someone moving around the kitchen.

If you’ve ever stayed with us, you might already know that hum belongs to Reidar.

Most mornings, long before guests wander to the table for breakfast, you’ll find him standing at the counter with his glasses perched low on his nose, the oven warming behind him, prepping pastries for baking and sometimes there's a round of sourdough rising patiently nearby.

He works in an unhurried rhythm, the sort that feels old-world… almost timeless… like the sea itself.

And that’s exactly how this whole story begins.

Baking a Taste of This Place

When we first imagined The Keeper’s Kitchen Inn, long before we ripped out the walls, rebuilt and restored all the rooms, and finally opened our doors to guests, Reidar was intent on baking a loaf of bread that felt like St. Shotts.

Nothing fancy. Nothing fussy. Just honest food with a big heart.

“Bread should make people feel care for,” he told me. “Same as a lighthouse does.”

So he set out to create a sourdough worthy of this windswept corner of Newfoundland by cultivating a wild yeast in this special house we've rebuilt.

He fed the starter every day like a living thing and truthfully, in our home along with all our other ferments, it really is alive.

He made several tweaks perfecting his bread recipe - all of which were necessary because flour here is not like European flours. So the testing began with a longer ferment here, a warmer rise there — and more than once, the fog rolled in thick enough to affect the temperature inside the kitchen.

Only in Newfoundland could sudden shifts in weather become an important partner in baking!!

But then one morning, in the middle of a fog so dense you could taste the salt, he pulled from the oven a loaf that cracked just right, smelled like pure comfort, and sounded beautifully hollow when he tapped the bottom.

That was the day his sourdough bread became part of our story.

A proud baker & his loaf

More Than a Meal

Today, Reidar’s Viking bread which he makes from sourdough starter discard is the very first welcome our guests receive at the dinner table. It has earned its rightful place as our unique table bread served with homemade chive oil and fresh butter.

Viking Bread: so crispy, so good!

Each morning before guests take in the coastline, before they step onto a hiking trail — they meet Reidar's warm, golden loaf of sourdough.

They sample it at breakfast, often toasted, where it sits beside homemade yogurts, granola and wildberry preserves. They tuck sandwiches made with it into their backpacks for lighthouse hikes and shipwreck walks. They savour it slowly, often with that quiet smile that tells us: this feels like home.

A Little Light in Every Slice

Guests often say there’s something special in the air at The Keeper’s Kitchen Inn — a peacefulness, a stillness, a spark of something long forgotten. We feel it too.

And every time Reidar brings out another round of sourdough, fresh and crackling from the oven, I’m reminded that the magic of this place isn’t only in the cliffs, or the storms, or the sweeping barrens.

It’s in the hands that prepare your meals. It’s in the stories carried quietly through these walls. It’s in the way we choose, every day, to turn the light back on.

Here on the most south eastern tip of North America, Reidar’s bread has become part of the heartbeat of this home. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.