By Bailey Zitko

Last month, Greg Harmon spent his Sunday selling his sourdough at the Outer Sunset Farmers Market and his night watching his son perform at Outside Lands with the band TV Girl. 

Owner of Bear Flag Bakery and father to Wyatt Harmon, Harmon redefined his career in his 60s and began his mission in achieving the original San Francisco style sourdough. 

The local baker’s morning looks different than most. 

“I went and got water this morning – 30 gallons of water.” 

He starts his days early, whether that be a three-mile run through the hills of Marin or gathering water from local streams around the Bay Area a couple times a month; following his morning ritual is typically a 10-hour work day in the kitchen. 

Harmon’s dedication in sourcing fresh, local water for his bread is not the only thing that sets him apart. 

His Sunday looked different on Aug. 11 when he attended Outside Lands to watch his son Wyatt Harmon perform. 

Although Harmon has a music palette ranging from classical to folk, he says it was his wife being a music teacher and signing their son up for piano lessons from an early age that led  Wyatt to music. 

After ending his career in market research at 63, Harmon returned back to one of his first passions – baking. It wasn’t until his bread started to grow in popularity that he began to fulfill a dream his younger self never saw viable as a profession. 

This new beginning did not come without trial, error or curiosity though. 

“It took me about six months to make what I’m making right now,” Harmon said as he carved a triskelion – a traditional Irish design – into his dough before baking it. 

What brought this journey into fruition was his curiosity around original San Francisco-style sourdough and what differentiated it from the sourdough we eat today. 

He experimented with different types of wheat and ingredients, reaching out to local farms like Vacaville’s Soul Food Farms for eggs and a farm near San Gregorio Beach growing Sonora Wheat. 

It was not until a Washington State University’s (WSU) Bread Lab analysis helped Harmon answer his lingering question. 

The WSU studies found fresh water was the key ingredient to what made San Francisco sourdough so special. 

This redirected Harmon into a two-year mission to find fresh and potable water in the City. 

Finding potable water within San Francisco would be a challenging task but something Harmon knew was doable. 

An SF Eater article from 2022 found that ever since 1913, the original taste of San Francisco sourdough became extinct due to the Sierra-source water in Hetch Hetchy becoming the primary source of water for San Franciscans, and groundwater/wells were no longer available for use. 

Working as an insurance inspector, Harmon came across Albion Castle; what was titled as brewery was actually a disguise for a small fort built for union soldiers to hide out in during the civil war. 

What he discovered was about 500,000 gallons of “potable fresh water from the San Francisco aquafirm” hiding in the hills of the property. 

After getting permission to use some of the water, Harmon was able to create the closest thing he could to the original 19th-century San Francisco sourdough. 

“It was the best bread I ever made,” Harmon says. “I can say that I have made actual OG sourdough.” 

Today, Harmon’s sourdough still takes inspiration from the original 19th century Gold Rush with his key ingredient, sourcing his water out of Marin and other Northern California springs. 

A customer’s comment, served as a testament to all of Harmon’s work and research. 

“I’m back at my grandmother’s house in 1952, this is the bread I ate,” they said. 

Currently, the local baker sells his bread to restaurants and farmers markets. 

For Harmon, the future is bright, he plans to expand his bread sales at his mentor Chef Alfred’s restaurant opening up later this year. Ultimately, he hopes to keep spreading Bear Flag Bakery’s name. 

In Harmon’s own words, “More bread, more adventure. Nice.” 

Learn more at bearflagbakery.com.