{"id":30716,"date":"2025-07-01T20:07:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T20:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/30716\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T20:07:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T20:07:11","slug":"wildwood-flour-returning-as-a-working-farm-ranch-in-campo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/30716\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildwood Flour Returning as a Working Farm & Ranch in Campo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Making bread is ancient magic. Sure, there\u2019s a fair bit of science involved, but the best bakers<\/a> are more magicians than chemists, leaning more toward alchemy than biology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But even the strongest protection spells can\u2019t stave off capitalism\u2014a lesson that Wildwood Flour<\/a> owner and baker Lauren Silver knows as well as anyone. She closed her popular Pacific Beach bakery in late 2024, when a lease dispute forced her to vacate after two years in the space.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a wildly fun and successful time on Garnet, with a customer base that made us feel as though we had long been part of a more intimate and nostalgic Pacific Beach,\u201d says Silver. \u201cBut under the circumstances\u2026 it was time to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SanCourtesy of Wildwood Flour<\/p>\n

Born and raised in San Diego, Silver traveled the world, working in catering, regenerative agriculture, and helping open a few cafes in San Jos\u00e9 del Cabo in Baja California Sur<\/a>. Her family had traveled up and down Baja her entire life, in search of surf breaks<\/a> and the type of escapism rapidly dwindling in the age of social media\u2019s constant surveillance. She wanted to know more about regenerative farming<\/a> in desert climates, so she did what many people dream of but few have the cojones to pursue\u2014she bought a bunch of chickens, planted a garden, and started baking and recipe testing sourdough bread for a couple of bucks an hour.<\/p>\n

In 2021, Silver came back to San Diego for a quick visit with family\u2014or so she thought. She picked up some shifts at Pannikin and Wildwood Flour, then a cottage food business that Noah Orloff started in 2019. Orloff brought her on as an equal partner later that year before opening a brick-and-mortar bakery on Garnet Avenue. A few months later, Silver became sole owner and still is.<\/p>\n

\"WildwoodCourtesy of Wildwood Flour<\/p>\n

When she had to close Wildwood in PB, she drove all over California seeking a sign. She spotted one off Old Highway 80 north of Campo. At the end of a winding, dusty road lay a ranch nestled in a lush valley filled with oak trees. It wasn\u2019t perfect (\u201cthe property has less acreage and needs plenty of work, for more reasons than I could list,\u201d she laughs), but its proximity to family, friends, San Diego, and access to well water\u2014not to mention absolutely beautiful views of the southern portion of Cleveland National Forest<\/a>\u2014sealed the deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just felt right,\u201d she explains. \u201cFirst and foremost, this ranch is my home that I hope to make a living on. And while there are no concrete plans as to what that looks like in the long run, I unfortunately want to do it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MachineryCourtesy of Wildwood Flour<\/p>\n

Silver plans to use the property to re-launch Wildwood Flour, where she\u2019ll maintain its focus on milling California-grown grains in a New American stone mill, baking bread and other items like bagels<\/a> and pastries in both stone and wood ovens, and create a functioning farm with chickens, sheep, bees, and maybe even a mini donkey or two. One day, she hopes to host dinners, private gatherings<\/a>, and other educational community events\u2014maybe even introducing a bed-and-breakfast element one day. Overall, Silver says it\u2019s the idea of once more living off the land and creating a space in nature that drew her to reimagine Wildwood\u2019s future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SanCourtesy of Wildwood Flour<\/p>\n

\u201cThe food world can only benefit from more small bakers, millers, and farmers contributing to food culture<\/a>, cultivating local economies, and educating by example (and through tasty food),\u201d she explains. \u201cNone of this is new stuff\u2014just returning to a simpler, kinder way of life that is closer to the soil and one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Have breaking news, exciting scoops, or great stories about new San Diego restaurants or the city\u2019s food scene? Send your pitches to\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Making bread is ancient magic. Sure, there\u2019s a fair bit of science involved, but the best bakers are…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":30717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,8364,26149,26150,24152,3549,7264,1072,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-30716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-food-drink","12":"tag-food-near-me","13":"tag-food-news","14":"tag-pacific-beach","15":"tag-san-diego","16":"tag-sandiego","17":"tag-things-to-do","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114779786062428179","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}