Who We Are

Our Story

Muddy Fork Bakery is owned by bakers Eric Schedler and Katie Zukof. We started baking in 2010 out of our house, shortly after Indiana passed a new home-based vendor law.

First Farmers' Market

We vended at the Bloomington Winter Farmers’ Market, making a 10-week commitment, filling a niche for a small, artisan baking operation. We had recently purchased 5 acres of undeveloped land in northern Monroe county, and as the business took off, decided to build our bakery on the property. By August 2010, the first wood-fired oven was completed and we began baking in our new bakery.

By Hand

At the beginning we had no equipment and made bread in the most rustic way possible, mixing dough by hand, chopping wood and burning it in the oven, and doing all the work ourselves.

In 2011 we obtained a food license for our bakery and began selling to the local co-op grocery, Bloomingfoods.  In 2012 we hired our first employee to help with our growing granola production.

In 2013 we completed construction of a house on the same property, 100 yards up the hill from our bakery.

Fire & New Bakery

On March 21, 2014 in the middle of the night our bakery burned to the ground. For about 6 months we moved our granola production to a rented space and came to farmers’ market with a limited selection of products. Thanks in part to the enormous generosity of our community, we were able to rebuild quickly, and on September 13, 2014 resumed production of our breads in a new, larger bakery with a new wood-fired oven.

In June 2020 we installed a solar PV array, which completely powers the bakery, apart from the wood-burning oven, in which we burn only scrap wood from local saw mills.

Experimentation

As bakers we are mostly self-taught.  We learned from experience, from books, from bakery visits, and from tireless experimentation, record-keeping, evaluation and reflection.

We have our own greenhouse, using fresh kale and chard on our pastries.

Music & Dance

While we are not baking, we are busy raising our two daughters, Leda and Ruth, dancing and playing music, tending our greenhouse vegetable garden, and planning for the future. Eric is a professional piano and accordion player who regularly plays for contradances, festivals, weddings and special events throughout the United States.  We hope in the coming years to establish a berry patch to supply our bakery and our household year round.

Staff

Muddy Fork is a small family-run business with a tight-knit staff. We value equity in our work and make every effort to treat our employees well and provide a pleasant working environment and positive culture.