How we got here
Born and bred in Exeter, Devon has always been home for Boatyard Bakery founder, Emma Parkin. Though she has seen much of the world in earlier years, Emma returned to Exeter after her explorative travels. From India to Denmark, New Zealand to Hong Kong, Stockholm to Ecuador, she has tried and tasted bread from communities across the world.
Emma first learned to bake at home with her mother who made a batch of wholemeal bread for their large family every week. Many years later, after working for the Soil Association in Bristol, Emma returned home to develop her passion for real bread and started her own business in 2004. First baking in a converted barn just outside of Exeter, on a friend’s organic vegetable farm, demand for her ‘proper’ bread slowly grew happily coinciding with a renaissance of interest in real bread, particularly sourdoughs. Emma’s Bread was born and blooming!
In 2011 Emma’s Bread moved in with Exeter’s Real Food Store in Paris Street (Emma being one of the original directors) and began to supply daily bread to many more customers including restaurants, cafes and pubs in and around the city. Following the planned redevelopment of the city centre, the Real Food Store moved to Central Station and Emma’s bakery relocated to its current premises besides Exeter ship canal in April 2017. This is where the story began for the Boatyard Bakery and Café!
