A baking family since 1899
Fed from a starter as old as the 19th century.
From a farmhouse in the French Pyrenees to the pines of Athol, Idaho. Basque specialties, French breads and slow sourdough, baked in small batches every week.
One sourdough culture, traced by the family to the 1800s, still rises every loaf we sell.
Order by Wednesday, 3pm
Collect it Friday
Find us at market
Fridays in Athol, 2 to 5pm
This week’s bake
Order bread today — for pickup or delivery
Reserve your loaves before the weekly cutoff and collect them fresh in Athol, or at any market we’re attending. Live close by? We’ll bring them to you.
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French Basque Sheepherder Loaf
Price range: $10.00 through $12.00 -
Gateau Basque
Price range: $6.00 through $48.00 -
Bread Pudding
$8.00 -
Sourdough Boules
$7.00 -
Sourdough Rounds
$10.00 -
Raisin-Walnut Sourdough Batards
$12.00 -
French Baguettes
$6.00 -
French Kalamata Olive Baguettes
$8.00 -
Large Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
$10.00
*Delivery is available to communities close to Athol. Pickup locations and times are confirmed at checkout.
Farmers markets & pickup
Find us in the community
As the market season winds down, we will continue baking here in Athol for each Friday market, 2pm to 5pm, until 9/25. After that, we will offer home deliveries or “meet ups” — think “I’ll meet you at The Main Street Taproom.” Beer sold separately.
Where we are this week
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FRIweekly
Atholour home market
2pm to 5pm, through the seasonDates announced as they materialize
Dates are announced on our Instagram and Facebook pages. Preorders can be collected at any market event, or emailed to order@etxeabakery.com.
Our story
Four generations, one starter, three thousand miles.
Bread with a long memory, made for the table in front of us.
Etxea is the Basque word for home — and it sits inside the family name, Garaikoetxea, Americanized to Garacochea. Jean Baptiste was sixteen when he left Les Aldudes carrying his father’s sourdough starter. It crossed an ocean, traversed a continent, helped build a bakery in Santa Monica and later in Venice, and finally made its way back to the mountains of North Idaho. Our “Amachi” — grandmother in Basque, and our nickname for the starter — has persevered and sustained. We are immensely grateful for this generational gift.
A note from Chuck
Welcome to Etxea
It came as no surprise when my brother John and I decided to open a bakery. We had grown up learning the art of mixing, molding and baking sourdough and French bread in our family bakery. Our great grandfather Jean Baptiste Garacochea founded Pioneer French Baking Company in Venice, California in 1908. Stewardship of the bakery was capably handled by our grandfather John Baptiste and Uncle Edmund, and then by our father Jack and his brother, Uncle Jay.
ETXEA, pronounced “Eh-CHAY-uh,” is the Basque word for home, and it has layers of meaning for us. Etxea is part of our name, Garacochea (originally spelled Garaikoetxea), which translates as “the home above” or “the home on high.”
Nestled in the mountains of the French Pyrenees in the Basque country, the bakery in our ancestor’s village, Les Aldudes, was located in their home. In the very same way, our great grandfather lived with his family in the quarters above his bakery in Venice, California. It feels fitting that our name, ETXEA Basque Bakery, carries that tradition of uniting the heart of the home with the hearth of the bakery.
Etxea was John’s idea — the name and everything folded inside it. The bakery has moved north since then, and I am the one at the bench in Athol these days, but John is still half of Etxea in every way that counts. What we built, we built together, and it stays that way.
Some of what we know came from outside the family too. Salvador Perez mixed dough at Pioneer for thirty-two years and came back to the bench with us in Hawthorne. A great deal of what rises here started in his hands.
In my world, and hopefully yours, life is better when we break bread together with family and friends. In every loaf we bake there resides a bit of love, laughter and fellowship. My hope is that our dedication to this ancient process and the quality of our ingredients brings you a taste of those simple pleasures, and a feeling of ETXEA.
Chuck GaracocheaAthol, Idaho