Junko Mine knows better than most how baking is both an art and a science. Focusing on fermentation and wild yeasts, the pastry chef has found inspiration everywhere from a camera lens to a biology lab. A visit to Lummi Island turned into a brief stage at the globally acclaimed Willows Inn with chef Blaine Wetzel, and a job at the connected cafe. On the island, where restaurant dishes are fueled by super-local ingredients, she experimented in baking with wild yeasts captured from her surroundings: pink cherry blossoms, blue elderberries, piney Douglas fir needles and other foraged foods.
