If you’ve spent time around Durham’s food scene, you’ve almost certainly crossed paths with Ninth Street Bakery.

Since 1981, the bakery has been part of the city’s culinary fabric—known for organic breads, flaky pastries, and the unmistakable smell of fresh bread drifting through downtown Durham. What started as a small bakery on Ninth Street has grown into one of the Triangle’s most respected artisan bakeries, supplying farmers markets, cafés, and loyal home kitchens across the region.

This week, we’re excited to highlight our partnership with Ninth Street Bakery and to share a little of the story behind one of Durham’s longest-running food institutions.

A Leader in the Natural Foods Scene

Ninth Street Bakery was founded in 1981 by two brothers who had trained at the Tassajara Zen Center bakery, bringing with them a philosophy centered around whole grains, natural fermentation, and mindful food production.

At the time, Durham’s bread landscape looked very different than it does today. Ninth Street quickly became known for offering organic and whole-grain breads when those options were still uncommon in American bakeries.

The bakery grew steadily through the 1980s and early 1990s as interest in natural foods expanded. In 1992, production moved to downtown Durham to keep up with demand while maintaining a small café and retail space.

Today, the bakery sits at Five Points in downtown Durham, serving breakfast, lunch, and coffee while continuing its wholesale partnerships across the Triangle. Since 2013, baker Ari Berenbaum has led the bakery, building on its legacy while modernizing recipes and expanding the bread program.

More than four decades after opening, Ninth Street Bakery remains one of the city’s most enduring food businesses.

Why Organic Ingredients Matter to Their Baking

One of the defining features of Ninth Street Bakery has always been its commitment to simple, mostly organic ingredients. Their breads and pastries are baked from scratch using organic, unbleached flour and ingredients free from chemical preservatives. This approach isn’t just philosophical—it changes the way bread tastes and behaves. Organic flour and whole grains bring deeper flavor and complexity to breads like their classic 7-grain loaf, while avoiding additives commonly used in commercial baking to extend shelf life or accelerate production.

In practice, this means Ninth Street’s breads are designed to be eaten fresh and enjoyed simply:

• toasted with butter

• layered into sandwiches

• served alongside soups and salads

• or enjoyed warm straight from the loaf

It’s the kind of baking that prioritizes craft over convenience, and it’s a big part of why the bakery has such a loyal local following.

Photo by IndyWeek

Baked to Order, Not Sitting on a Shelf

One of the biggest differences between shopping through The Produce Box and buying bread at a grocery store is how the bread is produced in the first place.Traditional grocery stores must predict demand days ahead of time and keep shelves stocked, which often leads to excess bread being baked whether it’s purchased or not.

We take a different approach.

Because Ninth Street’s breads rely on traditional methods and simple ingredients, they’re best when made close to when you’ll eat them.

To make that possible:

• We list all of Ninth Street's products that are available for our Monday delivery on our menu when the shop opens Friday at 9am

• Orders close at 4:00 pm on Sunday for Ninth Street Bakery items (even though the rest of the shop stays open until Sunday 9pm)

• We send the exact order quantities to the bakery Sunday afternoon

• The bakery team bakes overnight on Sunday

• Your bread arrives at our warehouse fresh Monday morning

• We deliver it to you on Tuesday or Wednesday!

This timeline is slightly earlier than our usual Sunday night cutoff because it gives the bakery enough time to bake everything fresh for the week’s deliveries.

Instead of baking bread days ahead and hoping it sells, Ninth Street is baking specifically for Produce Box members.

It’s the closest thing to a farmers market loaf you can get through home delivery!

Why We’re Proud to Carry Ninth Street

Part of The Produce Box mission has always been to make it easier to support local food producers who care deeply about what they make.

Ninth Street Bakery represents exactly that kind of business:

• a Durham institution with more than 40 years of history

• a bakery built on organic ingredients and traditional methods

• a local producer whose food is meant to be enjoyed fresh

When you add Ninth Street breads or pastries to your Produce Box order, you’re not just buying baked goods—you’re supporting a small, independent bakery that helped shape Durham’s food culture.

And thanks to our bake-to-order partnership, that bread is likely less than 1-2 days old when it reaches your kitchen!

We hope you’ll give Ninth Street Bakery a try this week, and maybe skip their always-bustling farmers market line while you’re at it.