Linn Bjornland

What started as a pandemic pastime in a remote Michigan cabin has blossomed into a thriving micro-bakery in Ojai. Former actor and ballet dancer Linn Bjørnland has traded scripts and stages for sourdough starters, bringing organic, slow-fermented bread to her community and even local school lunches through Bluebell Bakehouse .

Covid-19 will be remembered for many things and the amateur bread baking craze that flooded Instagram during lock-down periods will certainly be one of them. But while for many home bakers their floury adventures ended when the world reopened, for some it marked the beginning of a whole new career. 

A case in point is Linn Bjørnland, a former actor and ballet dancer, who turned to baking loaves of bread while being cooped up with her family in a remote cabin in Northern Michigan. There she started experimenting with sourdough, baking to her heart’s content. And when her family moved to Ojai two years later, Bjørnland’s hobby evolved from feeding her kids into something much bigger as she began sharing her loaves with friends, neighbors, and customers of her Bluebell Bakehouse.

Born in Scotland to Norwegian parents, Bjørnland spent her early years immersed in Scandinavian culture, growing up on a tiny Norwegian island called Jeløya. Bread, she explains, was always a central part of life. "In Norway, bread is simple and nourishing and part of every meal. We literally eat bread for breakfast, for lunch, and after dinner,” she says. This connection to bread stayed with her, waiting for its moment to resurface.

However, Bjørnland’s early career took her far from the kitchen, when aged just 14, she left home to train with the National Ballet in Oslo. From there, she danced her way to London, graduating from Bird College, hitting the stage, and eventually transitioning to acting. "Ballet is beautiful, but well, I really like to eat, and I’m an independent thinker so I craved something that allowed me to express myself more independently," she says. Acting offered her a way to explore that, leading her from the stage to a small but transformative movie role. “When I did the movie, I just fell in love with working in front of a camera,” she recalls. “I loved theater, too, but the stage feels very big and grand. With film it’s more about the small moments, and I'm really attracted to the humanity of it.”

A move to New York followed, where she attended the New York Film Academy, before eventually relocating to Los Angeles to pursue acting full time. Here Bjørnland’s career quickly took off, with roles in commercials, television series, and films, including HBO's True Blood, NBC's Grimm, TNT's Leverage, CW's Hart of Dixie, CBS medical drama Code Black, and Criminal Minds, as well as the lead role in the independent feature Escape Through Africa. “I was lucky enough to get a lot of a work, and I absolutely loved it,” she enthuses.

But after a successful decade of acting, motherhood prompted Bjørnland to rethink her priorities. “After our first son was born, we decided to go traveling for a while and a few months turned into four years,” she explains. “I kept getting pregnant and we would come back to California. When my second son was born, we lived in Encinitas for a year, and then when I was pregnant with my daughter, I decided we were moving back to live in Ojai. It just felt like the right place to settle," she says.

Sourdough loaves from Bluebell Bakehouse in Ojai

Bjørnland speaks warmly about her new life here and the town she feels mirrors her values of simplicity and creativity. "Ojai has this amazing energy," she says. "It’s a place where you can slow down and really connect – with nature, with people, and with yourself. It feels like everyone here is creating something, whether that’s art, food, or ideas. It’s inspiring to be part of that," she says. This has influenced her baking, too: "The slower pace here has taught me to be patient, which is key in sourdough. The bread takes time, and that’s a good thing. It’s a reminder to slow down and enjoy the process."

Bjørnland’s early days of baking in Ojai were simple, she baked small batches of sourdough loaves and shared them with friends and family. But as word spread, her small kitchen operation began to grow. "I’d deliver loaves with my kids in the car, meeting neighbors and hearing their stories," she recalls. It wasn’t long before she realized she could turn her passion into a business. With California’s Cottage Food Law allowing home-based food production of baked goods, she decided to take the leap into building her micro-bakery, Bluebell Bakehouse.

Bjørnland’s operation is still small but steadily expanding. Working from her home kitchen, she crafts her loaves using organic flour, salt and water, added to a sourdough starter she began during the pandemic. "The starter has been with me everywhere, across continents," she says. Her bread, with a 36-hour fermentation process, is delightful. It perfectly balances crispiness, chewiness, and softness, and is both nutritious and easily digestible. "The long fermentation makes it easier to digest and unlocks more nutrients," she explains.  

Beyond online orders and a small farmstand she has launched outside her home on La Luna Avenue, one of Bjørnland’s proudest baking achievements has been her partnership with the Ojai Unified School District (OUSD). With her children having been a big inspiration for her decision to focus on healthy, homemade bread, she wanted to take this a step further and feed more kids. “So, I decided on a whim one day to contact Lexi Hicks, the Director of Nutrition Services at OUSD, offering her my bread to see if it was something the district would like to serve to its students.”

Indeed it was. Hicks says that thanks to a grant for providing local, whole foods to its students, Bjørnland’s bread seemed like a natural fit. “We started with Nordhoff because we have a daily sandwich option at the school. It has been a hit. Students are definitely noticing, and we are hoping to expand it to the elementary sites this [spring] semester,” she says.

“Bread typically contains a ton of pesticides unless it’s organic, so Linn’s bread has allowed us to offer a nutritious and safe alternative. She even went the extra mile to make sure the loaves are the right shape, have the correct ratio of whole grains, and slices, and she delivers it for us.”

Bjørnland now supplies batches of wholewheat loaves twice a week for students enrolled in the lunch program at Nordhoff Junior High and High School, with possible plans to expand to other schools within the district. "I wanted to offer something healthier than processed bread," she says. "It’s rewarding to know my bread is part of kids’ meals."

Sourdough loaves and butter from Linn Bjornland’s Bluebell Bakehouse in Ojai

For Bjørnland baking bread has become a way to connect with her community in a meaningful way. "Bread brings people together," she says. "It’s satisfying to know that what I make can nourish others and build connections." Her vision for Bluebell Bakehouse goes beyond bread, although she is working on expanding her menu to include more varieties of bread, like seeded multi-grain loaves, baguettes, and sweet treats. At her small farm stand at her home, she plans to sell these baked goods alongside other handmade items, like candles, handmade brooms, and dyed fabrics. "I’m an artist, and I want to create a space that reflects both my and Ojai’s creative spirit," she says.

In her cozy Ojai kitchen, surrounded by flour, family, and a spirit of creativity, Bjørnland is crafting a life rooted in care, community, and a love for the process of making something meaningful. As she reflects on her journey from ballet to baking, she smiles and says: "It’s funny how life takes you in unexpected directions. But I’m happy with where I’ve landed. Baking has given me a way to express myself, connect with others, and build something I’m proud of. And that feels pretty amazing."

Bluebell Bakehouse
1351 S La Luna Ave, Ojai
bluebellbakehouse.com

This article was first featured in the 2025 spring edition of Ojai Magazine. You can read the online version of the magazine here.