Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

There was blue sky over the mountains and Fort Seward when Cambria Goodwin first arrived in Haines in September 2013. She was on her way from summer in a Sitka cannery to San Luis Obispo, Calif., where she planned to open a cake shop.

“Then I stayed in Haines for one day and it just changed all my plans,” Goodwin said.

She went for a run up Mount Ripinsky, saw a rainbow and stayed at the Halsingland Hotel. “I was like, ‘Why would I ever want to leave this place?’” she said.

By the time she left the following morning, she had decided to return.

After a six-week camping trip through California’s Big Sur, Yosemite, and Joshua Tree parks, she turned north again. She packed her truck full of treasures from her Portland, Ore., storage units and drove onto the ferry in Bellingham.

On Nov. 10, 2013, Goodwin got off the boat in Haines to stay. She also started a sourdough, which she now turns into artisan loaves with the help of the Klondike restaurant’s wood-fired oven. These are chewy, crusty loaves made by skilled hands with just flour, salt and water – no commercial yeast, sugar or chemicals. Any additional ingredients, like bacon or smoked salmon, are chosen carefully.

The great-granddaughter of an Alaskan sourdough baker and granddaughter of a West Virginian pie baker, Goodwin got her first job at age 15 in a bakery in Cambria, Calif., the small coastal town she is named after.

After high school, she took the baking and pastry track through the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. From there, Goodwin became the baker at the Larsen Bay Cannery on Kodiak Island, drawn by her grandfather’s stories of growing up in Alaska and a friend’s family fishing business.

“It was the most ridiculous thing. I went to culinary school and then wanted to work in a cannery in Alaska,” she said.

But it was also wonderful, in that she could order what she wanted and bake to her heart’s content in a scenic, historic place, she said.

“My favorite thing in the world is baking. It makes me so happy. I love feeding people.”

While she produced the daily bread and thousands of cookies, muffins and scones, Goodwin found time for two of her other pursuits: writing music and hunting for antique treasures.

Back in Oakland, Calif., after the salmon were gone, Goodwin started making wedding cakes and playing songs from the summer with Van Pierszalowski, a Kodiak fisherman she knew from her youth.

Soon they added a rhythm section to their guitars and banjo and named themselves Port O’Brien.

Over the next four years, the indie folk band toured the United States, Europe and Australia and released two albums. Goodwin and Pierszalowski would return to Kodiak to work in the summers.

Weary of the road and reeling from a tragic death in her family, Goodwin moved to Portland with her sister in 2010. There she ran a gluten-free bakery, and was featured on the Food Network show “Cupcake Wars.” She recorded an album of her own music with another band.

She stayed two full years and about went crazy, she said. “I just missed Alaska.”

So in 2013 she went to bake at Silver Bay Seafoods in Sitka.

The “story” page on Goodwin’s website distills what happened next: “After years of movement, I now base out of the most beautiful place on the planet: Haines, Alaska. I find it more peaceful and inspirational than anywhere I have been.”

The name of her site, http://www.confectioneryarchaeology.com, “incorporates confections and my love of history and digging around estate sales to find things for people to use,” Goodwin said.

It features wedding cakes she’s made and alludes to her wedding styling service, made possible by her large antique collection.

Though the Haines market for high-end cake does not compare to that in Portland or San Francisco, Goodwin has kept up on her craft with a couple of local weddings and other special occasions.

Genny Rietze called arranging her triple-decker cake and 400 cupcakes the easiest part of her June wedding.

“She was so easy and fun amd professional to work with,” Rietze said.

“Her cake was beautiful…and tasted amazing, too. She only uses natural and organic ingredients and everything is handmade from scratch. She cares, and you can definitely tell.”

Goodwin loves cake, but sees sourdough as the way she’ll be able to bake for a living here.

The 27-year-old is working to find a feasible location with a commercial kitchen in Haines to open a bakery soon. While she expects it to be seasonal for a while, she aims to eventually provide baked goods year round.

“That would be awesome, because the local people need options. Not everyone is seasonal.”

“I’m excited,” she said. “I really want to figure out how to do it here.”

She has figured out how to do music without having to tour all the time, which is to sell her recordings to a publishing company that licenses and distributes her work.

The modest artist has yet to play for Haines audiences. “I’m fine if I’m in front of hundreds of people I don’t know, but if it’s in front of six friends…it’s the most terrifying thing in the world to me.”

Winter, however, is not scary to Goodwin. Besides making music and working on sourdough formulas last year, she spent a lot of time running, playing in the snow with her dog Otter and enjoying good food.

“I wasn’t sure, but I loved it,” she said of the seasonal variation.

She expects this winter to be better yet since her closest family – sister Cassandra and their cousin, Josh – is here for the duration, too.

“I think it’s going to be super fun,” she said.

“New Arrivals” is a feature that profiles new residents who are making a contribution to the community. To nominate a person to be featured, contact the Chilkat Valley News.