My Bread Journey: The Beginning

My Story

Most of you reading this already know it’s no secret that I love to cook and bake. As you scroll through my social media page you’ll find many pictures of recipes I make on a daily basis. The thing you may not know is I hardly make a recipe more than once (unless it’s that good) because I’m always wanting to try something new or perfect a certain dish. When covid hit, and I was working from home, I was in my kitchen way more than normal cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I was truly in my happy place. Some random day while at home I made Rosemary Roasted Garlic Artisan Bread again (because it was that good) and thought to myself “What if I sold this?” I kept that thought in my head throughout the day.  It wasn’t until Lance got home, we sat down for dinner, and he tasted the bread that he said those same exact words to me when the first conversation came about. For weeks during covid I baked bread…Cinnamon Raisin, Rosemary Roasted Garlic, Jalapeno Cheddar, and was giving it out to some family and friends to test before I took the plunge. With encouragement and support Old Sugar Baking started in mid-May. I spent hours online looking at packaging for the bread, designs for my logo, creating a website, menu, and advertising. In a little over a month I’ve made over 30 no-knead artisan breads (Jalapeno Cheddar is by far the post popular) for customers and have made close to $200 in sales. This has already far exceeded any expectations I had for my little business. I had no clue what was going to happen in the first few weeks, let alone what’s to come, but I know one thing for sure is I’m just getting started! For years I’ve been trying to think of some way to incorporate cooking/baking for other people into my lifestyle and the idea just clicked. With no professional experience I was hesitant, but after nights of entertaining and having friends over for dinner, cooking for Lance and Levi, and spending a lot of time in the kitchen during covid, I finally felt confident enough to broaden my audience. This is my passion, my calling, and something I know I was meant to do. I hope you all enjoy the food that I love making! 

Equipment/Books

I’ve invested in some equipment for bread making including a dutch oven, kitchen scale, digital thermometer, and proofing baskets. The profits I’ve made have gone towards investing in items for my business.

The books I’m reading are Flour, Water, Salt, and Yeast by Ken Forkish and Bread Making for Beginners by Bonnie OHara.

Inspiration

“Baking bread to share with others is the most elemental and nourishing connection we can create with those we love: our family, our children, and our neighborhood.” ~ Bonnie Ohara

Bonnie Ohara started baking bread because her family didn’t have money for groceries and the only way to stretch their budget was to start making essentials from scratch. Her business grew organically as her friends started asking for bread. She developed “the bread list” which consisted of names of people asking for bread which started as 4 people and quickly grew to 64. Quickly that number grew even more and she started her bread making business in her 1920’s cottage where people now line up down the sidewalk to buy her bread. I can only dream!

Future for Old Sugar Baking

Old Sugar Baking is still so very new that I’m taking the summer to start slow. I’m working out a schedule, seeing how many breads I can make during the week and on weekends, building up my supplies, and I’ll begin to advertise outside of my Facebook page when things start coming together.

For the Fall I’m planning on adding baked goods to the menu (think pumpkin!), and I’ll be switching up 1 or 2 bread flavors.

Getting more involved with the community and sharing my passion and bread with others.

Look out for some big announcements I’ll be making at the end of the summer which I’m so excited about! Thanks for supporting my little business, whether you’ve looked at my website, talked about it with family or friends, ordered my bread or liked my Facebook page or photos. Thank you all for being apart of my journey, and I hope you’ll keep me company on the ride.

Ashley