Elana Garfield | Sourdough

“Starting my own business was not the plan when I began baking sourdough 4 years ago. I was working a very demanding and full time job as a school administrator. I had always been fascinated by sourdough but intimidated by the process and finally decided to give it a try. After baking my first loaf I was hooked! Then Covid hit and I had much more time to bake. As my once demanding job became even more stressful navigating the effects of Covid on our school, teachers and students, baking sourdough became a haven, or what I like to call “dough therapy”. With fresh bread coming out of the oven daily I started giving it away to neighbors and friends as we couldn’t eat it fast enough, (not to mention the weight we were gaining). I loved gifting the bread and it allowed me to continue baking daily. One day a neighbor said, ” You should really start selling your bread, it’s great!” It had never occurred to me that anyone would pay money for my bread but that got me thinking. Could I really start a business selling my bread? It was a bit overwhelming and scary to put myself out there like that but I took the plunge and started Unsimply Sourdough. I never really thought of myself as a business owner until a friend invited me to join a group of women business owners. I felt like a fraud, but I learned so much from them and started to view myself as the business owner I am. I created some goals for myself and slowly my business grew. I bought a bread oven and industrial mixer, and eventually renovated our garage into a microbakery. I started giving sourdough workshops, became an LLC, and as of January 2024 I am now officially kosher certified. I was not trained in business and there are so many details that I had to figure out through trial and error along the way. I believe that I am only as successful as I am right now as a result of my passion for baking and sharing my sourdough with others. If I didn’t love baking sourdough I would have given up the business a long time ago. It is physically and mentally exhausting at times but what keeps me going it my passion for sourdough. I was also fortunate enough to turn a passion into a side gig while working a full time job adding to my success because I wasn’t doing it for the money. While there are definitely parts of the business that I don’t enjoy, I absolutely love baking sourdough. My logo says it all: “Unsimply Sourdough ~Baked with love by Elana”.”