It was 1998 in Northern Michigan and I was 23 years old. My days in the restaurant industry were feeling numbered, so I decided to jump ship and take a job at a production bakery in a crunchy little Natural Food cooperative called the Grain Train. This was the only store in the area at the time to find anything Organic or buy a tofu sandwich.

Operating since the early 70’s, the building had the character of an old general store. Creaky wooden floors, brick walls, but with the thick scent of the bulk spices, maybe a little incense and whatever was baking that day. The kitchen was tiny, one side housed the bakery, the other was deli production. The flour was stored in the basement, which consisted of a trip up and down a rickety wooden staircase. The deli grab and go case was stocked daily with sandwiches, salads, hummus, and tabouli. The bakery side consisted of whole grain sandwich loaves, sourdough boules, cookies, scones, granola, muffins and more. There was a daily hot lunch and soup bar with only vegetarian options. Spanikopita one day, tofu reubens the next.

The baker with a few weeks left of his employment showed me the hand written recipes on my first day and said follow me. Baking wasn’t new to me but baking in scale was. I was definitely intimidated with all this large equipment but I caught on and got in my groove. A sourdough starter had a home in the walk in, exisitng since the opening of the store. Every week we took out what we needed, fed the mother and put her back to bed. The sourdough was sour (so different from what I know and bake now) but it was loved and sold out every week. This was such a different time of baking, pre social media. You knew what you knew by who taught you or by the tattered cookbook covered in flour. For this bakery The Bread Alone by Daniel Leader sat on the shelf, Moosewood Cookbooks, The Tassahara Bread Book and more.

In 2004 I packed up and moved to Oregon. The years that followed consisted of managing a business, owning a wholesale business, attending and setting up at numourous trade shows in various states, and bookkeeping. Baking was in the background, on the weekends, special occasions, etc.

Fast forward to 2020 I met and married my husband. A few years prior I had started baking sourdough again, taking inspiration from Maurizio Leo’s breads and recipes. In 2024 my husband had a major health crisis which turned into a year long battle to survive. I poured my heart into baking. This was the only thing that kept me grounded in such an uncertain time of taking care of him, our business, our home, and our animals. It was during this year I came to the realiziation that I couldn’t sit in front of a computer screen on a daily basis any longer. After two decades I needed to do something that made my heart happy.

In early 2025 I officially launched Row River Bakehouse. Staying true to my own holistic health doctrine, I vowed to exclusively use Organic flour as well as natural and clean ingredients. It was also important to me to support local farmers and utilize the local bounty we are so lucky to have in the Willamette Valley. As I approach a year in business and get ready to take my product into more communities via our mobile trailer, I have to extend so many thanks to all my testers, regular customers, and most importantly my husband. He has helped me in every aspect behind the scenes, from making sure I had the right equipment, to his overall support and business knowledge, he helped my dream become a reality.

I love sharing my bread with customers, talking about what grains were used, where they were grown, and watching their reaction as they savor that first bite. I hope to see you out there so we can talk and break bread.