Sadie is the founder of Bread SRSLY in San Francisco. She is also my friend and someone I look up to as a small business entrepreneur who is passionate about her product and her customers. I first met Sadie at a local chefs’ meet-up here in San Francisco, but I’ll never forget when I first heard of her amazing gluten free sourdough bread from three moms on twitter. They told me I HAD to buy some that day, and I did. And I’ve been buying her bread ever since. Don’t miss Sadie’s discount offer below just for our Joyfoodly community and share it out to your followers!
-Chef Hollie
I’ve always worked with my hands. In college, I joined a team of students who were designing a massive Rube Goldberg machine – you know, the funny chain reactions that start with a cat pouncing on a mouse and end with a robot serving you toast. I was completely smitten with one of the project leaders, Jesse, who soon graduated and moved home to San Francisco. In fact, I was so smitten that in 2009, I followed Jesse to San Francisco. I was determined to win his heart!
Unfortunately, the feeling was not mutual. But that didn’t stop me. If college had taught me anything, it was this: if you bake it, they will come. Jesse had just gone gluten-free, so I got to work experimenting with new ingredients: sorghum flour, sweet rice and buckwheat to name a few. Many of my attempts ended up in the compost, but when one came out well, I would ask Jesse to come try it. A few months later, I learned that I was pretty seriously gluten-intolerant myself!
I redoubled my efforts in the kitchen, focusing on making the perfect loaf of gluten-free bread. And after many, many recipes, in August 2011, I had my first bread day. Friends came over in the evening to pick up their purchases, and to sweeten the deal, I began to deliver loaves on my bicycle. A few months later I was biking late into the night delivering orders.
What began as an effort to win Jesse’s heart quickly turned into something much, much more. Word spread. Friends told friends, who told colleagues, who told neighborhood groups, who told reporters, and on March 13th, 2012, a writeup in Daily Candy SF catapulted Bread SRSLY into a full-time business. With tons of help from some amazing friends, I began to send loaves out into the world week after week. And, all deliveries were made by ladies on bikes. Most weeks I biked 100 miles delivering my bread. And as for Jesse? Eventually my baking paid off, he helped me build my own cargo bike to cart my larger orders around town, and we’ve been together ever since.
We’re no longer in my Cole Valley kitchen, where I started in 2011. Now, we bake out of Ledbetter Bake Shop‘s kitchen in the Dogpatch’s American Industrial Center. Our bread has brought sandwiches, fancy toast creations, Thanksgiving stuffing and the tasty tang of sourdough back into the lives of gluten-free folks across the country, and we couldn’t be prouder. Our customers are the reason we love what we do.
One of the greatest things about our bread is that it can be used in all kinds of recipes! One of our favorite things to make with our bread are golden, toasty croutons. They’re perfect for any salad. Hope you enjoy this recipe!
Sadie Scheffer: Baker, cyclist and owner of the San Francisco-based gluten-free sourdough bread company, Bread SRSLY.
Bread SRSLY has kindly provided us with a promo code for 10% off orders for their gluten-free bread. If you’re in their shipping region (the continental US), use the promo code JOYFUL2015
One of the easiest ways you can get a yummy green on the dinner table each night is to make a simple salad with your kids. I’ve yet to meet a child that didn’t love a good basic lettuce salad. Sadie’s croutons are the perfect crunchy topping to make your summer salads even more delicious. And if you find that you tend to get into a salad rut, as I do, have fun exploring different greens and toppings in our guest post by Michelle on how to Build Your Own Salad that’s rockin’!
Chef Hollie Greene
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