We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elana Garfield. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elana below.

Elana, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

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”.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I like to think of myself as a doer. I thrive on being busy. I multitask constantly and while I am working on it, I have a hard time relaxing. I’m creative by nature and enjoy cooking and setting a beautiful table complete with floral arrangements. Cooking allows for creativity, a little of this and a little of that, taste, add, create. The kitchen is my happy place. I love reading cookbooks and use the recipes as inspiration. Baking on the other hand usually needs to be measured and baked for an exact time… so confining! The only thing I like to bake is challah. I love the feel of the dough in my hands, the special custom of praying as I knead and shape the ritual bread. Another reason I bake challah and probably the main reason is that it is absolutely delicious (as in once you start you can’t stop eating it) and my family has mini conniptions when I buy challah from the bakery instead of making my own.

A few years ago I was drawn to the sourdough trend. I love the taste of sourdough and love seeing the finished loaves with the decorated crusty outside, and soft inside. It had been on my list of things to try for a few years, yet sourdough scared me. You need a scale and a cast iron Dutch oven, and time. Lots of time…lots! It’s unpredictable and you are at its mercy as to when it’s ready to bake. Oh and the starter, it’s basically a pet! You need to feed it and keep it alive! At the time I had 3 kids and a very full time job that came home with me from the office and I didn’t have time for pets or unpredictable rising dough! So I stayed away.

Until January 2020. I really wanted to bake sourdough bread and I didn’t want to put it off any longer and decided to just jump in. I soon learned that most of my fears were misconceptions and I fell in love with every part of the sourdough process and haven’t looked back since I started.

Now, four years later, Unsimply Sourdough, the only Kosher certified sourdough micro-bakery in the Greater Washington area, provides made-to-order, baked fresh sourdough breads and treats. Some of our most popular items are our Multigrain Loaf, Roasted Garlic Focaccia & and our uniquely delicious Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies.

We sell customized beautifully wrapped bread boards and can even put a picture or your company’s logo on a loaf of bread. We work with our customers to create unique sourdough gifts.

Additionally I offer 1-1 sourdough coaching and workshops where my goal is to simplify the process and bring out the joy in the sourdough process.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

This year right after I became officially Kosher certified I got 3 very large gift board orders in the span of few weeks. Two were from local organizations and the third was from a private company. I knew that I wanted to take these orders but wasn’t sure if and how I could pull them all off in the time I had and I felt so unprepared. The largest one of the three was for 160 gift boards and I almost didn’t take it. I just didn’t see how I could do it. After talking it over with a friend in a similar business I came up with a plan. I worked with them to come up with an idea they liked that I could manage, ordered a new freezer and got to work. It was a grueling few weeks, baking around the clock, testing out different packaging, finding someplace to print our edible logos, learning how to create shipping labels, how to use a heat printer, and making multiple trips to the UPS store.
Looking back on it, if I had known how much work it would have been I don’t know if I would have said yes to all of the orders. At the same time, I’m so happy I didn’t know because I learned so much from the process. I learned all about pricing gift packages, shipping, baking in higher volumes that I had ever done before and what I enjoy and don’t enjoy about the process as well as where I could use extra help in the future. The most valuable lesson I learned is that I can do hard things.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I don’t like asking for help with things I think I should know/be able to do. When I first started selling bread boards I ordered a heat gun and went to the store to buy the shrink wrap packaging. I tried so many times to shrink wrap packages and no matter what I did they never came out looking good. I watched You Tube videos, searched on line for tips, but to no avail. I was so frustrated. Me, the creative one, the one everyone came to for help with creative projects and ideas couldn’t shrink wrap a package! What was wrong with me?! This went on for weeks. finally I reached out to a fellow sourdough baker who also sold bread boards. I don’t know why I was so embarrassed to ask her but I finally mustered up the courage. She was so kind and helpful. She even took a video of her wrapping a package and sent me the links to the shrink wrap she uses. When I got the link from her I realized my mistake- I was using the wrong packaging all along! The guy at the store I went to sold me the wrong material and it would never have worked no matter how hard I tried. I was so grateful for the help and learned a valuable lesson that day- Never hesitate to ask for help!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://unsimply-sourdough.myshopify.com/
• Instagram: @unsimplysourdough
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unsimplysourdough

Image Credits

Yehudis Rabinowitz, ISOPhoto