Jared & Bre Callais of MaryElla’s
If you’re a customer of Oak Grove Market, you have more than likely tried and fell in love with MaryElla’s delicious & uniquely sweet sourdough bread and their mouth-watering cinnamon rolls. The people behind the business are even more incredible than the baked items. Jared and Bre Callais are the owners of MaryElla’s, “a cottage food bakery that produces sourdough bread and cinnamon rolls using a potato flake sourdough starter.”
We had the opportunity to learn more about Jared and Bre’s entrepreneurial journey, and they shared some advice for fellow entrepreneurs.
About MaryElla’s
MaryElla’s is a cottage food bakery that produces sourdough bread and cinnamon rolls using a potato flake sourdough starter. This type of starter yields a soft textured bread that has a sweeter sourdough taste. We both grew up eating this bread in our home and at our grandparents’ house. We have very fond memories of waking up to the smell of freshly baked bread and enjoying dozens of dinner rolls at Thanksgiving! MaryElla’s is actually named after Jared’s grandma, who gave us our first sourdough starter very early in our marriage.
01 Why did you start MaryElla’s?
We started MaryElla’s for ourselves, really. At the beginning of the pandemic, we made a starter (the thing that makes the bread rise) when it was difficult to find things like yeast and the bread shelves were empty. After a few months of baking bread for our family and friends, we offered our cinnamon rolls for sale to our neighbors. They were an overwhelming hit. After a while we decided to make it official and named it MaryElla’s Bakery.
02 What challenges have you faced along the way?
Our biggest challenge has been to meet the demand while trying to intentionally stay small and producing a high quality product. We genuinely appreciate everyone who loves our bread and supports us by buying it.
03 What advice can you give aspiring entrepreneurs?
You have to decide what success looks like for your business. What’s right for someone else may not be right for you. For us, that’s not exponential growth. Success for us is doing as much and working as hard as we can while still being able to give our family 100% and enjoy time with our kids. Also, Jared’s first calling is to vocational ministry so that takes priority alongside our family.
04 What’s next for MaryElla’s?
We love being a part of our customers’ holidays and special occasions as well as our partnerships with local businesses and organizations. We simply hope to keep on baking!
05 What drives/inspires you?
We really enjoy bringing people joy through food and the relationships we get to build with our customers.