Sweet and Sourdough at Pennyloaf Bakery

Suzanne Gessler went from career burnout to sweeping soot out of a brick oven – and she couldn’t be happier.

A former city planner, Gessler is five years into rising from the ashes of her previous work life to her new one as the owner of The Pennyloaf Bakery at 858 Corydon Ave.

Leaving her previous career behind hasn’t been a simple recipe for success. “I think if I knew how challenging it would be, I would have run away screaming,” joked Gessler. “Those times when I would say to my husband, ‘how are we going to get out of this,’ are long gone.”

As a new business owner, anxiety and insomnia took a toll on her health to the point of collapse. One terrible night, she fell unconscious and hit her head at home. No underlying medical condition was identified, and now Gessler attributes it to her body shutting down due to sleep deprivation and stress. 

Owning a business in an industry she had no previous experience in meant figuring everything out as she went along. “You have to troubleshoot everything and fly by the seat of your pants.”

Thankfully, most of the kinks are worked out, both as she works to provide a healthy and happy work environment for her staff and herself, and the delicious baking her customers count on.

While her culinary arts education at Red River College provided a foundation of knowledge, making as many of 700 loaves of sourdough bread in the bakery’s custom-built masonry oven has also been an education. “It’s an art and a science. Now we can read the bread at any stage and know what to do.” Everything from the weather, the sourdough starter and flour, and the temperature of the baker’s hands can make a difference, she said.

Reflecting on the way they do things also led to the use of paper bags over plastic, as well as the option to purchase locally-made sustainable hemp bread bags. With 3000 loaves leaving the bakery each month, that’s 3000 less plastic bags to tax the environment. Thinking globally leaves Glesser thinking locally. “If the world is going to hell – and I don’t want the world to go to hell, to be clear – the solutions will be found in the local economy.” Her city planner background hasn’t all burned away, as she said having small and medium-sized businesses like Pennyloaf make for a safer, stable, pleasant and liveable neighbourhood. Their late-night baking has them as the eyes on the street, for example, and adapting instead of tearing down the building housing the bakery keeps the character of the neighbourhood intact.

Expansion isn’t on the table for now, she said, as she continues to pursue a goal of being a responsible employer and enjoying her days.

She recently returned from three weeks of vacation, the first stretch of time off of that length she’s had since she was a 20-year-old backpacking through Europe. “I feel like my life is my own again.”

All photos by Claudine Gervais