SOUTH HADLEY –  A South Hadley resident is on a mission to provide people with the best handcrafted sourdough bread they can get.

Tracie Rubeck, who owns Beatrice Cottage Bakery, said she and her family are avid watchers of the show The Great British Baking Show when they decided two years ago to take on their own baking challenge. “I said I want to learn how to make bread, here’s a list, let’s go to the store. I typed into Amazon ‘bread beginner.’ I got this book, “Baking for Beginners,”” she said.

Rubeck said much of the introduction written by the author of the book resonated with her, as they were baking bread at home. “I stopped and read the introduction to my family, she was selling bread out of her house. I was so in love with the idea of it,” she said.

She said once she got the idea in her head, she wasn’t able to get it out. “I didn’t let go of the idea. I was amazed that the people in my life were supportive,” she said, laughing. “I started working towards it, I started baking and didn’t stop going.”

Soon, she said, she was baking large amounts of bread. “I started baking every single weekend and quickly began making more bread than I could possibly eat,” she said. From there she began reaching out to local families she knew to get feedback about the bread she was committed to perfecting.

"I sent a message out saying does anyone want to try free bread, you just need to give feedback,” she said. Ruback said she was expecting a few people to reach out and take her up on her offer, but was inundated with more requests than she expected.

“I heard back from 40 families. We were just giving out dozens and dozens of loaves of bread and getting a hugely positive response, so we decided to keep going,” she said.

That, she said, was enough to convince her to take the plunge and register as a cottage bakery. Rubeck said she applied for her license in May of 2020, received it in September and officially launched her business in October.

She said from there bread orders were booked until recently. “We were sold out until just about three or four weeks ago. I post orders a week ahead for the entire week and they usually sell out in 24 or 48 hours,” she said. “I’ve had people tell me they’re setting alarms for midnight.”

Due to the nature and restrictions of cottage bakeries, Ruback said she wasn’t allowed to have customers pickup their orders from her home, have any signage outside her home for her business and was unable to do mail or wholesale orders out of her home. “The town won’t allow pickup because where we live is entirely residential,” she said, adding the restrictions were in place to ensure their business wasn’t a bother to neighbors.

Currently, she said her delivery radius was within South Hadley, Holyoke, Chicopee and Granby. Every Wednesday at midnight, Ruback said she posts the orders for the coming week. Each week she always offers a traditional sourdough, a savory flavored loaf and a sweet flavored loaf. Savory flavors include caramelized onion and roasted garlic, olive oil,  Parmesan peppercorn, sun-dried tomato and more. Sweet flavors include chocolate, toasted hazelnut and cherry; chocolate and toasted coconut, orange chocolate and brioche.

Additionally, she said due to the amount of sourdough she used in a day, her starter produced a “lot of excess flour and water.” This, she said, was used to make sourdough cookies that are popular among customers. “Those are just a s popular, those usually sell out first,” she said.

Due to a steady demand, she said she recently upgraded her equipment. “We just got our first commercial mixer in the house, which is going to be huge. We’ve been mixing by hand, we’re all very very tired. We started out mixing one bowl at a time,” she said. “Then we advanced to bins, now we’re going to have a commercial mixer. Right now we can make 64 loaves a week, we’re planning to jump to 80 in the next two weeks and eventually open a storefront.”

She said the storefront, however, was at least one or two years away. “We’ve made a point of not going into debt for this,” she said. Rubeck added that when she initially began baking part of it was to connect with her community, so when she eventually opens a storefront she wants to stay in South Hadley.

“I was wanting to grow better roots in this town. Our daughter is in the school system, I was wanting to feel connected to the town, wanted to stay in South Hadley,” she said. “South Hadley desperately needs a baker, there’s a need for it.” She added that as part of her participation in Holyoke’s EForAll program, she gauged interest for a storefront.

“We had 300 responses from South Hadley residents saying we need a bakery, so there’s a need and I hope to get to provide it,” she said. Rubeck added that once the storefront opened, she would expand her offerings.

“My partner makes really good goat cheese cheesecake,” she said, adding that they would want to sell jams and “have a gourmet sandwich counter.”

Rubeck went on to add that the cottage bakery “turned out to be such a blessing.” She said she was unable to leave a job she was struggling with and homeschool her daughter. “We decided very quickly because of health concerns, our daughter watching her on Zoom. I would have quit my job anyway to stay here with her,” she said. “It turned out to be a tremendous blessing. It’s much harder than I thought it’d be, but it’s rewarding.”

She said store-bought bread doesn’t taste the same now, and even her dog will only eat homemade bread. “Even our dog won’t eat regular bread now,” she said, laughing. “If we can get more people not to eat store-bought bread that would be a good thing.”

Those wanting to order bread or get more information are encouraged to visit the Beatrice Cottage Bakery Facebook page or website at beatricecottagebakery.com.