Bread Local has become an Esperance institution. When you arrive to pick up your baked goodies these days at Tiff’s Pink Lake home, you will almost find a line down the road. We will be honest; each baked good is worth every minute you might wait!
Tiff is a baker, mother and the owner of Breadlocal. “My week is spent wrangling my children, running a business and baking with my band of merry bakers, who also double up as my closest friends and family.”
Breadlocal started when Tiff returned to Esperance at 23 after a stint studying and working in Perth. “My time in the big city had expired, and I moved home to be part of the 2013 harvest season and to see if I was ready to embrace country life once more.” Admitting that it was an effortless transition to relocate back to the regions. But of course, some things were missing, one of those being the hard-crusted, chewy, crumbed loaves of Bread Tiff had come to love from the Fremantle markets!
With this, Tiff learnt to bake naturally leavened sourdough bread with the intention of baking and sharing this Bread with her community. “I baked my first sourdough loaf on the 6th of October 2014. I had just done a one-day sourdough baking course in Perth and had returned home with my dough chilled in an esky.” Tiff can’t precisely remember the day the idea to become a baker came to her. Still, it was that day she returned from Perth driving a removals truck with my partner loaded with the contents of their life that the wheels were officially in motion, quite literally.
Eight years on from baking her first loaf of sourdough in her Kirribilli gas stove, Bread Local endures! Fuelled by a wood-fired oven, powered by a small team of committed amateur bakers and driven by an unwavering passion for baking and creating. “I am exceptionally proud to have returned home and to be baking bread for my local community.” To Tiff, the name ‘Bread Local’ celebrates her Esperance heritage and the joy of regional life. “Whether you were born here, raised here or have moved here, I’m sure you will agree this is truly an extraordinary place to live.” Since that time, Tiff has dragged babies to grower’s markets, fed plenty of wedding parties, and boxed Bread for wholesale customers, and now she and the team run a pop-up Friday bakery each week.
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing, though… Covid-19 wreaked havoc, and for Tiff, it was the catalyst to transform the business from a one-day-a-week wholesale service to a Friday pop-up shop. During their first week of the covid transition, Tiff says, “Our stock control processes were horrendous, our delivery routes inefficient to say the least, and we had my Mum and my husband on the road at 8 pm to get the last loaves out to our customers.” “Thankfully, we have always had a very kind customer base, so after our initial near-bungle, we were back hitting the streets the next Friday, giving it another crack.”
Over the subsequent weeks, their following grew, logistics improved, and the team soon found momentum. “It was a peaceful window of time in the Bread Local journey.” Yet the numbers didn’t quite stack up. With two volunteer delivery drivers, Tiff knew the free labour would dry up at some stage as business slowly returned to normal in Esperance. Home delivery wasn’t going to be a long-term solution for Bread Local, so the second Covid-inspired iteration was to open our pop-up shop. With an exemption provided by the Local Government to trade from their rural-residential premises. The team sourced a serving bench, dressed either side with a few baskets of dried flowers, and implemented a minimum order for home delivery. As well as baking pizzas for people to pick up to provide a small incentive for people to leave the comfort of their homes.
Over the past two years, they have grown the Bread Local team. Seeing over 200 people queue for their Easter hot cross buns. Adding more benches, racks, fridges and dried flowers to their tiny, temporary Friday shop to fit the ever-growing range of products we offer each week. “We love our Friday shop.” Nearly 200 hours of the Bread Locals team’s work goes into creating their five-and-a-half-hour opening window. “We plan, prep and bake down to the wire every week before we open the doors and welcome our customer to our home and bakery.”
Tiff incorporates all parts of her life together. “The bakery shares a wall with my bedroom, so the separation between my work and home life is minimal at best!” Stating that she lives, eats, sleeps and breaths Bread Local. “The passion I have for my work, community and craft means I live a full life doing work I love, with people I love the work with”. Starting and growing a business has been by far Tiff’s greatest challenge in her thirty-two young years. She wouldn’t have it any other way for all the heart and headaches that come with running a small business! The experience has been incredibly rewarding.
Visited by a journalist writing an Esperance travel piece for Gourmet Traveller, Tiff stated that when writer Max and food photographer Jess Wyld came to visit in the quiet morning of a Friday bake, Tiff asked him what his take on our town was. The adage he applied was that ‘isolation breeds creativity’. His words immediately resonated with Tiff, and she realised this was what motivated her to live in the regions.
She grew up 85 kilometres from town and 750km from Perth and said her understanding is that creativity is an inherent part of isolation. “I’ve found myself free from the pressure of a saturated market. Without five other artisan bakeries breathing down my neck, I have been able to carve out a service and product that is authentic to me without the distraction of fierce competition. I have found my regional community loyal and supportive.” Reiterating that in no way means their customer base is not discerning and that she could deliver a half-baked attempt at running a bakery. But it has given her the freedom to grow the business slowly.
Her advice for RRR Women wanting to start a business in the regions is to find a role that connects you to your community, where you can add value and enrich the lives of people living in your region. Following your passions and interests that you find meaningful, as well as surrounding yourself with like-minded people who understand your vision for your business. As well as supporting you in achieving your goals. “If you find yourself wistfully longing for something missing from your local community, that gap in the market might just be your opportunity.” Stating that no one is coming to deliver whatever your community needs/wants on a platter, or even worse, maybe they are, and you’ll miss the opportunity to harness a bit of creativity and get out there and do it yourself!
Tiff hopes for the future of RRR women in the regions is for regional women to take on challenges. “One of my core beliefs is that our willingness to take on challenges and test ourselves is based on if we have the inner confidence that we can achieve what we set out to do.” She hopes that women in the regions have opportunities to develop the skills, education and support networks necessary to pursue their goals. Growing a strong level of self-efficacy gives them the confidence to reach outside their comfort zones. As well as setting lofty goals and achieving their aspirations to not only grow as individuals but also contribute to growing thriving regional communities.
Learn more about Bread Local, and be sure to add it to your list of things to do when you next visit Esperance!
