82-Lancaster Fanning. Saturday, December 9,1989
Marge Gaffon Is U
BY MARIANNE WALKER,
Centre Co. Correspondent
WOODWARD (Bradford Co.)
It all started ten years ago when
several of Marge Gaffron’s neigh
bors, impressed with the quality of
the bread she was baking for her
family, made this request: “If
you’re going to be baking, why
don’t you do five loaves for us?”
Well, that’s not really when it
all started. To be honest, it all
began when, at the age of three.
Marge was taught the fine art of
baking by her aunt.
“I had my own little rolling pin,
pie tin, mixer and oven,” she
reminisces.
Well, the “it” that all began
with the toddler who loved to bake
is Gaffron’s Sunrise Bakery, a
very successful home-based busi
ness that dwells within Marge’s
kitchen in the tiny town of
Woodward.
Marge still bakes for those
neighbors, but she does much
more, as she admits, “I sometimes
feel like I’m feeding half of Centre
County.”
That statement might not be
much of an exaggeration.
Six years ago Gaffron decided
to direct market her bread at a far
mers’ market in Bellefonte, the
county seat. The market was Wed
nesday morning, and vendors vied
for spaces on a first-come, first
claim basis. Marge bundled up her
pajama-clad youngsters and
arrived in Bellefonte at 4 a.m. to
secure a shady spot. Gaffron fared
well at the Bellefonte market, but
Marge could not sell that-day
fresh goods because it was an ear
ly morning market
In 1985 she began attending a
Tuesday market at Boalsburg and
a Friday market at State College.
Both markets run June through
October.
A few years back, two of Gaf
fron’s savvy market customers
saw to it that she was provided
with an opportunity to wholesale
her goods.
These customers missed Sun
rise Bakery bread during the wint
er months, but they were reluctant
to travel the 25 miles to Wood
ward to make their purchases.
Instead, they marketed Marge’s
bread to the manager of a specialty
foods store in State College. Gaf
fron’s Sunrise products are now
on the shelves of five stores in
Centre County.
Marge browns her English muffins on a skillet, turning each one Individually.
If you’ve ever wondered about
a home-based business, read on!
Here’s a list of the delectable
delights that each week makes its
way from Gaffron’s kitchen to her
customers’ tables:
25 loaves of white bread
40 loaves of whole wheat bread
25 loaves of herb bread
40 loaves of three-seed bread
50 loaves of three-braid bread
30 loaves of St. John’s
unleavened bread
20 loaves of whole wheat, oat
bread
20 loaves of whole wheat, herb
bread
20 loaves of whole wheat, raisin
bread
10 loaves of white raisin bread
20 loaves of dill bread
40 packages of whole wheat
English muffins
20 packages of white English
muffins
70 packages of sticky buns
20 packages of sandwich rolls
IS packages of chocolate chip
cookies
15 packages of peanut butter
cookies
15 packages of rice krispie
treats
40 dozen lassies (tiny pecan
pies)
This list means that Gaffron
processes 200 to 250 pounds of
flour per week during the market
season. The Sunrise Bakery kitch
en does boast two pieces of equip
ment that probably are not found
in your kitchen: a commercial
oven and a commercial mixer. The
other items that give away the fact
that the kitchen houses a bakery
are the rolling, flour-filled gar
bage cans and the bread racks.
Otherwise, Marge’s kitchen is
your standard, farmhouse-heart of
the home.
Now, let’s take a look at a typi
cal Gaffron Bakery market-season
week. Monday is a baking day for
Tuesday’s market. Gaffron begins
the day by mixing stickie buns at
5:30 a.m. She then mixes bread
and baking lassies. “Between
bread and lassies,” as she puts it,
she mixes cookie and lassie dough
for the remainder of the week.
Tuesday means 5:30 stickie
mixing again, which enables
Marge to take still-warm buns to
her retail outlets and the Tuesday
market. Occasionally, she will
also bake cookies on Tuesday
morning. Then, it’s off to the
And Bakin
fron
irge
the years.
Boalsburg market which opens at
noon.
Wednesday is Marge’s middle
of the week day off. She takes
inventory of her ingredients, gives
her kitchen a thorough cleaning,
and does some late-evening tassie
shaping. A day off, really?
The big baking day of the week
is Thursday. During market sea
son Marge puts in 18 hours in her
kitchen. She bakes for the Friday,
State College market and for all
five retail outlets.
On Friday morning Gaffron
shapes and bakes her St. John’s
bread which has been resting all
night. She also does stickles,
again, sandwich rolls too. All this,
and she makes it to market by
10:30.
If this rigorous schedule sounds
like a lot of work, it should,
because it is! “I get very tired,”
admits Marge. “I try to do more
than I should do in one day. The
new - ' nt (stove and mixer)
ist one of the hundreds of trays of bread she’s produced over
have taken some of the physical
hardness out of it-- I no longer
knead by hand.”
Never mind the hard work, an
interview with Marge Gaffron
soon proves to the listener that this
woman loves her baking. She
speaks of each type of bread
almost as affectionately as she
does her three children, Rebecca,
Abigail, and Tobey. “I think my
bread is good, I think it tastes
good,” she says firmly.
There are many other advan
tages to this home-based business,
according to Gaffron. Indepen
dence ranks high on her list,
“...though sometimes that’s
almost a drawback because I have
to make decisions,” she adds.
There is the fact that she’s pro
ducing a tangible commodity. “I
have something to show for my
time; it’s instant gratification. I
can look at it, count it, put my
hands on it.”
And, then, there are the custom
ers. The typical Gaffron Sunrise
Bakery buyer is a mother of three
or four who picks up several
loaves of bread, a couple packages
of stickies, some sandwich rolls,
and a few English muffins, in
other words; baked goods for the
entire week. “I feel as though I’m
helping people have something
good in their lives: something use
ful,” she says thoughtfully.
Most importantly, however, is
the way that the business allows
her family to become involved.
“Some days I can’t do things that
t Komes{ead
tA/otes
By 5:30 a.m.
the kids would like me to, and
they can’t have a pet in the house;
but, I can quit while I’m baking. I
may have flour on my hands, but
I’m here.”
Rebecca, Marge’s 18-year-old
daughter, has taken a very active
part in the bakery business.
“We’ve been doing this together
since she was twelve,” Marge
explains. “Each year she’s learned
to do a little more. Now she could
really handle it on her own.”
If there is a real “down side” to
the story of Gaffron’s Sunrise
Bakery, it may be that the business
is at a crossroads. “I’m really
faced now with whether I’m going
to have help and expand or just
stay put, and I don’t know what
I’m going to do,” Marge admitted.
She recently turned down a
restaurant order for 200 loaves of
bread per week. “I’ve been trying
to make growth a olow process,”
explains Gaffron. “I think there’s
a middle ground where you don’t
make any money.”
Maybe the fact that the bakery
is at a crossroads is anything but
the “down side.” “It’s going to be
hard for me to make a decision not
to grow,” grins Marge. “As a mat
ter of fact, I probably won’t make
that decision. It’s not in my nature
not to grow.”
Marge Gaffron doesn’t need to
tell anyone that. Spend an evening
with the proprietress of Gafffon’s
Sunrise Bakery, and you’ll know
only one way she’d choose to go,
and that is bigger.