Today we’d like to introduce you to Julia Castellano.
Hi Julia, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
As a kid, I grew up in New York with an Italian American father and a Belgian mother. The fact that I have northern and European roots, resulted in me having an appreciation and love for quality food (especially bread).
For the past couple of years, baking has been my full time job, but I have always worked for someone else. In 2020, during the peak of the COVID lockdown, I had a lot of free time to think about my future. I started experimenting with pastry recipes at home which led to me developing recipes of my own. At one point, I had experimented a little too much and had more baked goods than I could handle. I started giving loaves to my friends, family and neighbors until one day, a friend of mine forced a ten dollar bill onto me. This trend continued as everyone that cared about me and loved what I was feeding them wanted to pay me for my goods and services. Being unemployed at the time, I figured that this would be an opportunity to create a pastry-based social media and ask the public if they would be interested in buying my bread! Over-night, I had orders booked out for the following three weeks. Soon after, I was starting to get the reoccurring question…“Do you have your own bakery?”
After years of obsessing over pastry arts, the thought came to me: All I want to do is be an old lady that gets up before the sun and makes bread and pastries in solitude and peace. This is something that I could do and love forever…so I should probably just go for it, right? I have always wanted to own my own business, but I never really slowed down enough to think about the possibility of it. . The unexpected opportunity that the pandemic created allowed for this much needed time for clarity. The response I received from selling bread for fun showed me that I could actually make a living doing what I love. This is when I decided to launch Little Loaf Bakery & Schoolhouse.
The best part about baking for me, is the fact that things that I make have the ability to bring people together. A pastry is more than a meal. A meal fuels you, but a pastry is a choice. We use baked goods for celebration, for mourning, and for togetherness. Baking goods have a way of connecting people and Little Loaf Bakery & Schoolhouse will help foster these connections by being a physical place where that can happen.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The more obvious struggles at first were financial. I put everything I had into opening the store front. So much so that I was training all of the staff the first two weeks that we were open and any money made went into paying them! Not so obvious were some health struggles. I was really overworked for a while leading up with having to keep a job and open the business. Bakers hours are also crazy, so I was very sleep deprived for a while.
Fast forward to present-day… the current struggles are managing a work-life balance (i am now a mom), managing a full staff that are now working at little loaf like a machine and finding a healthy way to employ friends and family while still maintaining a positive relationship outside of work!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Baker, business owner
I am most proud of the community that we have cultivated through the bakery.
We truly make everything by hand, from scratch and with love!
We teach classes when we are not open as a bakery.
What makes you happy?
Happiness is found in the craft that you chose to focus in on, the people you surround yourself with and recognition of the small things in life that make every day positive. So for me, I am grateful to say that I find happiness in the everyday and mundane. I am fortunate enough to do exactly what I love to do with my closest friends and family and I have the honor of being a mother, my greatest accomplishment.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://littleloafbakeryilm.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/littleloaf_ilm?igsh=bmNreGxyZTg5NDRl&utm_source=qr
