A recipe for success: Hard work main ingredient in family-run bakery

(Originally published in Halifax Herald business section, Mon. Oct 22)

There isn’t much time to plan or pack when a grenade comes through the side of your house.

"We simply ran for our lives," says Sanja Pahole in the office of Saraj Bakery, the artisan bakery she opened earlier this near in New Minas.

The horror of the 1992 experience in her home in Sarajevo is a striking contrast to the warmly painted walls of the bakery and the welcoming hugs customers receive as they come through the door. It is also a long way from the refugee camp in Montenegro where she and her husband Iztok spent nearly five years before travelling to Canada in 1997.

They initially went to Toronto, moving to Nova Scotia in 2004, when Ms. Pahole took a position in product development with a food company in the Annapolis Valley. When she was laid off with no warning a year later, she decided to use her talents as a cook and a baker.

"If jobs won’t come to you, you make a job!"

Armed with a business plan, she was accepted into the self-employment benefit support program through the Hants-Kings Community Business Development Corp. This program provided her with a modest salary as she planned and opened her new operation.

Saraj Bakery (pronounced Sa-Rye) opened last winter, making a profit in the first month.

Ms. Pahole keeps "hideous hours" (averaging 350 a month) but is adamant that is needed to make the business a success.

Although her husband retrained as a carpenter, he’s working with the bakery full time, usually serving customers while Ms. Pahole creates new products in the kitchen. Daughter Maja helps out between attending classes at Acadia University, while son Boyan is taking corrections and policing course in the Sackville area.

Ms. Pahole laughingly says that working with her family "is the only way I’d be able to spend much time with them!"

Saraj Bakery features over a dozen different breads, from seeded sourdough to ethnic breads such as challah, all made with unbleached or whole grain flours. "The focus of our business is good health," Ms. Pahole says, proudly calling her bakery 100 per cent artisan. "Everything goes through my hands!"

Her recipes were collected with her mother, grandmother and mother-in-law over the years. Nothing comes from a mix, there are no fillers or preservatives and Ms. Pahole uses butter rather than oil or shortening, refusing to trade authenticity or quality for convenience or cost. She can accommodate special dietary requirements, offering gluten, yeast or sugar-free products that many of her customers can’t find elsewhere.

Ms. Pahole and her family are deeply grateful for all the help they have received and in turn do what they can for others. Leftover breads go to the food bank, and the bakery donates to a variety of fundraisers around the community. Even the family pets — three dogs and a cat — were adopted from the local SPCA. "We don’t think of it as charity but rather as goodwill. . . . Without the goodwill of others, where would we be?"

What advice does Ms. Pahole offer to fellow immigrants facing employment challenges? She says anyone can do well with hard work and determination but stresses language skills are crucial.

"Immigrants need to learn the language . . . Skilled work can’t come to you if you don’t speak the language," she says.

Rather than isolate themselves within their own culture, immigrants must get involved in their community, ask about services available to help them get established and use them.

"This country gives you an opportunity to work . . . and success can come," Ms. Pahole says, adding that success is never guaranteed. "A person might not have been successful in their homeland, either. We’ve had many losses in our past, but Canada is not guilty for that."