Photos by Linda R. Campos

A tick before 7am on most Saturdays, Shea Callahan carefully loads 50 loaves of still-warm, freshly baked sourdough bread into the back of her red Toyota Camry and heads to the gym.

CrossFit EXP not only serves as Callahan’s daily fitness haven, but the Leominster-based gym offered the launchpad for her business, Young Leaven Microbakes. In less than three years, Callahan scaled her burgeoning cottage bakery from a born-again hobby to a full-fledged sustainably sourced, naturally leavened sourdough bread venture.

“Saturday workouts are usually one of the tougher ones, and you’ll often see people just ripping off hunks at the end, which is so satisfying,” says Callahan, 31 “These people spend a lot of time in the gym and think about what they’re eating. For them to choose my bread? It’s an honor.”

Sure, gym-goers want to support their friend—they make up about half of her business—but it’s the ingredients Callahan uses that drive interest from a wide range of customers. Callahan sources most of her flour from the Ground Up Grain stone mill in Hadley, filling in the cracks with King Arthur organic.

Balancing desires to keep the price point accessible for customers to buy her breads weekly rather than as a specialty item and to use all-natural ingredients isn’t easy, but Callahan uses organic as much as possible.

A Leominster native, Callahan grew up watching her parents, Chris and Marcie, rise through the hospitality industry. Her first high school job was at Kimball Farm in Lancaster, baking off frozen cookies, muffins and scones from scratch in their country store. Waitressing, bartending and barbacking experience followed. Working at Roots Natural Foods sparked her interest in using highnutrition and non-processed ingredients.

Callahan returned to baking five years ago, experimenting with sourdough between classes while studying to become a physical therapy assistant. Since starting Young Leaven Microbakes two-anda- half years ago, she’s increased her business more than tenfold, selling directly to customers, at local farmers markets and, soon, in the Westminster private practice where she works three days a week just in time for soup season.

Young Leaven Microbakes launched in March 2022 when Callahan secured her logo (a barbell with loaves of bread on it, paying homage to her gym community), LLC and farmers market license. She started out selling between 10–15 loaves per week, scaling to three times as many by September 2022 while building out her kitchen with a used prep table and six Dutch ovens.

Since then, Callahan has crushed it. Baking on Thursdays, Fridays and the occasional early Saturday morning, she’s increased sales to 100–120 loaves per week thanks to purchasing two six-loaf Chandley Pico Plus Bread Ovens and an 80-quart mixer. Torey Bunish, whom Callahan married in August, helped out with much of the necessary electrical work and moving a 300-pound mixer. Adding a second oven allowed Callahan to bake to capacity. Outside of the gym delivery, Callahan makes another big delivery weekly and allows customers to pick up.

“I don’t have to turn customers away,” she says. “When someone gets one of my loaves, they post it. I see their feedback and that’s what drives me.”

Eventually, Callahan might pursue Young Leaven Microbakes full-time but embraces the dual career path.

“Right now, I’m kind of 50–50,” she says. “I love my job working with athletes in physical therapy and this is a good side hustle.”

instagram.com/young.leaven

This story appeared in the Winter 2025 issue.