When she first began making sourdough in 2022, Simply Sourdough owner and founder Kellsey Hibbs didn’t think she had room in her life to start a bakery. As the mother to four young children, taking care of her family was a full-time job.

“I have always loved being in the kitchen, but I have no formal training,” she said. “I had no interest in starting my own business or even learning sourdough.”

Three years and an estimated 5,000 loaves of bread later, Hibbs is now running Simply Sourdough out of her home in Liberty Hill’s Orchard Ridge neighborhood, producing dozens of loaves fresh-baked bread for the community every week.

The backstory

When Hibbs’ husband was unexpectedly laid off in 2022, the family was left without income for five months. Hibbs began brainstorming ideas to help generate some money, and when she discovered a sourdough baking community on TikTok, she decided to give it a try.

“I literally decided in about 30 seconds that I was going to be a sourdough baker,” she said. “I went to HEB and got bowls and whisks and everything TikTok said I needed, and I said, ‘Great. I’m a sourdough baker now. This is who I am, this is my personality.’”

Going from fledgling breadmaker to professional baker took a lot of trial and error. Hibbs said she spent about a month fixating on all things sourdough, spending every second of her limited free time watching YouTube videos and learning the tricks of the trade. She went through 15 to 20 failed batches of starter before she started feeling comfortable with the basics, and it took another 8 months of baking four days a week before she felt like she was any good at it.

Soon, neighbors who heard she’d been baking fresh sourdough started to inquire about special orders, so Hibbs started selling loaves to people around the community. Demand for her baked goods grew so high that she decided to formally start a business, founding Simply Sourdough LLC in October 2023.

How it works

Since Simply Sourdough doesn’t have a brick-and-mortar storefront, customers need to place their order through the bakery’s website. Hibbs spends every Sunday night feeding her dough starter, and reserves Monday to make dough, sometimes working up to 12 hours a day to get orders prepared. She bakes on Tuesday, and puts orders out for pickup on her front porch by 4 p.m. Hibbs estimates she bakes anywhere from 40-60 loaves every Tuesday, not including the additional pastries, cookies and snacks.

Her front porch display shelf sorts orders by customer, and she even prepares an “extras” rack in case she has more bread than is needed.

“I will always do 10-15 extra loaves in case I mess up, so I give myself a big margin of error,” she said. “If everything goes great, I’ll put those out. I usually have people waiting in their cars at 4 to be first-come, first-serve on the extras.”

What they offer

Simply Sourdough has grown to include more than just loaves of bread. The bakery also produces cookies, cinnamon rolls, pizza dough and toaster waffles, all made with Hibbs' sourdough. She even sells samples of her sourdough starter so home bakers can start their own journey.

At one point, demand for Hibbs' services was so high that she started teaching online courses to train up to 50 students at a time how to create their own sourdough. Hibbs said she has pared back the classes for now to allow her more time to focus on her baking.

What else?

Despite the company’s success, Hibbs said she currently has no plans of opening a physical storefront or expanding the business further.

“The whole reason I started this was to be able to be with my kids and have a flexible schedule, be at every soccer game, be at every school play,” she said. “My goal is to maintain this and grow in areas that I want to, and if this is as big as it gets, I’m happy with that.”

Hibbs said sourdough baking aligns with her beliefs about keeping food local and ethically sourced.

“I just want people to get a degree closer to their food,” she said. “I think it’s really important to support local bakers and local farmers and know where your food comes from. Once you taste fresh bread, it’s really hard to go back.”