Justine Parra is the owner of Baking Parradise. Photo by Nathaniel Lopez
Tucked away in a little corner on Parradise Ranch, you will find Baking Parradise, a cottage bakery. Inside, you will smell the aroma of fresh locally baked sourdough, and will be greeted by the owner, Justine Parra. She is the granddaughter of Parradise Ranch owners, Sue and Jerry, and like her grandparents, she has a creative drive and a love for her community. It all started in the winter around 3 and a half years ago, when Justine had a dream.
“I had a dream I made the best bread ever, and it was like, such a cool dream, the next day, I started looking into different types of bread, and my friend had recently been telling me she got a bread maker. So I was like, oh, maybe I could do that,” said Justine.
Eventually, she settled on sourdough, as her bread of choice, especially due to its health benefits.
It was a rough start, Justine said.
“Terrible. No, it was so hard. Just maintaining a starter is hard, and it being winter was really hard. So I started, I think it was like when I got the hang of it was around Christmas time, so that worked out. So I could give like loaves for gifts, then I was giving it to friends and we kind of just spiraled from there.”
Justine began selling her loaves at the farmers markets. Since she was working another job, the farmers markets lined up with her days off, allowing her the time to bake and sell for the market.
“So I was only doing Wednesdays at first,” she said. “Then people, you know, obviously Wednesdays doesn’t work for everyone. So I started letting people come on the weekends. Then luckily, my grandparents let me use this room, because I started out doing two loaves at a time in my home oven, and it was like 9 million degrees inside, and my boyfriend wasn’t happy. So I looked into getting a bread oven, I moved in here. It’s really just grown, like crazy. So I do the markets now, I’m open on the weekends and then I also deliver to the coffee shop and Dickman’s in Tucson. I think when I first started, like operating as a business, I was only making like eight loaves for a weekend, and that was going in like an hour. So then I was like, okay, I’ll do 12, and then that was going just as fast. It just keeps growing literally every week.”
Justine started doing pop up events at Stacks in Oro Valley, and after those went well, she reached out to Dickman’s and gave them some samples, which landed her a spot in the store. As a longtime patron of Dickman’s, she said this was one of her goals for the business from the beginning. She hopes to find a place in Marana, and Catalina to sell her loaves.
Justine would like to thank her parents, and grandparents for their support and inspiration. She would also like to thank the community, for showing their love and support to an upcoming business.
You can find Baking Parradise sourdough at Way of Bean in Oracle and Dickman’s in Tucson, and soon at the Oracle Patio Cafe. You can also find it at her shop at Parradise Ranch. Find more information on the Baking Parradise Facebook page.