.Gluten-free Business In The Breadbox Takes On Edibles

In 2012, Jenn Ulmer Jenkins started eating gluten-free, and found she needed to teach herself how to create delicious gluten-free baked goods. A year later, she started In The Breadbox, and now you can find her products in restaurants all over Santa Cruz County, like Michael’s on Main, Crow’s Nest, and Earthbelly.

Her gluten-free hamburger bun quickly became her most popular item, and for a while she had expanded to the point of running a retail store for her products. But she’s made some changes—now the commercial kitchen she manages is a strictly cannabis kitchen, so she’s moved In The Breadbox to a different one. She spoke to us about the new direction of her business.

You manage a cannabis kitchen now?

JENN ULMER JENKINS: Because of the law of Jan. 1, regular food businesses and edibles cannot be in the same kitchen, so I had to make a decision about what to do. I made the decision to go the edibles route with the kitchen. As of March 1, we are strictly an all-edibles kitchen, and renting to eight to nine edibles companies. We are Santa Cruz’s only edibles kitchen. I moved In the Breadbox back to the kitchen I used to rent. I’m back to just wholesale. I have my hamburger buns with many restaurants here in Santa Cruz, I do pizza crust for many restaurants, I do some pancake-waffle blend for some of the restaurants for breakfast, I do vegan cookies for Veg on the Edge. I’m getting some of our products that we used to sell retail, like our frozen biscuits, in the stores, and the buns and our chicken pot pies. We’re hoping to get those individuals in the stores, too. I’m going to start with a few of the basics products that we have in the stores here now. I’ve been waiting for the time to expand that. A lot of the gluten-free world of Santa Cruz likes our products.

And you’re starting your own edibles line, Sweet Blossom?

Yes. That’ll be In the Breadbox’s edibles brand, run out of my edibles kitchen. It’s going to be gluten-free edibles—we’re going to do sweet bread—and some CBD dog treats for the pet stores. I’m still trying to figure out the products that we’re going to make in the edible line. I’m also looking at the local edible companies that are in there. Some of my renters just do CBDs and some do just THC. We’ll be doing both.

477-9484, inthebreadbox.com.