It’s been more than 15 years since Jane Mitchell, owner of Sweetly Offbeat, discovered she has celiac disease. Celiac disease is an auto immune disease in which people can't eat gluten because it will damage their small intestine. If you have celiac disease and eat foods with gluten, your immune system responds by damaging the small intestine. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. It may also be in other products like vitamins and supplements, hair and skin products, toothpastes, and lip balm. It’s extremely difficult to diagnose as each person with the disease may experience different symptoms but the bottom line is, it doesn’t make you feel very good every time you eat something with Gluten in it.
Jane has been cooking and baking since she was 8 years old but by the time, she got into her 30’s she realized she needed to start taking care of her body and avoiding foods with gluten in them. She had to learn to cook all over again. In the early years it was extremely difficult and the resources available today certainly didn’t exist so there was an awful lot of trial and error. She started cooking more from scratch and eating better but in a short amount of time she realized there were no bakers in her neck of the woods that could offer great tasting, gluten free treats. And that’s when Sweetly Offbeat was born!
With no formal training, Jane has been spent hours in the kitchen perfecting over 50 types of cheesecakes, pies, muffins, cookies, breads, cakes, cupcakes, brownies and quick breads that are all gluten free. Plus, the best part, she continues that trial and error process in the kitchen to continue learning, growing and creating more. She has quite a list of clients including five restaurants who offer her delightful sweets on their dessert menu.
With all that time in the kitchen, Jane caters not just to celiac or people with gluten issues. But anyone who has a dietary restriction. Her goal is to make things that are as good, if not better than their original counterparts.
The business is completely self-sufficient, Jane rents kitchen space from the Purple Tomato and feels strongly that she owes her start to Jim and Sue, the owners. They opened their kitchen to her because they believed in her and her products. In just over four years she’s become an amazing success. She states the obvious that holiday orders are totally insane and last year between Thanksgiving and Christmas she put out over 200 cheesecakes by herself – that is a true testament to doing work that you truly believe in.
You can find Jane through her FB page, https://www.facebook.com/sweetlyoff/ or by phone, (603) 996-1209.
Triple Chocolate Cookie Expresso Chocolate Chip Muffins Salty Caramel Cheesecake