Lisa Sharp is a talented baker that works out of her home. She opened her bakery in February. Sharp’s mother-in-law convinced her to try baking sourdough bread in January of 2022. She has been making sourdough ever since. Working with her mother-in-law had a great influence on her and it was her starting point. She has done extremely well in three years.  

 Rough Stone Bakery is the name of her business. When she and her husband moved to their home in 2017, they were on a good amount of property and they had a little urban farm and called it Rough Stone Urban Farm. Rough Stone is from a quote by Joseph Smith where he said he’s like a rough stone rolling down the mountain and things get knocked off of him as you go through life. Sharp connected with that because things come at you and life can wear you down, but it can smooth you out and make something beautiful from the rough things that happen in our lives. 

Lisa Sharp produces artisan sourdough loaves, cinnamon rolls and focaccia out of her home kitchen.

“I’m a rough baker because I don’t know all the things, that is how I connect with my bakery, and it’s okay because it's a little rough around the edges, but it is a beautiful thing,” Sharp said.  

Sharp started making two loaves of sourdough at a time for a year, then she changed that.  “Sourdough is hard, there is a knack to it, like you have to spend a lot of time doing it. It dawned on me that I'm never going to get good at this unless I start making more,” she said. 

She started making it for the women in her local congregation and started giving it out as part of her personal ministering,  giving out a loaf of bread to the women she visited, which was about 150 loaves of bread. She was making four loaves of sourdough bread at a time. Sharp said it was a great learning experience for her and built her confidence. 

“So often I want to go and talk to people, but sometimes you just want something in your hand to give them,” she said. She would score a heart on the bread and it was a little love loaf of bread. She wanted to get experience, and she felt like she would get better at baking if she made more bread. She branched out and began making a lot of bread. 

Lisa Sharp produces artisan sourdough loaves, cinnamon rolls and focaccia out of her home kitchen. (Photo courtesy Dan Sharp)

“I love the beauty of it, it’s this tiny little starter that can create so much bread. It grows when you care for it,” Sharp said.   

Sharp is a stay at home mom and has seven children. It was important to Sharp and her husband, Dan Sharp, that she be there for their children. She decided she could do something on the side to help out. Then she decided she could bake her bread at home and make it happen. 

She first started making just a plain loaf bread, then added focaccia and cinnamon rolls. It has been rewarding for her to learn how to bake bread and make it work. Doing her business has been one of the hardest things she's done, but it has really built her confidence in her abilities to figure things out. 

“The only thing I have to do is not quit,” Sharp said. She has persevered and it has been a great blessing to see her bread making goal bear rewards. Sharp saw a lot of value in bread baking. It has been a blessing to her family and friends.   

She has two baking days a week. In the summer she bakes 64 loaves a week, dropping down to 54 a week in the fall. Her average will be about 60 a week. Nine months ago she baked only eight loaves a week. She also bakes 48 cinnamon rolls a week and eight focaccia.  

She has one dough day, Wednesdays are her dough days, which is about 12 hours of prepping all the doughs. Bake day is on Thursday and it starts at 5 a.m. until noon. Then from noon to 5 p.m. is packaging. 

“It is a labor of love and enjoyment,” Sharp said. She likes the sensory experience of making the bread, like mixing the dough, smelling the bread.   

Sharp loves her neighbors who buy the bread. People will stop by her house and buy bread or cinnamon rolls. She feels God has blessed her and she is so grateful. Her family is 100% her support and her biggest cheerleaders. Her husband is very supportive, she wouldn't be where she is today without his belief in her.