BURGEO — Just when campers around Burgeo thought life couldn’t get any better as the sun comes up at Sandbanks Provincial Park, they’d hear the honk of Marion Jackson’s horn.
The honking is a welcome reminder their delivery has arrived from Marion’s Bakery.
At 9 a.m. all orders of piping hot German-inspired baked bread products, wrapped in a tidy little package arrived fresh to each campsite.
Jackson doesn’t know how she became a familiar face around the campsites. It just happened, she said.
Jackson and her husband, Dietmar Franzmeyer moved to Canada in 2010 from Germany.
They wanted to find a place where they could have a sailboat, and with a relatively inexpensive housing market. Newfoundland seems to be the perfect place.
The couple moved to Burgeo just a year ago, after Jackson’s husband found work.
While they both love the country, her husband had one beef with their new home.
“I only started baking because my husband didn’t like the bread over here,” Jackson said with a laugh. “He said: I really don’t miss Germany, but I really miss a good slice of bread.”
So, she started baking.
Jackson got friends in Germany to send recipes, she did lots research and improvised a little, too.
“It took me a few months before I had the first decent (loaf of) bread on the table,” she said.
Her mother was a chef, and she is trained in hotel management, but Jackson had never really baked much before.
Her signature treats are pretzels with toppings of cheese, sea salt or cinnamon.
Gaining a following
Soon Jackson’s pretzels became the talk about town and people encouraged her to sell them. Every Friday she sold pretzels at the local gas station.
In August while walking through the nearby campgrounds, Jackson thought of the untapped potential of campers staying in the area.
“I thought to myself, well, maybe I should take a piece of paper and walk around and ask if they want me to bake breakfast for them,” she said.
So that’s what she said.
Soon she expanded her menu to include, multigrain, rye, beer, ciabatta and raisin breads, a party wheel, which consists of 16 buns with different toppings and some sweet treats.
And for Debbie Olson, Jackson’s bakery delivery service was the highlight of her summer camping experience.
When Jackson came around with samples of her bread, it was love at first taste for Olson.
“(The breads) just beautiful — just like you get in Europe, soft and chewy,” Olson said. “And everything was warm, warm, warm — just out of the oven.”
Olson has camped in Burgeo for 30 years, and said it was the best camping experience she has ever had.
Each evening after supper, Jackson would make her rounds through the campground taking orders. And each morning Olson, and others, would rise to the honk of their breakfast order.
The remainder of breads and goodies would be used for sandwiches to bring on hikes and to the beach.
“Everyone was talking about it. It caught on like a house on fire,” Olson said. “I pretty much ordered everything (on the menu). And looked forward to (the delivery) everyday after.”
Now that the camping season is winding down, Jackson is wondering where to take her business from here.
She said she may buy a stand and take her business on the road if the circumstances are right, but for now, she is staying status quo and keeping tastebuds in the Burgeo area happy.
