Free to eat cookies again
Bitter Sweet Bakery offers fresh confections to consumers with celiac disease
 

 
BY CINDY GREEN
Eagan, Minn. — Lareen Narva started the 2004 new year by opening Minnesota’s only 100-percent gluten-free bakery — one of a handful in the United States. Just over a year later, BitterSweet Bakery is not only drawing customers from throughout the Twin Cities, but remote communities like Madison, Wisc. and Fargo, N.D. In December, the Minneapolis Star Tribune included BitterSweet in its “A to Z list of where to find good things to eat.”

Narva brushes off accolades for her quick accomplishments: “I should be shot for what I’m doing. I’ve never been in business before, never been in the food industry before.”

But she is an accomplished baker of gluten-free treats, as Narva and her three children have celiac disease and cannot tolerate the gluten in wheat, rye, barley and their derivatives. After 20 years of experimenting with non-traditional baking ingredients — rice, cornmeal, potato flour, chickpeas— Narva has designed baked goods that fool the palate as well as they eye: pumpkin bars, chocolate chip cookies, lemon-poppyseed muffins, to name a few.

“What sets me apart from others is my chocolate-cherry muffin tastes like a regular chocolate-cherry muffin. “We do a ton of birthday cakes and wedding cakes,” the only gluten-free bakery to do so, Narva says. “And
we get the comment all the time, ‘my family doesn’t know the difference, everyone loved it, no one knew it was gluten free.’ ”
 

Packaged gluten-free foods are often “dry, grainy, with no flavor or a pungent flavor,” Narva says. “I wish I could taste those products when they’re fresh.” For example, white rice, which keeps better than brown,
must be stored in a cool, dry place to maintain quality. “There is only so much you can do with rice.”

Customers can select from cookies, muffins, bars and cakes in a wide variety of flavors. BitterSweet also sells cornbread and pancake/waffle mix, breads, buns and will soon introduce breadstick and dinner rolls. Later this year, the bakery will launch online ordering.

The gluten attack

Narva discovered she had celiac disease during her third pregnancy. She became severely ill with stomach pains, vomiting, diarrhea, and lost 10 pounds in her fourth month. “They thought it might be an intestinal virus or parasites. You get so depressed when you’ve tried everything under the sun and nothing works.” Narva wondered why she felt better when she ate nothing at all.

“I went to a kinesiologist — a chiropractor who does muscle testing to see how foods affect your health.” That day she found out that “things like sandwiches were killing me.

“I come from a German heritage — every meal had bread. Every day there were cookies and bars.” After eliminating gluten foods, “I couldn’t believe I wasn’t vomiting anymore.”

Because the disease is hereditary, she had her three children tested, including her 7-year-old daughter and 5- and 3-year-old sons (now 26, 24 and 21). All were diagnosed with celiac disease. Her husband had a related condition, colitis, which he treated with a gluten-free diet. Of her five siblings, “four have the condition.” Two of those are not on a special diet and “live on antacids,” she says. “We can trace it back four generations — my grandma had it; her parents had it too.”
 

The family had to give up favorites like cookies, macaroni, burger buns and many snack foods. It was difficult for her children. “When they teach the five basic food groups in school, they need to say that not everyone
can eat wheat.”
 

Kitchen creations
Narva went to work in the kitchen creating replacements. “I’ve always cooked; our family made everything from scratch. My sister made the meat and potatoes; I made the sweets.”

She tried recipes from gluten-free cookbooks. “Some things did not turn out the way I thought they would. My first failure was a loaf of bread — it probably weighed 10 pounds. Her family had to try everything because “I
don’t’ like to throw things away,” Narva says. “My family was very honest with me — they’d say, ‘don’t do that again.’ ”

“This is a whole new world of experimenting— nothing that you could ever imagine.”

Narva wrote her own recipes, taking pointers from gluten-free publications and even used her sister’s Weight Watcher’s trick: “I substituted fat with pumpkin or apple sauce and got a moister, better-quality batter.”
The cakes and cookies coming out of Narva’s oven started receiving raves from family and friends. “But I didn’t have a thought about starting a bakery. I had to get three kids through high school.”

SCOREing a business
A couple years ago, Narva’s son grabbed a package of gluten-free cookies off the counter and said, ‘Mom, what is this stuff? Your cookies are so much better. Don’t you get the hint? You’ve got to start a bakery.’ I grew up in a family-owned business — my father owned a plumbing company. But I didn’t really know what that meant.”

“I decided to enroll in a four-night class: ‘How to start a business in Minnesota,”offered by SCORE,” a nationwide organization of active and retired business people who volunteer to counsel small businesses and entrepreneurs.

“By the end of the last class, I decided I could not do it — they had scared me to death.”
 

“Life is too short,” Narva told the instructor. “He said, ‘You’re right where we want you to be. The reality is you don’t make money the first 5 years,’ ” Too many start a business thinking they’ll get rich quick, he explained, and they aren’t ready for the challenges.

“I said, ‘this is still not encouraging,’ and waited almost six months to call him back.”
 

When she told the SCORE counselor she was ready, he connected her to Charan Wadhawan, AURI food scientist, who helped Narva standardize her recipes, scale them up for retail, maximize the baked goods’ shelf life, and design nutritional labels. “She had all the resources I needed.”
 

“When Lareen came to AURI, I thought she was the perfect person to start such a business,” Wadhawan says. “She is knowledgeable about gluten-free foods and food choices limitations. There is a niche market for her to fill.”

Narva was able to keep start-up expenses low because family and friends offered services, such as plumbing, at discounted rates. Her only employees have been her three children, although her daughter’s first baby is due soon “which means I have to hire an employee; I’m not looking forward to it.”
 

A celiac’s dream shop
BitterSweet’s opening has been met with applause by celiacs “who are grateful for a fresh product,” Narva says. Most have been purchasing only pre-packaged products at food co-ops, specialty stores or on-line.

Although more than two million Americans have celiac disease, there are few bakeries to serve them. “There is one in New York, one in Michigan, another in Florida, but for the most part, you can’t find them.” A few Minnesota bakeries make gluten-free products, but only one day per week. Because of high cross-contamination potential, gluten and non-gluten products cannot be made at the same time in the same facility.
 

“Gluten-free products are more expensive — that’s one thing that shocks people who aren’t gluten free.”

The bakery is near an automotive shop and people will often come in for a treat while their car is being serviced. “They look at the price and say, ‘I’m not paying $3 for a muffin,’ and they go to Cub. ... The majority of people (with celiac disease) don’t bat an eye.”

Because she uses such ingredients as tapioca flour, xanthan gum and psyllium seed, her confections cost more to make. “Why do I do that? Because I get the end results that I need.”
 

Gut-felt disease
Many of BitterSweet’s customers “come right from the doctors office” because customers leave BitterSweet brochures at their clinic and tell their doctors about the bakery.

Celiac disease, also known as gluten intolerance, is a genetic disorder that affects 1 in 133 people in the United States — primarily those of northern European descent. Symptoms range from mild weakness, bone pain and upset stomach to abdominal bloating, severe diarrhea and weight loss. It can be diagnosed with a medical blood test or intestinal biopsy. Holistic doctors use other methods for diagnosis.

The disease damages villi in the intestines of people who eat wheat, rye and barley. Some celiacs also avoid oats, although it is disputed whether oats cause damage. The only treatment is a strict 100-percent gluten-free
diet.
 

A number of related conditions — fibromyalgia, irritable bowel, migraines, acne, acid reflux, juvenile diabetes, depression — can be helped with a gluten-free diet. “Gluten can inflame the liver, brainstem, joints.”

Narva responded to the disease not only with a diet change, but the life change entailed in starting a new business. “I’m the kind of person who likes to jump in with both feet soaking wet.”

ABOVE: Lareen Narva, at right, started baking gluten-free treats about 20 years ago, after she
and her children were diagnosed with celiac disease. Her sons Seth, at left, and Tyrel encouraged
Lareen to open her own bakery, BitterSweet, where all of her children now work.