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The following article was first
published in The Day on 7/2/06. It is being republished here
with the permission of The Day.
Photo above by Jeff Evans.
Baking A Loaf, Making A Living
Mary's Sweet Bread Forged By Tradition, Necessity And A Great
Recipe
By Katrina Gathers, MARKETPLACE WRITER
Published on 7/2/2006 in Marketplace
Raised in a traditional Portuguese family, Mary Soares' life
revolved around what was happening inside the four walls of her
parents' home. And when she married at age 16, that tradition
continued with her husband.
By 21, Soares had given birth to three children, and it was then
that her mother decided it was time to pass on a different
family practice: making sweet bread.
Two more children, minus one husband and three decades later,
Soares is the owner of Mary's Portuguese Sweet Bread, a business
run out of the first floor of her Mark Street home.
For her, making bread was a life-saver.
“The way I grew up, I didn't go to movies, go on dates or go to
dances. When my ex-husband told my dad that he wanted to date
me, my father said he'd have to marry me. So he did,” says
Soares. “I was taught to be a good wife and mother and do as I
was told. My husband didn't let me work outside the home, so I
did this.
“I took care of everyone but me,” she added.
Soares is still taking care of others, but is using her bread as
a way to honor her mother's memory and to provide herself with a
steady income.
After her divorce nearly eight years ago, the Pawcatuck resident
cut back on her baking and took on a full time job at a local
casino. But she continued to share her bread with friends who
came over for coffee, and word spread in the community. Soon she
was providing loaves to stores in Pawcatuck, Westerly and
Mystic. Around that time, she remodeled her home to make the
first floor a licensed commercial bakery.
Her biggest triumph came recently, when Soares secured a deal
with Shop Rite to provide her sweet bread to a handful of the
region's grocery stores, including one in New London and another
in Norwich. On a recent visit to her Mark Street home/bakery,
Soares was pulling loaf after loaf from the oven in preparation
for her trip to Shop Rite. In less than two days, she prepared
and baked more than 240 loaves.
“I feel like I'm at a point in my life where I can finally
live,” says Soares. “If I succeed, I'll take the credit. If I
fail, I'll take the blame. I want people to know the bread
lady.”
But getting to know the bread lady might not be so easy.
Soares is an insomniac, who will often rise at 2 a.m. just to
throw “a batch or two” in the oven. She loves all things Elvis.
And she is still learning how to use the navigational system in
her SUV (she had to ask someone how to get across the Gold Star
Memorial Bridge).
She doesn't sit still for long, so her red-brown hair is often
flying off her shoulders.
Despite a secluded home-life, Soares says she wouldn't change a
thing.
“If things didn't happen the way they did, I would still be that
meek, shy person with no self esteem,” she said, not one
negotiating contracts and selling her breads to chain stores.
And part of her past is paying tribute to her mother.
Soares has three cable-knit quilts that she uses to cover her
breads. Her mother used two of them when she did her own baking.
“This is her bread. This is her story,” said Soares. “What I
know and what I do is because of my mother.”
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