Jelly Craft Bakery and Cafe, a Main Street favourite

Written By CONSTANCE SCRAFIELD

Ewa Rogowski came to Canada from Poland in 1988, moving to Toronto.

“I found a husband,” she told us a little humorously. “Then, the first baby came and we stopped by a real estate place and she found a place for us in Primrose. Our second baby came and we decided to do something.”

Their agent brought them to Shelburne, where they discovered a property on the village's Main Street that might work really well for a business.

Ms. Rogowski's father was a baker in Poland, “in a different time, a different oven, in 1950's. I was born in '62. After the Second War, my father's father was killed when he was 14 years old. My father became a farmer with his brothers and sisters.” 

In another interview, she told the Free Press, “Before the age of 20 his Aunt, with no sons of her own, offered to let him take over her family Farm. He was scheduled to leave to Warsaw and finalize his Masters papers as a baker. However, the farm would better provide for his younger sibling.

“At the same time, my father was teaching my mom how to bake,” she said, explaining the heritage, “and I learned from her.”

“I was a teacher in Poland but not here,” Ms. Rogowski added. “But, sometimes you have to change for a new life.”

The new life became the Jelly Craft Bakery and Cafe, a place to purchase delights both sweet and savoury to bring home, a place to sit at the shop window and watch the world go by with a fine coffee and something delicious on a plate, or to browse through the crafts of locally made dolls, shawls, pottery and a lot more, art on the walls, all coming from artists and artisans in the Dufferin area.

Ms. Rogowski told us how much she likes the cafe because “you see the people. Before I had so many students coming from the school. The bakery is celebrating 21 years. We opened in 2001. The same day when the two towers go down.” 

We still all ask any business: How was Covid? Many answers are replete with touching stories about community support, and this was no exception.

“We were closed from Mar. 15 to Aug. 15,” she recounted. “People ordered bread, buns, bagels. I had a table by the door and people were coming every Friday for 15 minutes, sending in their orders Thursday; Friday I baked and every Friday, they picked them up.”

A teacher from the high school ordered bread and buns for others, saying to Ewa Rogowski, “You cannot close. We have to support you.” Some ladies from the town hall bought other bagels and bread to give the bakery support. 

As she pointed out, “There were still hydro, taxes – you have still expenses to pay and there was help from the government to pay [a percentage from Ontario's business help plans.]”

Jelly Bakery and Cafe employs one additional person full-time and three part-time. Shortbread, date squares and cookies are rolling off the displays, and people just love the butter tarts. They also come for the cabbage rolls and perogies. “We sell huge numbers of those!” she was happy to say.

The freezer has a goodly list of ready-to-eat menu choices.

Ms. Rogowski returns to Poland every year, saying, “My heart is in Poland – my son is in Poland. He has his Master's in business communication. He studied in Warsaw. When he was finished, he told me he could get five jobs. Poland has a good education and it is cheaper there to live. He loves it, not paying too much for rent.”

Her son did live and work here but did not enjoy driving to work in Toronto. In Warsaw, he can just take the subway – it seems so easy there.

“He knows so many people from university,” she commented. “‘I have friends everywhere.' he tells me.”

We returned to the beginning of the Jelly Craft Bakery and Cafe. The name for the bakery actually came from her neighbour's father.

“We called to him and he said, ‘Give me 15 minutes.'”

His logic for his choice of name was that the founder of Shelburne was William Jelly and they bake with jelly in the Shelburne bakery.

“Of course,” she went on to tell us, “When we started, we had big, big support from the [Shelburne] Golf Course [and Country Club].”

Owner Sam Young and his family were very supportive at the very beginning, bringing tables and chairs to do until the cafe bought its own.

Another friend, Janet Horner, was helpful too. The business started as a  Christmas store. Ms. Horner “put in some stuff for Christmas. We ran it for two months, November and December. Then after, one week for fiddle week in 2001 just for the week. Then after that, we closed to finish the renovations.”

There was a lot of praise for the Town of Shelburne, how the town has been so helpful. Whenever there was a question, they fixed the drain; whatever came up, they responded.

“Shelburne was very, very welcoming for me,” she said.

The secret is in team work. When people are working together, when she picks a person to work with, what counts is what matters to each other. So, if she is not here, she can trust they have to work together well.

Once, while Ms. Ewa was visiting in California, Lori Gardener, a chef for nine years and her friend “just jumped to help” when there was a problem at the bakery.

“When you have good people, you have good people.”

At slightly over 60, basically, her ambition is “God give me the health and [someday] somebody can come to buy the business with a vision to run the business.

“But I'm not in hurry to retire too early.”

She said, “Here there is good energy, good products and a good place.”

Jelly Craft Bakery and Cafe is at 120 Main Street. Shelburne. Lots of pretty pictures and details on their website:www.jellybakery.com