Gunnedah's Renee Neale expands with Reverence Sourdough

Renee Neale and her husband, Craig, own Wholegrain Milling Company in Gunnedah, one of the largest suppliers of chemical-free, organic and sustainable flours.

As a seperate side project to their business, Renee is now the face behind Reverence Sourdough.

It was 18 months ago when Renee decided to add to her busy schedule as an office manager and offer the sourdough product she had been making for family and friends to a wider audience.

Fast forward to today and she is making up to 300 loaves each week, experimenting with up to 16 different varieties, and plans to convert her vacant garage into a larger bakehouse to keep up with the demand.

"Through being office manager, and also doing some marketing with Craig to bakers in the cities, I basically got to slowly learn the art of sourdough from the bakers," Renee said.

"I was baking it at home for our family, because I wasn't happy with the choice of breads you could get in Gunnedah or even Tamworth back then. This was eight years ago.

"We would go to Sydney and buy this beautiful bread, I would freeze it, but the funny thing was, there was so many people here that used to do that."

It takes Renee at least 24 hours to make each loaf, even longer when adding in the tending process.

"I'm very true to the art of sourdough, there is no artificial yeast used or preservatives," she said.

All of the flour is sourced from the Wholegrain Milling Company, with Renee using 10 to 25 kilogram bags each week, sometimes even weekly pellet orders are required. Her 90-year-old nan does the washing up while Renee's mother also helps with deliveries.

Despite the long hours, Renee said the sourdough had given her a new passion.

"I thought when I started selling 10 loaves a week that would be it," she said.

"Sometimes Craig will have different flours that he questions the protein in it or he might just question the baking properties, and I can test bake it for him.

"The flours are certified organic and certified sustainable. I love the fact that I am supplying people with really good quality food.

"I think if I didn't have that (connection with the mill), I don't know if I would have the passion to do it, not because we own the business, but because I trust the flour and I also know the farmers behind the four.

"I think that's why people like it, they know the story."

Renee and her husband store product two years in advance to avoid the impacts of drought but the results of a difficult upcoming harvest could flow through to their business.

"Obviously the organic price is going up and there is not going to be enough organic, we know that," she said.

"The sustainable arm of the business is going better but still there have been a lot of sustainable farmers that have dropped out of the system simply because they haven't had rain.

"We have our own certified organic property at Walgett and we haven't had a crop out there for six years.

"I think especially now people are looking, thinking, how can I diversify my business or what extra can I add to my business to make an income for itself basically?

"Even in this drought, things like artisan bread, which it is more expensive, but when people have quality and know quality, they will still spend money on a really quality product that they believe in."

The sourdough product has travelled as far as Melbourne, Cairns and Bourke, but it is the local district that is benefiting most by the new bread offering.

Previously there was no dedicated freight company for small packaging between Narrabri and Gunnedah each day.

But Renee has now joined forces with a Quirindi transporter who now takes Reverence products to Willow Tree, Narrabri and Tamworth.

It has expanded to other small businesses too.

"Now we have pies going from Willow Tree to Narrabri, we have flowers coming from here to Narrabri and Willow Tree," Renee said.

"I'm also going to have products coming from Port Macquarie to Tamworth and then to Gunnedah.

"All these people who I am supplying my bread to are just little family businesses and people are trying really hard and we have found this link through freight and what it means is people in Narrabri, people in Willow Tree, people in Gunnedah are able to access better products that they have never been able to before and it's simply through a couple of small businesses coming together and linking each other up."

Reverence Sourdough is available at The Plains Pantry in Willow Tree, Yield at Narrabri, Miss Ju Ju in Tamworth and at Stockholm Florist in Gunnedah each Thursday.