Gluten-Free Bakery Launches Retail Outlet

Jeff Brockway used to be a software guy. Then, his son was diagnosed with celiac disease – and then he was also diagnosed – and then, Brockway quickly learned that life without gluten can be a tasteless existence.

"I missed eating good bread, and I decided there had to be a better way, so I just started experimenting with different flours," said Brockway, who started Buckwheat's Gluten Free bakery in 2009.

Since then he's moved to a commercial kitchen, perfected his recipes for a gluten-free sandwich breads, pizza dough, burger and dinner rolls, and muffins, and started selling them to local retailers and restaurants, including A Market in Manchester, Earthward Natural Foods in Amherst, Stella Blu in Nashua, and more than a dozen Joe's American Bar & Grill chain restaurants.

On Saturday, Brockway will take his business to the next level.

At 10 a.m. Mayor Donnalee Lozeau will cut the ribbon on his new retail outlet, Buckwheat's Bakery Outlet, inside the bakery at 14 Celina Avenue, Unit 15, in Nashua. Customers will now be able to stop by and pick up any of Buckwheat's Gluten Free products on Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., direct from the bakery.

"People sometimes ask me if my bread tastes like real bread. I tell them it's different, just as rye is different from white, or pumpernickel," Brockway said. He uses combinations of grains including sorghum, millet and buckwheat to achieve flavorful, gluten-free breads.

"It has a different flavor and texture than wheat-based bread, but it's real bread," Brockway said.

Reinventing himself as a baker may seem to some like a stretch. But Brockway sees it differently.

"When I was doing software – or any other job I had that involved engineering, it all boiled down to problem solving, and that's what led me to baking," Brockway said.

You can find out more about his business online, and Facebook. But if you really want to know if his gluten-free line is "real bread," stop by Buckwheat's Gluten Free on Saturday – we hear there will be free samples!