A 琉璃神社 couple is sinking their teeth into the vegan, gluten-free market with their delicious donuts.
Joel Murga and Jaide Hatfield, owners of Jaide & Joel鈥檚 Bakery, have been creating donuts for businesses around the Okanagan Valley for the past year.
Starting their days at 4 a.m., the dynamic duo rents a commercial kitchen in 琉璃神社 to bake roughly 300 donuts a day before delivering them to Nature鈥檚 Fare stores in Vernon and 琉璃神社 on Tuesdays and Fridays, and on Mondays and Thursdays in Penticton in West 琉璃神社.
Hatfield also has another part-time job and Murga is taking science classes at UBCO, which he said comes in handy with the donut creations.
鈥淢y sister, she owned her own bakery for about five years, and she ended up wanting to take a break from it for a while, so I decided I wanted to take part and do a different version of it,鈥� Murga said.
With celiac disease and allergies to a number of ingredients, Murga wanted to do vegan and gluten-free baking with Hatfield, who is also a vegan.
READ MORE: VIDEO: 琉璃神社 cake company expanding to offer fancy donuts
The couple started selling donuts at farmer鈥檚 markets, and business took off from there.
鈥淥ur main goal right now is to open up our very first cafe,鈥� Murga said, with the aim to expand to into bread making, cinnamon buns and other vegan treats.
鈥淭here鈥檚 such a big vegan community, and they鈥檝e been so supportive, it鈥檚 awesome,鈥� he said.
Murga said as more people have become knowledgeable about how food is made and where it comes from, there鈥檚 been an uptick in the vegan trend.
鈥淚 think what鈥檚 sets us apart from the competition is also that we do all gluten-free baking. I believe our baking鈥檚 really good,鈥� he chuckled. 鈥淚 would say our niche is the donut making.鈥�
Ingredients are made fresh and organic.
READ MORE: Do not go without a donut today
鈥淲hen we first start making everything, we even 鈥� mix our own flours because it makes our donut fluffier and lighter,鈥� he said.
For first-timers, he recommends the vanilla Funfetti donut, 鈥渨hich is the best introduction to all of our donut making because most of the recipes are based off that donut.鈥�
carli.berry@kelownacapnews.com
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