Benele Bakery Featured Team Seller

Enjoy these treasuries we made for Rhonda, and get to know her in this little interview-



First, if you could tell the story of why you went glutenless, that would be great.

I went gluten free about a year and a half ago after 10 or years of health problems going undiagnosed by doctors. It was the start of my healing journey. Which I am still on :).

I think you were selling your mixes in shops before you came to Etsy, is that right?

I sold some baked goods before Etsy but not mixes. It was mostly by word of mouth.

Tell me about being invited to join Etsy.

My friend, Rachel (from the very successful Orange Thyme and Rachel323), thought my mixes would do well on Etsy. She urged me to open my shop and helped me a ton from getting started to photographs to questions, questions, and questions.

How has the Etsy experience been so far?

It has been great. I was a little obsessed at first watching my shop :). But now I have calmed down a bit about it! I still have very few sales, but I am hopeful it will pick up once I open back up.

Anything you want to share about your personal/family life?

My family is my life! I have an amazing husband who is my soul mate. He works hard so that I can stay at home with the kids. He is also writing a book and runs a website as well. {A little side note: if you were in the Spokane area in 1994, you may want to check out his website http://www.fairchildhospitalshooting.com/}. My son, Ben, is 7 and is a kind, funny, and brilliant boy. My Daughter, Eleanor, is 5 now and is a funny, beautiful, and brilliant princess. Tooting my own horn now! My kids amaze me and make me proud (and a little crazy) everyday.

What has been the most memorable feedback you have received on your products.

I haven't had a lot of feedback yet on Etsy. Baking for family and friends, they seem really impressed. I can make food taste really good, even without gluten! I think I can even fool gluten eaters with some of my recipes.

What should we be watching for in the future from Benele?

I have more mixes in the works. It takes a lot of time to create them since I am writing the recipes from scratch. I will not create a mix based on a recipe until it has been tested several times with great results! I would love to write a cookbook but the competition is pretty stiff right now in the gluten free cookbook arena.

Thanks so much for letting me be on this team. It has been a great experience!

Rhonda