Melanie Scofield restocking her farm stand off Sterling Creek Road outside Jacksonville.

When she was diagnosed with leukemia last February, Farm & Flour farm stand owner Melanie Scofield turned to breadmaking to take her mind off her worries.

A self-taught baker, the Jacksonville resident had worked full time and raised her two children for most of her adult life. Most recently, Scofield worked in education, facilitating an Oregon Pathways Project program for a local school.

On Valentine’s Day 2023, Scofield’s world was “turned upside down,” she said.

Weeks prior, the 43-year-old had undergone back surgery for a slipped disc.

When her disc re-slipped, she collapsed while walking through an airport during a family vacation.

“I couldn’t walk anymore. I was paralyzed,” Scofield recalled.

“I immediately went into my surgeon, and I was like, ‘Something is not right.’”

Following emergency spinal surgery, Scofield’s bloodwork showed abnormalities. She was diagnosed with large granular lymphocytic leukemia (LGL).

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Unable to work, Scofield narrowed her focus to her health and her family — and found comfort in creating warm, tasty sourdough bread for them. She began spending hours baking bread and other goodies with her sourdough starter, affectionately named “Edna” after her favorite character from Disney’s “Incredibles” movies.

“It was devastating,” she remembered.

The following June, Scofield lost her job of eight years. “It was already a hard hit, but everything at once was pretty shocking,” she said.

Unable to work, Scofield narrowed her focus to her health and her family — and found comfort in creating warm, tasty sourdough bread for them. She began spending hours baking bread and other goodies with her sourdough starter, affectionately named “Edna” after her favorite character from Disney’s “Incredibles” movies.

“When I started baking bread for my family, it was truly therapeutic,” she said. “I knew it was what I wanted to spend my time doing.”

Scofield had always dreamed of opening a bake shop. Now she began shaping her breadmaking goals around her new reality.

“Going back to work, finding a different job, wasn’t really an option due to the fact I had all the doctor appointments, and the fact that some days I am still really, really sick,” she said.

Scofield opened a small stand in front of her house on Sterling Creek Road, a few miles outside Jacksonville. She initially took pre-orders for bread and a handful of other items, and she posted to social media when she had extra inventory.

Almost five months since her stand debuted, Scofield’s baked goods often sell out before closing time. In addition to her original sourdough bread — and other flavors like garlic butter, s’more and jalapeño cheddar — the stand is regularly stocked with cookies, baguettes, homemade vanilla extract, herb and olive oil, creamed honey, fresh eggs, freshly made jams and jellies, and cut flowers.

On weekends, she offers cinnamon rolls and fresh-baked bagels. For added variety, she offers a handful of products by locally produced Cerberus Coffee and Joey’s Hot Sauce. A cooler alongside the stand includes fresh-squeezed lemonade and cans of Cerberus cold brew.

For the kiddos, Scofield’s stand includes a Little Free Library, a treasure box for kids and a notebook for customers — who come from around the region to buy her goods — to leave feedback.

Open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday through Monday, Farm & Flour runs on an honor system: Pick your items and either leave the money or follow the instructions to pay electronically.

“When I opened I didn’t know if people would actually come buy my bread … but it’s been nonstop a lot of days,” she said at the stand on a recent afternoon.

Sometimes her customers are waiting when she opens at 9 a.m. During the week, business can be a little slower — sourdough bread takes 48 hours to make — so she closes a couple of days to do behind-the-scenes work and go to doctor appointments.

“When I started, I figured I’d sell a few loaves here and there and it would just be fun to be here for the community and make some yummy bread. … Everybody kept telling their friends about it, and it just grew and grew.

“It feels really good to know how happy it makes people to have this available.”

Jacksonville resident Jessie Clark, who lives near the stand, buys Scofield’s offerings on a regular basis. Last week, Clark picked up bread and chocolate chip cookies, which are staples for her family, she said.

“I’ve been coming for three to four months and I looove her sourdough bread, of course, but the cookies are amazing. My daughter loves them so much. If I go and I don’t get cookies, we have a problem,” Clark said with a laugh.

Applegate resident Destiny Merril, who discovered Farm & Flour on an Instagram post, said Scofield’s stand saves her from driving to the store for bread and cookies — and offers higher quality, too.

“I’ve been a pretty consistent customer — basically every weekend since it opened,” she said. “There’s just always something different to try. And it’s all good.”

She added: “The bread is made with exactly what’s supposed to be in bread, so you feel really good eating the bread,” Merril said.

“I’m not even one of ‘those people,’ but now it’s like the only bread I want to eat. It’s delicious, it’s good for you and it’s purposeful. It just feels really good to buy bread from her.”

Scofield, who had to add a bread oven and commercial-grade mixers since she began in February, now averages 200 loaves of bread per week, hundreds of bagels and over 500 chocolate chip cookies every week, she said.

The stand has given her more than a fun business to run. She’s built friendships with customers and had an outlet to share her story — as a mom, a bread baker and a cancer patient — on social media and in real life.

“It was a huge grieving period for, like, mainly all of last year,” Scofield said. Then, by November or December, “I was like, ‘OK, I’m done. I’m done feeling sorry for myself here. Let’s do something.’”

For more information or to follow Farm & Flour, visit Facebook or Instagram.

Unable to work, Scofield narrowed her focus to her health and her family — and found comfort in creating warm, tasty sourdough bread for them. She began spending hours baking bread and other goodies with her sourdough starter, affectionately named “Edna” after her favorite character from Disney’s “Incredibles” movies. {related_content_uuid}2c694af6-5efd-452a-9d17-2ed2a58264d0{/related_content_uuid}