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Recipe for Success

Local baker drives community development.

by Karen Hudgins

For years, Canadian resident Tresea Rankin had enjoyed baking bread for her family and friends. Her homemade sourdough recipe was a relished staple at family and community celebrations.

When Rankin and her husband Bo’s four children started leaving home to attend college and get married, her sister-in-law Dena thought the popular homemade bread recipe could start earning some dough. She suggested Rankin start selling it.

In 2003, Rankin delivered a couple of fresh loaves to the Cattle Exchange, a bustling restaurant in Canadian.

“They asked me if I could do 700 loaves in a week,” Rankin says. “We just went with it, multiplied the starter and got it to where we could meet the demand.”

To multiply the recipe, Rankin began making the starter in five-gallon plastic buckets. Thus, her “bucket bread” was born.

“With sourdough, you can’t use metal utensils,” Rankin says. “You have to use plastic or wood. For some reason metal kills the yeast. That’s why we do it in the five-gallon buckets.”

Rankin started out baking in the Cattle Exchange’s kitchen. Soon, demand for her bucket bread grew, and Rankin needed her own space.

“We got us an old hunk of junk oven and put it in the barn next to my house,” she says. “We did that for a couple of years and raised some money.”

Bo Rankin rigged up a special bread-mixing stand – a hook at the end of a power drill.

While she didn’t advertise, word spread about Rankin’s savory bucket bread. Other local restaurants and suppliers outside of Canadian began ordering her sourdough loaves, plus additional items like cinnamon rolls, hamburger and hot dog buns and breadsticks.

Soon Rankin was supplying seven restaurants with the old “hunk of junk” oven in her barn, barely able to meet demand. It was time to expand.

In 2006, with Bo and her sister-in-law, Suzanne, Rankin opened The Bucket sandwich shop in a historic downtown Canadian building. The Rankins bought and renovated the building themselves, restored an original old wood porch and added a deck for more seating. They installed a pot-bellied stove, which cooked up real “cowboy coffee” for patrons.

The Bucket began serving breakfast and lunch. Suzanne baked cookies and desserts. The women paid cash for all purchases.

“We never did over-extend and put ourselves in debt,” Rankin says. “We bought used ovens and now have four commercial ovens. We don’t operate in debt.”

Remelle Farrar, Canadian’s former director of community development, says the entire community was anxious for the Bucket to open.

“Everybody wanted Tresea to hurry up and get this bread place open,” she says. “Businesses in Amarillo wanted to order her bread. It was a huge community project.”

Rankin and her sister-in-law now employ eight workers, who staff the shop from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Between them, Rankin and her sister-in-law have eight children. All have helped out at the shop.

Community Rising

Making the sweet-tasting sourdough bucket bread is a two-day process.

“You mix your starters early in the day, and you mix your bread in the evening,” Rankin says. “You let it rise overnight. The next morning, you let it rise again and put it in pans. It’s not out of a box and into a pan and bake. That’s what makes it good.”

The sweet-tasting bread isn’t for everybody, Rankin says.

“Not everybody likes the sweet bread, but we have enough that do.”

The Bucket has expanded its offerings to include breadsticks, hot dog and hamburger buns, cinnamon rolls and mini buns used in finger sandwiches. All items are sourdough, in either white or wheat bread. The bread is a popular complement to brisket and tenderloin, Rankin says.

Locally, The Bucket’s bread is sold at the Cattle Exchange, the Railhead Bar & Grill and Alexander’s, a catering company. In addition to Canadian, The Bucket serves Amarillo and the Panhandle communities of Wheeler, Miami, Lipscomb, Pampa and others.

Rankin bakes bread for local weddings, football games and other community events. The Bucket provides free bread for funerals.

During Thanksgiving, Rankin and her staff bake some 3,000 hot rolls and sell them a dozen at a time to hungry patrons. For Canadian’s Fall Foliage Festival last October, The Bucket churned out more than 2,000 hamburger buns.

While she has never advertised her store, Rankin partners with other local retailers to help promote them.

Giving Back

Rankin’s is an immensely rewarding calling.

“I may not be a musician or a Sunday school teacher, but I can serve through baking bread for folks,” she says. “When people eat, you have their attention. That’s when you can be a positive influence. We are allowed to be involved in people’s lives in sad times – when they’ve lost loved ones – and happy times – when they’re having weddings and babies.”

Large hamburger chains and others have approached Rankin about selling her bread, but she’s opted to stay local.

“I just don’t want it to be commercialized,” she says. “I want it to be personal.”

The Bucket’s seemingly bottomless business reflects Canadian’s steady economy.

“Demand hasn’t stopped,” Rankin says. “Canadian is on the rise. We’ve got lots of oil field activity and construction. That has made it so much more successful.”

Farrar says Rankin has been an example to other prospective businesses in the Canadian area. Rankin is frequently asked to lead visiting economic development officials and business owners through downtown Canadian and share information on the town’s business-friendly climate. TR