The Quality Bakery on 4th St. in Rainy River has been bought and sold once again. Sharilyn Wood, the owner, is retiring at the end of August when the new owners are to step in.
“Everybody, like from all over, know me for the long johns,” said Wood. “I’ve even had them sent them out to Edmonton.”
Wood has owned the bakery since the 1990’s and used to get to the bakery at 2 a.m. every day except Sunday to get everything ready for the day. She said she comes in a little later now that her daughter comes in early instead. She still comes in at 4 a.m. to work.
“We bought it from Trevor Windsor,” said Wood. “And he bought it from Graham Caffin.”
“Graham Caffin bought it from Henk Abma,” said Wood.
According to his obituary, Gabius “Henk” Abma bought the Old Bollenbach’s bakery in 1960 after moving to Rainy River with his family.
In the book “Rainy River Our Town Our Lives”, by Marg Thompson, it says the bakery was bought by Jack Easton in 1944, which is as far back our record goes. Wood said that she thinks the bakery dates back to 1904 but did not know who owned the bakery in the first half of the 20th century.
“Before then, I think it was a bottle company here,” said Wood. “I’ve got pop bottles from it.”
An article from the 100th birthday of Rainy River, in the Rainy River Record of July 20, 2004, says that there was one bakery in Rainy River in 1906 and that the current building where the Quality Bakery is located was built in 1989. Wood said she was the first one to put in a range hood and a deep fryer before then.
“We’ve done a lot of work to the place since we’ve had it,” said Wood. “We’ve put all new windows in, new siding, new furnaces…new flooring.”
Wood said the new owners were a certain Jan and Jason and that they were going to take over the Bakery’s operations on August 31st, 2024. Wood said Jan did not have any plans to make changes to the bakery so far. She said the venture was a profitable one.“Why ruin a good something that’s working?”, said Wood.
