On baking mornings at Redwinter Bakery, 15-year-old William Pickard is up early to help his father, Nathan. The oven can handle 12 loaves at a time. William's part in the venture began with a much smaller plan: find summer work and start saving toward a car.

Nathan had been baking bread as a hobby for more than a decade. A few years ago, he tackled a challenge that kept sending him back to the kitchen: making sourdough entirely from whole wheat without ending up with a heavy loaf. He read about the process and worked through batch after batch until people tasting the bread responded well. A good loaf was one achievement. Making enough to sell was another.

When William began searching for a summer job, the two tried larger batches together. As Julie Wenger Watson reported for TulsaKids, Nathan also took time to see whether his son enjoyed the work enough to continue before investing in commercial equipment. William kept at it. They bought the oven, and Redwinter Bakery became a working business.

Redwinter operates at The Joinery in Tulsa's Heights neighborhood, on property that once housed a Tastee-Freez. The Pickards built their home on part of the former restaurant's parking lot; the original building and kitchen now house the bakery.

On the day before each bake, dough preparation begins around 7 a.m. and lasts roughly seven hours. William also helps bake twice a week, getting up early for those mornings. He told TulsaKids that the early starts were taking some adjustment. He continued doing them anyway.

His responsibilities extend beyond the kitchen. William used programming basics from high school to build the bakery's website, and Nathan says he's also in charge of marketing and sales. He helps make the bread, then works on how people discover it.

The bread has an Oklahoma connection of its own. Redwinter Bakery's website describes slowly fermented whole-wheat sourdough made from freshly milled Red Winter wheat. The family says its wheat comes from John's Farm, an Oklahoma producer. The bakery offers ordering and subscription options; TulsaKids also reported distribution through Natural Grocers and CHOP Grocer, although stock at individual stores can vary.

William told TulsaKids that launching Redwinter introduced him to parts of starting a business he'd never known existed. Nathan shared the baking work from the earliest larger batches, and William has since taken on responsibilities of his own. The encouragement came with a chance to learn by doing the job.

Redwinter is still a small operation. Nathan works full time, William has school, and the family told TulsaKids there are no immediate plans for a major expansion. William is learning to fit the bakery around classes and early baking mornings. He told the magazine, “I really like being a business owner.”