While you're up...can you help me start a bakery?

While You're Up is a community focused micro-bakery that provides hand-made small batch breads and baked goods to the community. While You're Up has a focus on locally grown grain and ingredients to support the farmers within the region while providing delicious and health-full baked goods to the community.

Let me introduce myself--my name is Oona O'Toole (yes, there are 5 O's) and I grew up in a small town on the Central Coast of CA called San Luis Obispo where I lived with my family, our 4 cats , occasionally some chickens or rabbits. When I was a kid, I was always hanging in the kitchen while my mother was cooking, and learned how to make my own “Pooh & Piglet” pancakes by the age of 4. My dad had an affinity for bread & pizza making, though could never manage to keep a starter alive! I knew from a young age that I wanted to be a baker, but got sidetracked here and there by a few other careers.

In college, I studied magazine journalism while working in Fine Jewelry at Nordstrom. I fell in love with the jewelry industry and moved to LA to work as an e-commerce coordinator for a jewelry company in DTLA. However, I quickly learned that the industry behind scenes wasn’t as fulfilling as I hoped my everyday work to be.

At the same time, I began fostering kittens to help fill a need to always be doing something that gives back to the world in someway or another. I also decided to start challenging myself with weekend bakes that grew harder and harder to perfect my baking skills!

At the beginning of the pandemic I was laid off, which for me was a blessing in disguise. I was able to pivot into baking full time, week by week amping up how many loaves, cookies and focaccia I could make in my little home oven, then drive around and drop off to my friends in my ‘98 VW Bug.

I am a self-taught baker with an obsession for all things sourdough. My journey began when I took a sourdough-making class in Los Angeles and I would bake for my friends and colleagues. I ran a successful micro-bakery from my Los Angeles apartment providing fresh bread delivery across the region and partnering with other local businesses to host pop-up events and local pick-ups. During this time, I also made an effort to participate in multiple give-back initiatives by raising money for charities and donating fresh bread through "Cast Your Bread”--an initiative to donate homemade bread to local food banks.

Having just moved my business across the country several new challenges have been presented. In Los Angeles, local laws allowed for baking from a home kitchen with some ease-North Carolina has somewhat stricter cottage food laws and so a new space will be required. Our plan is to convert half of our garage into a bakery space, fully equipped with a bread oven (arriving at the end of September!), refrigerators, sinks and storage. This new space will require the purchase of equipment, local ingredients and packaging.

The name “While You’re Up” was inspired by an episode of Friends! My starter is named "Phoebe" to stay on theme!

I have been featured in several publications including LA Magazine and Shoutout LA .

As a thank you, I will email all donors a copy of my coveted brown butter choco chip cookie recipe, and local Durham and Chapel Hill donors will have first dibs on upcoming test bakes!

Thank you so much for joining me here and coming along on my baking journey, following me on TikTok or Instagram and purchasing my baked goods! I truly appreciate every person who has taken the time to send words of encouragement, my LA customers who I miss dearly and new fans here in North Carolina. Every gift makes such a difference in making this dream come true and I hope I can continue to share this adventure with you!