Twenty-year Army veteran shares his love of breadmaking with Neenah community

Rich Palzewic

Staff

August 11, 2025

NEENAH – To learn the story of how Ed Jervis – owner of Ed’s Breds in Neenah – began his breadmaking journey, one must go back five years.

Jervis, a 20-year retired Army veteran, said during an Army PCS move the summer of 2020, his wife, Kari, was gifted a sourdough starter kit from her mom as they settled into their new home in Texas.

For the next week or two, Jervis said the sourdough kit sat dormant on their kitchen counter.

“She wanted absolutely nothing to do with that kit,” he laughed. “We moved to Texas to get closer to both of our parents, so my mother-in-law thought it would be cool for us to make bread together.”

Smack dab in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jervis said his Army unit was shut down for a time due to the rising number of COVID cases.

So, he said he figured he’d take a look at the starter kit and see what it was all about.

“My mother-in-law also gave us a book called ‘Starter Sourdough’ by Carroll Pellegrinelli,” he said. “This opened my mind up to new terms like levain, discard, lame and ferment.”

Discovering how everything had to be precise measurements, Jervis said, “intrigued me to no end.”

“Before I knew it, I was mixing flour, water and our gifted starter in a Mason jar,” he said.

Jervis said the first time he put his hands in the dough and started working it, he was hooked.

“My first loaf didn’t look too good, but it didn’t taste too bad,” he laughed. “From there, I had to keep trying.”

For those who don’t know, Jervis – who also works full-time at Plexus – said sourdough bread is “very finicky.”

“It’s a lot of understanding the feeling of the dough – not going by a timeline or anything like that,” he said. “It’s really just entrusting the process. At the end of the day, bake it and see what happens.”

Jervis said sourdough bread takes anywhere from 24-36 hours to prepare.

“Again, it depends on how the dough feels,” he said. “If it’s a little warmer, like in my house [in Texas], it will take less time because the dough will ferment a little faster, but if it’s colder, it will take a little more time.”

Why Neenah?

How Jervis even got to Neenah – a city of 27,000 – he said, is a story in itself.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, he said Wisconsin, and Neenah for that matter, was never on his radar until he spent time in Germany.

“A few years back, we lived in Germany in a small town in Bavaria, and we just absolutely loved it,” he said. “When we left there in 2019, that was the first time my wife, our kids and I felt homesick.”

Moving back to the U.S., Jervis said he and his family wanted to find a similar town to the Bavarian one they loved in Germany.

“[So], we started searching,” he said. “We started looking at the far northeast, in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Back in 2021, we came and visited this area, just scoping it out because we knew my retirement [from the Army] was coming up in a few years.”

Jervis said initially, they were looking at De Pere, Green Bay or Appleton.

“While we were here, scoping things out, we stumbled upon Neenah,” he said. “When we saw it, we said, ‘Neenah is where we need to live.’ We had no friends, no family or ties in the area.”

So far, Jervis said they are big fans of the city.

“Born and raised in Philadelphia, we are [of course] Eagles fans,” he laughed. “However, everywhere we have lived, we root for the local teams – so, the [Milwaukee] Brewers, [Milwaukee] Bucks and Green Bay Packers… except for when they play teams from Philly.”

Ed’s Breds is born

Because Jervis said he’s drawing on his military pension and working full-time at Plexus, his Ed’s Breds endeavor is not his main gig – which has allowed him to have a little more fun with it as he follows his passion for breadmaking.

“People have always asked me over the years, ‘How long will it take before you open your own shop?’” he said. “Right now, I have no desire to do that. All I want to do is make enough bread to share with people.”

Because of Wisconsin’s Cottage Law – which allows individuals to produce and sell certain non-potentially hazardous food products from their home kitchens – Jervis said he recently purchased a commercial-grade oven for his home.

“I learned about the Cottage Food Law in Texas when I started, and I had some friends who motivated me to start selling when I started making other products,” he said. “Then the Army moved us to California, so I had to learn California’s Cottage Food Laws. Then the same thing happened in Wisconsin. I’ve had to tailor my business to the state I was currently living in.”

Though Jervis said he hasn’t started mass-producing much of his bread yet, at a Plexus event in early August, he got a taste of what could be.

He said he also started setting up shop at the Neenah Farmers’ Market Aug. 9

“I’ll have my breads there until the end of the season,” he said. “I’m really excited to share my love of breadmaking with others.”

Besides sourdough, Jervis said he specializes in European-style bread and pretzels.

“I’ve looked into renting a kitchen, but once you do that, then you’re no longer considered a Cottage Food Law baker,” he said. “Under Cottage Food Laws, it’s only the people living in your house who can help you – you can’t have any outside employees.”

Also, under those regulations, Jervis said he can’t sell any of his bread to stores, bakeries, etc., for them to sell.

“I have to sell it directly to the end consumer, so that’s a good example of what a farmers’ market can do for me,” he said. “In California, I was only able to do one market to get my name out there, so for the rest of the time, I sold it from my driveway for two years.”

Jervis said he once tried online orders, but that didn’t fit his lifestyle.

“I want to keep it a passion and not make it a job,” he said. “Maybe it’s not the answer a lot of people would like to hear, but I make the bread I want and when I want.”

Jervis said though the Army was very good to him, it took up a good portion of his life, and now, he doesn’t want to be tied down – which, he said, offering online ordering could do.

“Right now, if there is a weekend my kids want to do something, I’m not making bread that weekend,” he said. “That’s the overall goal of this – I don’t want [it] to become some large business that I’m tied to 24/7.”

Jervis said you can follow Ed’s Breds on social media for updates, including what bread options he has available.

“I pretty much can give people a week’s notice – otherwise, come check out the Neenah Farmers’ Market,” he said. “Like I said, I’ll be there until the end of the season.” 

Additional details are available at edsbreds.com.