The Story of Random Acts of Breadness

Random Acts of Breadness was never intended to be a business.

That was the furthest thing from his mind when award-winning composer / songwriter / producer / engineer Randall Michael Tobin thought to himself in late November 2016:

“I wonder if I could make sourdough bread?”

“If it turns out alright, I could give it to family and friends for the holidays.”

What made this highly unusual is that although Randall enjoyed cooking, he had never made bread before! But by mid December, he had found the right combination of ingredients, the right process, and had the right tools to begin this unpredictable journey.

The result was pretty darn good, but the reactions from those on the receiving end of these “random acts of breadness” were off the charts! One-for-one each gift recipient stated, “This is the best bread I’ve ever had!” So Randall kept making, baking and giving his bread away—holidays or special occasions not required!

His wife, Cyndie, created unique presentation designs with various tea towels, ribbons and ornaments. She also bought the first organic bamboo cutting boards to form the foundation of the gifts. And one never knew when Randall was going to show up randomly with a “random act of breadness” in hand, ringing their doorbell!

This activity had been going on for a few years when people started demanding to buy the bread! They didn’t want to wait for a random act of breadness. They wanted bread NOW! Randall had to politely decline their requests as he didn’t have a permit to make and sell bread, and obtaining a Cottage Industry Permit would have limited his ability to make and sell other food items he was developing.

So Randall came up with a solution: continue to give breadness, and let the recipient know that they could leave a tip if they so desired (there was no law against that!). The tips were commensurate with what the bread would have sold for, but by no means covered the actual cost of making the bread, which takes three days and a lot of labor (and love) to make. Still, the tips helped with ingredient costs and the requests for breadness kept coming.

During this time, Randall came up with the idea of branding this activity as Random Acts of Breadness and proceeded to search for domain names. The first name he searched for was Breadness.com and, as if angels were guiding this journey, it was available! Randall registered that name, along with .net and .org variations, and also registered the full-name versions (randomactsofbreadness.com, etc.).

Once the domain names were in place, Randall, who is also a professional website designer, created this site, which has evolved to the form you are experiencing right now. And the bread gifts, which became the stuff of legend, are now available right here!

Take a look at our Breadness Collection of unique gifts ranging from Basic to Bountiful to the Breadness RockStar! 

Now, you, too, can surprise that special someone (or someones!) by gifting them a Random Act of Breadness!

And once you do, your life will never be the same…