Judy Ulrich needs to raise $330,000 in the next two weeks to save her 63-acre family land on Dixon Hill Road in Ashland, including the log cabin home she shares with her husband Bob and Mountain View Manna, her burgeoning bakery business that’s won fans all over the Lakes Region. To do it, she’s planning to do a 200-mile sponsored bicycle trip from the property to Portland, Me., and back on Friday, August 31 and Saturday, September 1. “I’m almost 61-years-old but I know that I can do it through the strength of the Lord,” she says.
So how much is currently pledged to Judy’s ambitious “Faith Bike-A-Thon”?
“Six hundred dollars,” she answers without hesitation Friday afternoon.
If Judy is worried about it, it’s not showing. She’s already gone though plenty of challenges in her life and her faith has left her undaunted.
For 19 years, Bob and Judy ran a 38-site Christian summer family campground on their land. To pay for the ministry, they both drove trucks transporting goods all over New England.
Over the years, the couple has also taken in countless homeless people, voluntarily helping them to get them back on their feet, Judy says.
Then five years ago the Ulrichs finally got around to building their own home. (The 30’-by-32’ log cabin home, including a lovely farmer’s porch that goes around it, was actually built by Amish people who share the Ulrichs’ Christian faith.)
But not long afterwards, the economy burned out leaving the couple with an overgrown campground, a paucity of trucking jobs and a whopping monthly mortgage payment of $2,500.
So after some prayer, Judy took the side-business she’d learned from an older woman years before and began baking 11 flavors of wholesome delicious natural bread under the label Mountain View Manna.
At first, Bob went door-to-door selling the goods but he eventually stared going directly to restaurants like Kitchen Cravings in Gilford (named one of the state’s best breakfast places in New Hampshire magazine recently), Lavinia's Relaxed Dining in Center Harbor and the Water Street Cafe in Laconia, and stores including E.M. Heath's Market in Center Harbor. The couple has also opened up stores on Rte. 3 in Winnisquam and on Main Street in Plymouth where they’ve built up loyal local followings. (Bob says he could sell more to area retail stores and restaurants, but if he did it would be impossible for Judy to keep up with the demand. She’s already working about 16-to-18 hours every day in their small professional basement kitchen. Bob says local Hannaford supermarkets have expressed interest in stocking Mountain View Manna breads but Judy says the bureaucratic hurdles needed to get in the stores are beyond their current budget constraints.)
Judy just smiles when she told that her financial goal – to raise enough to pay off the property’s mortgage – looks somewhat unrealistic.
“It’s really the Lord I’m trusting in,” she says.
The Ulrichs’ are one of those families that makes life in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire so flavorful. They’ve asked for little charity over the years although they’re grateful for the support they’ve gotten for their Christian ministry. They don’t complain about their current economic difficulties. And although they’ve made enormous personal sacrifices over the years to help their neighbors, they’re facing their own uncertain future with as much concern for the people around them as for themselves.
“I have two children who have put $30,000 each into this property,” Judy says, as she opens the oven and surveys a row of aromatic maple walnut loafs.
“We went into full-time baking bread in order to pay our mortgage but we couldn’t make quite that much money,” she explains. “So we asked for (a loan) modification from Chase (Bank) last fall and they did a modification. But Fannie Mae denied our modification (proposal)... So now they want to put the home up for auction in September.”
So what is the property worth?
Judy says it was originally listed for more than $1 million but it’s come down considerably since then due to the tight real estate market. The Ulrichs have even considered subdividing the land and selling off part of it. (It’s virtually all wooded right now.)
“And I’d be willing to sell the company,” Judy says. “I’m getting a little too old for this.”
A conservative estimate would put the value of the Mountain View Manna bakery at $140,000.
Some one was looking at the Ulrich property looking this week but Judy is not worried about the future.
That happens when you’ve given so much of yourself that you know Someone will take care of you...
The breads?.. The stuff of legends.
When you eat the first bite of the asiago cheese or the cinnamon raisin, you won't stop until you’ve devoured more than half the loaf.
And if you toast a slice of the maple walnut and the windows are open, your neighbors will come in begging you for a piece?
You can also reach Bob and Judy at (603) 968-7042, 996-1840 and 996-1936.
