It was about twenty-five years ago when Jean Chatman was almost forty years old that she came up with an idea that might provide a future for her daughter Janet. Janet was going to the School for the Deaf in St. John’s, Newfoundland at the time and was on the verge of graduating. Jean thought that if she built a bakery, it would assure Janet’s economic future.

The bakery idea seemed a natural for Jean. When her four children were young, she took in boarders who raved about her meals particularly her baking. She loved cooking and baking and felt if she did that for a living she would never get sick of it. With her husband standing by to build a small building to house the bakery, Jean applied for funding from the Department of Rural Development. Although she lived in a tiny community on the east coast of Newfoundland, she felt she could make a go of it. Right next door was a national park and after Jean had counted the number of campsites, she figured if each camper bought one thing she baked she could make a go of it. But the Department of Rural Development didn’t agree. It took two years before they offered her a start up loan and she grabbed the opportunity.

There were many years of eighteen-hour days to pay for that loan and to get her bakery established. Now Chatman Bakery breads, squares and cookies can be bought throughout Newfoundland. But Jean’s dream didn’t turn out quite the way she imagined. Her daughter Janet found a career of her own. She became the first deaf bank teller hired in Newfoundland and today works for a Credit Union in the United States. Meanwhile, Jean’s two other daughters, Lorraine and Roxanne who both thought they would work somewhere else, are now running the bakery and like their mother, have taken a risk on a new venture no one thought would succeed.

Land & Sea discovers the qualities that made the Chatman business that was built from scratch into such a huge success.