Simplified: Five years after the sudden and unexpected death of her 13-month-old son, Pearl Leiferman baked her first loaf of sourdough bread. It tasted terrible, she said, but she kept at it, and a year later, she's using her baking talents to run a successful business and raise money for other parent's who've experienced unexpected loss.

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Leiferman grew up on the Rosebud Indian Reservation and has shared openly about the challenges she's overcome, from a childhood marked by abuse in the foster care system to the grief of losing a child of her own.

  • Her son, Ryan "Junior" Leiferman, died from something called Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC) in 2019.

Leiferman threw herself into her faith community after the loss, and it was a friend from church who, in 2024 gave her her first jar of sourdough starter.

"It sat in my fridge for awhile, and one day I was just really sad, really in my grief, and so I was like, what can I do?" Leiferman said. "I took my sourdough starter out of the fridge and mixed up a loaf of bread."

Letting it rise

The first loaf didn't turn out well, but it did motivate Leiferman to keep going.

"It consumed my time," she said. "I put all of this effort into (baking) and it allowed me to process my grief and talk to God a little bit."

She started by gifting bread to other women in her Christian mom's group at church, and when they started asking to buy it, she decided to go all-in and start a business: Leifstyle Baking. (pronounced "lifestyle")

It was only a few months after that first loaf that Leiferman applied and was accepted for the Falls Park Farmer's Market – something she and her oldest child, an 8-year-old daughter, had dreamed about doing someday.

  • The first day at the market, she brought 100 loaves of bread and sold out in 30 minutes.

Through her business, Leiferman has also been able to connect with other parents who've experienced loss, as well as reconnect with family and friends from Rosebud.

  • She's had people come up and recognize her from her childhood (or recognize her mom or grandma, who occasionally also helped out at the market).
"It's great to reconnect with those people because it's just a different kind of joy to talk about those similar experiences," she said.

How to support

Today, Leifstyle Baking products are available for order online and in-person at Pomegranate Market.

  • Leiferman is also releasing her first sourdough cookbook in the coming weeks.

One of the primary goals of Leifstyle Baking is to honor the memory of Junior and raise awareness about SUDC.

That's also the goal of an upcoming bake sale event on Saturday, Feb. 1 at Church at the Gate.

  • Leiferman will have a lot of sourdough bread, brown butter cookies, banana bread and more.
  • Funds raised will support the SUDC Foundation and help families who've experienced the loss of a child cover after-death costs. More details here.