By Adam Smith

The North Jefferson News



Thousands of Alabamians have enjoyed Sister Schubert’s dinner rolls. On Thursday, members of the Gardendale Chamber of Commerce had the chance to hear her speak.

Patricia Schubert-Barnes spoke about her company’s success and the struggles she endured in the early years of the company when she was a single mother of two. Today, her company manufactures 5 million rolls per day and employs 500 workers across three facilities.

She said she loved speaking to chambers of commerce, because she “loves to encourage others who are starting businesses.”

Schubert-Barnes was also pre-selling copies of her upcoming cookbook, “Cast Your Bread Upon the Water,” which includes recipes and devotional passages.

Between 1989 and 2000, she went from baking her “Parker House” rolls in a kitchen in Troy, Ala., to selling her company to Lancaster Colony out of Ohio.

For a time she worked in the interior design field, but her true love was cooking. The recipe for the “Parker House” rolls belonged to her grandmother, who had dubbed them “Everlasting Rolls.”

“She taught me how to make her rolls when I was a child,” Schubert-Barnes said. “She taught me tips and secrets for baking yeast rolls.”

She also shared that her nickname “Sister” came from an older sibling who couldn’t say “Patricia.” So, her parents told her to just call her “sister.”