Our Story - Building a Licensed Bakery
For years at the farmers market, you’ve been asking us, “How can I get your bread in the winter?” and “Where else can I get your bread?” and “The pastry is gone already! I knew I should have gotten here earlier.” Elizabeth has usually answered by looking slightly embarrassed and muttering something incoherent about oven space and the challenges of baking in below-freezing weather in an unheated space.
As some of you know, this past year we moved from Meadowlands to Esko, and with it, we lost our baking space. We set-up the basement in our new house to be the “bakement" under Minnesota's Cottage Foods Laws, but it’s a temporary solution with a few challenges. Not enough space, no ventilation and poor climate control, insufficient electrical, and the pastry oven doesn’t fit.
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To meet demand, we’ve started building a small licensed commercial kitchen on our property where we can continue to bake for the Carlton County Farmers Market in Cloquet; for those on our email list and beyond; and expand into wholesale. We will also use this space to continue to teach our popular sourdough and croissant classes.
But we don’t have the right oven.
Our current bread oven – a small but solid workhorse – does not carry the proper certifications required by the state for licensed kitchens.
We need a new oven – a proper artisan deck oven, designed for bread baking with the capacity that our growing business needs to keep up with your demand. This would triple our current baking capacity. With it, we would reduce our labor costs, expand our bread availability, and free up time for product development (baguettes, finally!) among other things.
And very importantly, this new oven will have the proper certifications that the state is looking for to grant us a commercial license in our new building.
This would mean year-round bread and pastry, less burnout for Elizabeth as she throws off the shackles of basement baking, and new access to our products in outlets such as local co-ops, restaurants, and coffee shops.
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ABOUT US
Elizabeth began baking bread in college after her roommate left a loaf of Sara Lee on the counter for two months and it never molded. Then in 2017, after moving to Meadowlands and quitting her teaching job, she began refining, practicing and finally selling bread from her home and at the Carlton County Farmers Market.
Since then, Elizabeth and Stephen have become a staple at the Carlton County Farmers Market and on neighbors' counters.
We love being your neighborhood bakery, the place where you get your family’s bread for the week, whether from the market, through a pre-order on our email list, and soon at a local co-op or coffeeshop. We want your family to enjoy a cozy Christmas with fresh morning buns from our oven and crack a baguette to dip in your creamy chicken wild rice soup.
Being a good neighbor is more than just baking bread though. It means baking bread that is long-fermented and easy to digest, whether sourdough or yeasted. It means incorporating whole grains and heritage grains into our breads.
It means using high-quality ingredients, such as our locally sourced eggs, honey and fruit, and striving for a balance between organic offerings and affordability for the average family. It means using fair-trade cocoa and coffee to ensure fair wages and working conditions. And it also means composting and using more than 95% commercially compostable packaging so we steward our resources well.
We are your neighborhood bakers, and as Mr. Rogers says, “Won’t you be my neighbor?”
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The Oven
We have just about half of the money for the oven but are working to raise $15,000 for the remainder of a 2-deck, 3-pan electric American Baking Systems oven. Bread ovens are notoriously expensive and incredibly difficult to find used for the electrical we have. This oven will be new but is a more "affordable," made in USA, option. Another perk of this oven is that it can be serviced by any HVAC contractor (or even Stephen himself), because all of the parts can be found locally, if a problem does arise.
What You Can Do
Please take a peek at our perks and consider investing by pre-buying your bread or pastries or getting some fun swag. You can also share our campaign with your friends, family, and favorite grocery store cashier.
Stretch Goals
Once we hit our goal of $15,000 for an oven, stretch goals will be unlocked! Funds from reaching stretch goals will go toward a larger mixer to accomodate the new oven and an electric dough sheeter.
-----$20,000 stretch goal will add on one limerick to every $25 perk or higher
-----$25,000 stretch goal will add on one loaf of bread to every $25 perk or higher
We are so thankful for our community - both in Meadowlands and in the Cloquet/Esko area - for all of your support these past 8 years of business. We're excited to continue to serve you and provide your staple bread. We wouldn't be your neighborhood bakery without you.
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