Homestead Bakes

A Tiny Homestead

Today I'm talking with Kay and Courtney at Homestead Bakes.

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00:00
This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Kay and Courtney at Homestead Bakes. Good morning, ladies. How are you? Good morning. I wasn't sure who gets top building. Billing. Geez, I can't talk this morning. I wasn't sure.

00:27
who gets top billing, so I just read it from the order on my screen. Sure. All right, ladies, tell me about what you do at Homestead Bakes.

00:39
Well, so we're two local moms. We're both Sane Hole moms and we decided to start baking out of our homes. So we're cottage bakers. And we mainly started because we both have small children and we cook on a regular basis and we bake on a regular basis. But we wanted to start focusing more on nutrition for our children and our families.

01:09
And bread was just something that we consumed every day. When we noticed one of our store bought bread that we actually paid a lot of money for, didn't grow mold for weeks on out, we sort of kind of came together and decided we have to change. We have to change something and try to make something from scratch that's nourishing and healthy and clean. And bread was that common thread that she and I both had.

01:38
And we came to Instagram locally within our town to see if anybody was willing to teach us. Because you know, as you know, sourdough is very popular now. It's on trend. And you see it on Facebook and Instagram everywhere on how to make it. But with so much information out there, we really didn't know where to start. And...

02:03
Luckily, a local baker around here, she was willing to teach us. So then once we were taught, we just couldn't stop baking. That's pretty much like how we got started. And Courtney and I, we've always talked about wanting to start a business, wanting to do something to contribute to our households, especially with us being stay at home moms. We needed another creative outlet.

02:31
to help us get through the day, get our mind going in different ways. And other than just being a mom and being a cottage baker and being able to kind of dictate our own schedules with baking, it just all came together. And here we are. Very nice. I know what you mean about...

03:00
the needing something to make your brain work when you're a mom, when you're a stay-at-home mom. My favorite part of having my babies was that first couple of weeks when they're brand new newborns and you're exhausted all the time and you just cocoon in for a couple of weeks and you just do what the baby needs and you sleep as much as you can. And if you have older kids too, it gets harder to do that cocooning. But when I had my first baby, my only daughter.

03:30
That first two weeks was the most beautiful time of my life. But as she got older, I was like, I can only wash so many clothes and wash so many dishes and back in the floor so many times before I'm going to go insane. And so I found things to do. I read a lot because it was the only thing I could do at the time to feed my brain. And so yeah, it's being a mom is, is an honor, but it also will drive you.

03:59
to insanity if you don't have something more than that. I'm like, well, the class didn't talk about the potty issues, right? Yep. I'm like, how can that be? There's just so many ways that the potty issues come up and we're just discussing potty. We know that you're a parent when you're starting to refer restrooms as potty, right? It doesn't go away.

04:26
I still to this day if I'm like honey I need to go to the bathroom I say potty because it's so ingrained in you and I'm 54 my oldest kid is 34 so it's never gonna go away guys sorry and I'm gonna say something that's probably not popular I'm not a big sourdough fan I know lots of people love it and good on you for making it yay team sell it to whoever wants to buy it

04:54
I can't, I don't love it because of that tang that it has. However, I'm really weird because I do like rye bread. So it's one of those to each their own things, I think. We've kind of found out that there's a lot of nuance to sourdough and it's really not, you know, there's so many ways to do it. And you can actually manipulate the sourness in the bread.

05:18
found, you know, we can make it more sour or less sour, depending on, you know, the different techniques that you use. Basically, the longer you keep it in the fridge to cold ferment is how you develop that more sour flavor. Okay. So, we've kind of come to a happy medium. I think we've found a good spot where our customers really like our sourness of our bread that it's not too sour. And some people like it more sour and they can certainly request that, I think.

05:49
Yeah, like Courtney and I, we're both a similar way that we don't, we actually like breads not as sour ourselves. And one of my mom friends, she also was like, oh, you know, I wasn't a fan of sourdough because I just remember the tang, the sourness of the bread. But our sour, our starter is very balanced because we personally, we make it to our problems and our children's palate as well. And yeah, it's not very sour.

06:18
We recently had one customer that was saying like, I missed the tang, where's the tang? We're working to get the tang out of our bread. But I will make it more tangier for you. And she's like, okay. So, you know, she was happy with that. But yeah, I think with techniques and evolving, right? Everyone is, we're always trying to strive for developing new recipes, something.

06:46
better or something that's not just out in the commercials, right, what's available at that. You know, I have a tush baby that I use for my nine month old and a lot of other moms and even mostly grandmas sees me using that. They're like, man, I wish we had that when I had my babies because that would have helped my hips. So, you know, and I just think that now these days, especially all these moms and women entrepreneurs coming up, developing things to help

07:16
our everyday lives that not many factories or brands may have even thought of. I think the world is just kind of getting better and I think women and moms in general are kind of taking the reins and creating things and innovating things that helps us in our home lives, with our children, just to kind of better our lives.

07:44
and make things easier for us, right? And we kind of feel that way with some of them. Like, yeah, we're like you, Mary. Like, we didn't like that a lot of tang. So we worked to get our starter very balanced, and she's very robust. We went through a lot of recipes to develop that balanced loaf that a lot of most general people would like.

08:11
And the caveat is certain people would like zucchini, which we can do that too. So I think that's the beauty of being able to make your own, right? You're able to create something that you like. You don't have to worry about all the added preservatives or chemicals. Like you can control what goes in there. You know, like my sister, for example, she's very sensitive about salt. So, you know, I showed her, I was like, make it, and here's the baker's knife. You can figure it out.

08:41
you know, the level percentage of salt that you want so that it fits your needs. And so we recently just got done with teaching a sourdough class to 21 people. And that was one of the points that we were trying to draw from, you know? Like, homestead dates, like what we stand for, you know, this community, you know, community engagement, just kind of getting back to the roots.

09:11
of our food source, being able to have input into what you put in your bodies and what you feed your loved ones. Yes, definitely. I have two things. When did you guys start as a business?

09:29
So we started as a business officially Memorial Day, Courtney? Yeah, we got our cottage license. It was around Memorial Day, just before Memorial Day, but we were baking way before that. Yeah. Okay. So Memorial Day was our first, that weekend, my neighborhood actually had a community yard sale scheduled. So Courtney and I, we've been waiting for the cottage license to go through.

09:58
And we literally got it, I think day before, the day of the yard sale that we were thinking like, oh man, if the license comes through, like we would love to have a pop-up, in our neighborhood yard sale. And that's exactly how it ended up happening. And that pop-up was hugely successful. Like we got so much positive response from our neighborhood and.

10:24
We actually like met one of our very regular customer through that pop-up. And she also has taken a class yesterday with her son and it was just so great. And we just love meeting people like just with a similar likely mindness, right? About the whole host of nutrition and just wanting to create something of your own. Yeah. Super cool.

10:53
Okay, so the other thing I was gonna say is every time I talk to somebody on this podcast, invariably I learned something new. I didn't know that you can make sourdough without it having that tanginess to it. So I may have to revisit my not making sourdough bread because I had decided not to even try because I don't like how it tastes. But if I can figure out how to make it not so tangy, I might be willing to try making it. Yes.

11:22
Just even the process of making bread, like seeing like how you mix everything, to make sourdough is literally three ingredients. And it's just amazing to see, yeah, flour, water, and salt. And it's amazing to see those ingredients transform into something completely different from what it started out with. And even just the texture and the sourdough process is based on fermentation. And besides all the

11:52
health benefit comes with fermented foods, fermented grains. Just seeing that transform and seeing the bubbles and seeing that like your starter bacteria just working and fermenting, it's like transforming right in front of your eyes. I love it. I think it's just amazing. And I just wanna share with everyone. Like we're so passionate about it.

12:18
Yeah, you just you want to have a video of it and say, this is so cool. You guys look at chemistry in action. This is new for happening. Yes. And there's nothing like the hands on experience, right? Like, I mean, I see videos all the time and yes, I can relate. But for someone that has never experienced it and, you know, like mix the dough from scratch, you know, using your hands, there's just really nothing like it.

12:43
Yeah, the closest I can come to that, and I was just thinking about this an hour ago because for some reason I really want scones. I don't have time to make them today, but I will be making scones sometime this week. And when you put scone ingredients together, you put all the dry ingredients and the butter together first, and then you add the milk or the cream or whatever you're using for the wet. And it looks like nothing. It looks like flour mud once you get it stirred up. And it's very wet.

13:13
The first time I made it, I was like, this can't be right. This is such a wet dough. How is it going to become a scone? And then I did what it said to do and I put it in the oven and I turned the light on the oven so I could watch what happened and it became this very tall light biscuit treat. And I was astounded that it actually worked because back when I did this, I wasn't really good at cooking. I didn't know what I was doing yet. And to this day, when I make scones, I'm just like,

13:41
I love this process. So I think scones for me is sourdough for you. Yeah, it was really cool to see, because we did our class yesterday, it was cool to see the people go home and bake their bread and then report back to us later and say, this was so good and they sent us a picture. And it was really cool to see them kind of experience that for themselves. Yes, and teaching people is a gift to yourself.

14:12
I think I really enjoy telling people how to do something or sharing the instructions. I don't want to say teach because I'm really bad at teaching. I have no patience. But if somebody's like, will you please show me how you do this? And I cave and I do. Watching them learn it and experience it and have the satisfaction in that they did it, it's just such a heartwarming moment for me. Yeah.

14:42
for us as well. It's just amazing to be able to share and that and the other person receiving it right and seeing the value in creating something and not just relying on convenience or you know the store-bought things which there's nothing wrong with store-bought things right like in a pinch like yes it works but at the same time you know being able to

15:11
Be sure creative outlet. I mean, like the sourdough alone, you can add in so many different flavors, right? Like rosemary herbs, that's one of our really popular flavors. Cinnamon sugar, jalapeno, cheddar. Roasted garlic. Roasted garlic. Yeah, that's a big one. There's like endless, you know, like combinations of flavors that you can create. I mean, it's just so much fun. And the starter, all people the starter.

15:40
It's like having a baby. You have to like feed her. A lot of people name them, right? It's just like a living, breathing thing. Yep, I can remember my mom getting friendship bread starter, which I think is the same thing. It's sourdough starter. And she did it for a while. I was probably, I don't know, 10. She did it for a while, and she never actually made bread out of it, as far as I know, but.

16:08
But she fed her starter every day for a couple of months. And then she said to my dad, she said, you know, she said, I'm probably never gonna do anything with this because I don't know how to do it. Because they didn't really tell her, they gave her a recipe but she was not really into it. And she said, I think I'm gonna toss Herman because she named it Herman. That's what's so great about the class because like you can look at a recipe but it's not the same as like

16:38
seeing someone do it. Yeah, she really loved making, it's called anadama bread. It's a dark bread and it's sweet and she liked doing that. So she was already set, heart set on anadama bread and her friend gave her the friendship starter because she had it, the friendship bread starter. So I don't think my mom was into it. I don't think anyone around her was really doing it. The friend lived further away from her.

17:08
So Herman, Herman met a sad demise in the trash can, but I still remember Herman, the friendship bread starter in the fridge. That's great. So it's really funny the things that stick with you from when you were a kid. But anyway, we're hoping to change those friendship bread starters into like memories of fresh baked bread that you will never forget because there's nothing like freshly baked bread.

17:35
that's like straight out of the oven with like, well, not straight out. We recommend cutting it about an hour. Um, but you know, so still warm bread with butter. It's just, it's like nothing like it. You will never be able to eat like regular commercial bread, I guess. My, my husband makes honey oat bread and he makes a white herbed bread from scratch. And

18:03
And we can't even wait that loaf comes out of the oven and we cut the end off right away and let it cool and try it because it smells so incredible while it's baking. Well, it's like savage moment. You're just like, oh, I don't care about any other toppings or making sandwiches. Everybody's just taking a piece and eating it. Oh yeah. When, when all four kids still lived at home and one still does and he still joins in on the ripping the bread apart thing.

18:30
But when all four kids were still at home, we would pull a loaf out of the oven and it would cool just long enough for them not to burn their fingers and they would literally break a piece off and eat it. It was like pull apart bread, except it wasn't meant to be pull apart bread. The only thing that beats it is a fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookie from scratch and I'm not even sure that that beats fresh baked bread, but it's close.

18:59
Okay, so do you guys sell it like farmers markets or how do you disperse your product?

19:09
So we sell at farmers market. We have one locally that comes out every Sunday. And we also sell out of our homes. We get a lot of emails or Facebook messengers asking for loaf of bread on a certain day. One of our customers, she actually has an Airbnb property that she orders bulk from us. And she likes to gift her guests with our bread.

19:38
But yes, our long-term goal is to be in retail. We would love to supply our freshly baked sourdough bread products to farmers markets that are open all year round. And so that's our long-term goal and what we're aiming for. But in the meanwhile, especially with our littles at home, with them being so young, we're waiting.

20:07
Okay, we're doing the farmer's market and doing some classes here and there. Yeah, well. Where do you hold your classes? You don't do them at home, do you? Or do you?

20:20
No, we don't do them at our not our homes because there's there just wouldn't be enough room, you know So we just did one at a local park. They'll have a lodge with a full kitchen And um, it actually can have up to 50 guests But you know our class kind of broke it up into like 10 10 to 12 and we think that was like the perfect amount between Courtney and I we were able to give

20:47
like that attention right to each individual and just kind of like check up on what they were, how they were doing, making sure they're able to kind of follow and for them to get all the information they need for them to be able to make their own.

21:02
Courtney's very quiet. I have a question for Courtney. So Courtney will talk to me too. What do you love about this the most, Courtney? I just love having the freedom to fit it into our own schedules as moms. I also home school. So right now that's quiet, obviously for the summer. So home school, you know, stay at home mom.

21:29
We have like busy schedules, but it's nice that we can, like Kay said, contribute to our households, have a creative outlet and also still be moms. Okay, that's a fantastic answer. And I got to hear your voice for real. You have a lovely speaking voice. I don't know if you're shy, but you should talk more. It's pretty.

21:53
I agree. Okay, so what's the feedback been like for your breads? I'm guessing it's been great. Yeah, we've had a lot of good feedback so far. Like we said, we had the one customer recently that was wanting a little more tang and we can do that. We've had a lot of good feedback from our different markets and pop-ups and people that we meet at the different markets and stuff like that. Those are the people that...

22:20
they come to our classes because they love our bread so much and they want to try and give that you know do that themselves for their families. Yeah I feel like lots of people that I've talked to in the last year for this podcast people who are bakers or homesteaders or makers or whatever they're all really I would swear ninety nine percent of the people I've talked to have been more than willing to teach other people about what they're doing.

22:49
And I feel like it's a certain, I don't know, heart set, mindset for all of us that we want to help. We want to share. We want to make the world a better place. Yes, we kind of feel that way too. We don't want to keep sourdough making a secret. You know, I don't think, I think we like the community engagement and meeting new people and sharing the craft with other people. You know, I think.

23:19
We like that. Yeah. Um, we did always talks about, you know, especially with our breadmaking, not just the bread making, but things like canning, right? All the other homesteading like skills that goes into doing that, um, preserving food for during the summer, for the winter, like she, she calls it generational knowledge, and I think that really basically sums it up like it's knowledge that you can.

23:47
my gift to your kids so that they can have good clean food for themselves and their families. Absolutely. One of my goals when my kids were little, like I made a list of things they had to know before they moved out. They had to know how to do their own laundry. They had to know how to cook a meal and a dessert that they would be proud to serve their friends. Even if it was only a one trick.

24:16
wonder, a one trick pony. They had to know how to make something that was actually real food from scratch that they would be proud to serve their friends. And all four kids can do their own laundry and they can cook like crazy because they love to cook because they were given that opportunity. And when I told them in their teens, as they all reached like 15, I was like, okay, you need to pick a meal.

24:45
that you like to eat that I make because I figured that was the easiest way to get them to do it, that you're willing to try making yourself. And the boys were not as into it as my daughter, my daughter, the oldest. I think that girls just know that they're expected to make food. So floating the idea to her wasn't that hard. I think the girls tend to be more the nurturers too.

25:13
Yeah. And so she learned how to make something. I don't remember what it was now. It's been way too long. And she learned how to make cookies because she was like everybody likes cookies. So that's fine. It's a dessert. You can do cookie. Yeah. And to this day, if she, if she wants to cook, that's the thing she reverts back to is that first thing she learned to cook, which I think is funny. And the boys actually all love to cook all of them. That's great.

25:43
Like we had a few males that came to the class as well. And we had one guy, I mean he was like 6'4", like really built guy, with a great reddish hair, like beard. I mean he looked like a Viking. And he was the friendliest person ever. And he was just chatting it out with all the ladies, you know, mixing breath. We'll go listen to this later, okay? Uh huh.

26:12
It was so cute and I think men too, we don't give women that credit. I think given the chance, I think they like being able to create something. You know, like women, we get to create babies, but men don't. And I think that's why a lot of them like to build things, right, with their hands. Because they want to be able to have that feeling, right? That gratification from like, I have made this from nothing. I think bread is like the perfect.

26:42
Sure. And honest to God, life skills are not gender biased. Everybody should know how to cook and how to clean. And the stuff that you have to do on a daily basis, it's not men do this thing and women do that thing. Everybody does it. Yeah. I mean, people have told my husband that he should have been a baker and he laughs and he says, it's not that I don't love baking. He said, I do.

27:12
He said, but it would become a job if I became a baker. He said it wouldn't be nearly as much fun if it was my job. And he said it has nothing to do with the fact that I'm a man. He said, I don't feel any less masculine because I can make a really good loaf of bread. Yeah. So, but whatever, it's fine. Okay, we have like three more minutes and I need to think of a really good question to end this on. Oh.

27:39
What happens if a loaf of bread doesn't turn out the way you want it to? Luckily we haven't had too many fails, right? I mean we've had a couple, nothing great, like we've had some overproofing of bread, but yeah we haven't had any like crazy fails. If the bread doesn't turn out the way we want to, we still eat it because it's still tasty. Okay.

28:07
All right, then my next question is, do you guys donate any of your bread at all to anybody? Yeah, so we're just talking about this earlier. I don't know if, is the buy nothing page like a, it's a national thing, right? Is it? I don't know. Have you heard of that before? I know there's local ones. Yeah. Like each local area has their own buy nothing page. We're both very active on buy nothing for all of our, you know, personal things too. But.

28:35
You know, when we started out too, we gave a lot of bread away there too, just because we're baking so much. Like, what are we going to do with all this bread? You know, we need to share it. So we, you know, that's kind of how we started out, you know, gifting our bread away at first to share it with people. Different recipes and just for us to gain more experience. And yeah, like Courtney said, we were baking every day and we had all this bread. So we would just post it on our mapping page.

29:02
And people would just come and pick it up, you know, and they thought it was really good. We're gifting it to our neighbors. And after like, you know, pop ups and whatnot, if we have any extras, we do a lot of the gifting as well. Again, at the end of the day, we're baking to nourish, right? And we don't want any of it to go to waste.

29:27
We think it's a really good way to connect with the community as well. And to really get our name out there too, you know? And anytime I think you're baking, you're making food, right? I joke to Courtney all the time, like, anytime I go to Costco and I try a sample, I'm probably buying it. And I think there's nothing better to, there's no other better way to advertise food than to try it themselves.

29:55
And I think we get a lot of repeat customers because they chart our brand. Definitely. Okay. So I think I don't have any more questions because we're at 29 minutes and we're at 30 minutes where we did it. All right ladies, thank you so much for your time. I know you're busy with the littles. Thank you for having us. Yeah, this is, you know, we've been.

30:23
we were hoping to try to like, you know, get our, about us out there, you know? Like we were doing a class, we allotted some time to try to talk about ourselves and how we began, just to kind of get to know, for the customers and our students to get to know us, besides, you know, we bake bread and we can teach you how to do it. And we just felt like this was a perfect opportunity to get a little more stories behind.

30:51
you know, the two moms that are baking. Yeah. And I love stories. That's why I do the podcast. So I'm really glad that you wanted to chat with me. Um, you guys don't have a website, right? Not yet. Okay. Not yet. We're looking to get one. Facebook and Instagram for right now. Okay. That's what I was asking. All right. Well, ladies, you guys enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you again for your time. Thank you. Bye.