Group home-cooks bread for farmers market
Paul Bischoff
Issue date: 9/18/08 Section: TruLife
A small group of young entrepreneurs at Truman are realizing the potential for big business in Kirksville.
About seven weeks ago, the group began baking homemade bread and taking it to the farmers market in downtown Kirksville every Saturday to sell. What started as a couple and a kitchen oven is now growing into a profitable enterprise for Truman graduate student Jerry Jones and his wife, Michelle.
"Michelle and I had been baking a lot of bread recently, and we were just thinking, 'We should go down to the farmers market,'" Jones said. "But we didn't know how it really worked, so we asked Sam [Pounders] and Eric [Tumminia] about it to see if they would know."
Senior Sam Pounders and English professor Eric Tumminia were enticed by the idea.
"We had gotten back from a bike trip this summer and had been inspired by a lot of the farmers markets that we'd seen on the west coast and a lot of the young people that were really there," Pounders said. "So when they said, 'We want to do a farmers market,' I was like, 'Yeah, I'm in. I would love to do that.' There was such a positive response at the farmers market. We sold out."
The group has organized a small operation and set its business into motion. Ingredients are purchased at Hy-Vee or the local Mennonite market. Most of the baking takes place in home kitchens, producing about 50 loaves of bread every week. The work typically starts by soaking ingredients on Wednesday, baking on Thursday and Friday, then selling on Saturday.
"We wake up at 4:30 [a.m.], get there by 5:15 [a.m.] and usually sell out by 10:30 [a.m.] every day," Pounders said. "The farmers market doesn't have any restrictions on if you are baking at home, but … if we wanted to sell you bread outside of the market setting, we would have to have a full-scale commercial kitchen."
The team bakes numerous types of breads, bagels and baguettes: oatmeal raisin, nine-grain whole-wheat, rustic white, sourdough rye, flax seed, scones, bagels, granola, whole-wheat sourdough, pumpernickel, black bread, rye, ciabatta, brioche, focaccia, biscotti, pretzels, challah and their signature product, the power muffin.
About seven weeks ago, the group began baking homemade bread and taking it to the farmers market in downtown Kirksville every Saturday to sell. What started as a couple and a kitchen oven is now growing into a profitable enterprise for Truman graduate student Jerry Jones and his wife, Michelle.
"Michelle and I had been baking a lot of bread recently, and we were just thinking, 'We should go down to the farmers market,'" Jones said. "But we didn't know how it really worked, so we asked Sam [Pounders] and Eric [Tumminia] about it to see if they would know."
Senior Sam Pounders and English professor Eric Tumminia were enticed by the idea.
"We had gotten back from a bike trip this summer and had been inspired by a lot of the farmers markets that we'd seen on the west coast and a lot of the young people that were really there," Pounders said. "So when they said, 'We want to do a farmers market,' I was like, 'Yeah, I'm in. I would love to do that.' There was such a positive response at the farmers market. We sold out."
The group has organized a small operation and set its business into motion. Ingredients are purchased at Hy-Vee or the local Mennonite market. Most of the baking takes place in home kitchens, producing about 50 loaves of bread every week. The work typically starts by soaking ingredients on Wednesday, baking on Thursday and Friday, then selling on Saturday.
"We wake up at 4:30 [a.m.], get there by 5:15 [a.m.] and usually sell out by 10:30 [a.m.] every day," Pounders said. "The farmers market doesn't have any restrictions on if you are baking at home, but … if we wanted to sell you bread outside of the market setting, we would have to have a full-scale commercial kitchen."
The team bakes numerous types of breads, bagels and baguettes: oatmeal raisin, nine-grain whole-wheat, rustic white, sourdough rye, flax seed, scones, bagels, granola, whole-wheat sourdough, pumpernickel, black bread, rye, ciabatta, brioche, focaccia, biscotti, pretzels, challah and their signature product, the power muffin.
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