Welcome to my newsletter.
I intend to use this for important updates. I love writing, but I often don’t take the time to do much of it these days. Busy in toddlerhood and balancing creative passions with sustaining myself and my family. I hope I can make it at least a monthly practice to tap into what Tooth Butter is and has become and share that with those that have supported me.
I started Tooth Butter Cottage Bakery at the end of 2023 as a way to reclaim a bit of my creative drive as a new mother. Not being fully prepared for what early motherhood would mean for me, but knowing I wanted to be completely devoted, it felt like the right path to build my evolved work environment to fit around a baby’s schedule. It also felt more important than ever to be doing something I loved and that lit me up. Starting this business quickly realized some dreams for me…
Photo by Tay Jules Photography @tayjules.photo
I wanted to be a community baker.
I wanted my work to provide nourishment for myself and for the people around me. I think my partner Chase and I also craved community so bad in early parenthood and I saw a route to it through connection with people through my baking. I built relationships with the people who grew and milled my grains, I’ve got a phonebook full of produce and fruit growers for my seasonal offerings, and I have loved meeting people at each pop-up I have graciously been allowed to host at other small businesses. We are on year two of this thing and I love that it has been gaining momentum consistently, but my favorite part of it all is that I know so many cool people in this community now. I have bonded deeply with some, found true friendship and support. I feel abundantly connected to resources and this has opened the doors to my next step as a community supported baker.
I consciously realized that I wanted to move my business to a commercial space over the 2024 holiday season. Believe me, I am scrappy and resourceful in a home kitchen, I have stretched my limits far and wide. But the pie debacles of this year’s Feast Day Pies (i.e. knocking over a cooling rack housing all of my baked pie shells because small kitchen) really made me start to feel confined.
I went down many avenues, explored many different options around town, and came to many dead ends because things weren’t the right fit for me. And if it wasn’t right, I would have rather just stayed right where I was.
A little over a month ago, I received a picture of a newspaper ad from my aunt that there was a bakery for sale in town. And I immediately called the number in the ad because it was a remarkable price. And…
Artwork by local Olly Greer @stitchqueer, Meg McDonald @connectinghow, and the late David Monk.
I bought a bakery!
Officially official as of this afternoon at 2pm.
Well, I bought all of the equipment from a bakery. And I am moving it downtown Urbana, into the kitchen at Elm City Coffee shop on Main St.
My purchase involves the patinaed sheet pans and cake pans. The slightly discolored but still totally functional stacks of Cambro food storage containers. The double stack convection oven, now being passed down to its third owner. Old school Hobart mixers of all different sizes, bound to outlive us all. Random baking treasures like this one pan that I imagine baking perfect rectangle puff pastry tarts in and an extensive collection of metal scoops. TWO, count em, two wood board prep tables. More speed racks than I know what to do with at this point. Refrigerators and freezers and all the expensive shit that HAS to be commercial if you’re working in a commercial space. Random packaging that is going to keep things exciting and fresh for a while as I work my way through it, lol. I am really set, outside of an exciting bread oven purchase that is also in the works.
Best of all, this bakery was purchased from a really warm, kind and wonderful local bakery owner. She had purchased the bakery from its original owners too and ran it successfully for 15 years. It has been passed down, the bakery now has lineage. And I am so grateful to be a part of it. Pieces really fell into place on this one. Meeting Missy the owner and standing amongst the bakery equipment, it was pretty obvious to me that this was my next step. I didn’t originally plan on moving it all, but property managers can really set a vibe going into lease negotiation, and they didn’t set a good one in the current location. But I am SO excited that moving into the Elm City space became a part of this adventure! I will be set up downtown Urbana, amongst many friends and with really close proximity to good coffee, like five feet. A dream.
For now, these are the details that I know to be true: 1) In two weeks time we will have equipment moved into its two cozy new homes, Elm City and a climate controlled storage unit. 2) I am going to be continuing to operate as Tooth Butter Cottage Bakery for a while as I get the new space set-up and public health permitted. 3) Once I am operating out of a commercial space, there really is no telling what I am going to be up to! Lots of prospective collaborations on the horizon. 4) Eventually, I’ll drop the Cottage Bakery from my title and just be Tooth Butter Bakery. 5) I have some really great artwork from a lot of my favorite local artists and I am hanging it all over my kitchen walls and I truly can’t wait to get to that point in this journey.
That’s all for now. I have been so eager to spill the news. I am so so excited. I am head down working to keep this project moving forward. So grateful for the support that has made much of these big business decisions feel carried with love and excitement from my community.
Community Supported Baking
As of now, I don’t have much on the books for summer baking. I am going to be teaching a handful of workshops, two sold out bread workshops at Allerton (more coming for the fall, stay tuned!) and one to be announced at Common Ground Co-Op this summer. I will be doing a June Pantry Bread Subscription, goes live Monday, May 26th. Link at the HotPlate link on my website. I have a handful of special order cakes on the horizon, but have plenty of space for more, fill out a Custom Cake Request at my website if you are interested in a grain-forward, seasonal, and local floral decorated celebration cake!