Where do we start?

Good question. Okay - so we have the main idea down. Open bakeries. Now, for those of you who know us, I took over the Lavender Tea House about a little over four years ago. This was where I met Santine when she asked to come during an off hour with her father, who was visiting from the Netherlands, for tea and scones. We didn't quite have a bakery since it was a little victorian cottage just barely big enough to house a refrigerator, a freezer and a 3 compartment sink. Not much really. By our third year we knew we had to expand or move. So, I did the bravest thing and decided to renovate this 1892 Queen Victorian cottage to make it into a bakery with a beautiful kitchen. In the summer of 2008 we did just that. We closed for 4 1/2 months and renovated it. By November 2008 we reopened and started to sell scones as if they were on fire. Well, that was the plan atleast. By September 2008 it was getting obvious that we were starting to see a turn for the worst in the economy. Gas prices were at an all time high. Food costs were following very close behind. Just to give you an idea...I bought a 1 lb stick of butter for a little more than a dollar a stick right before I closed for renovations. By the time I reopened butter had skyrocketed to over $2. That was only 4 1/2 months. Another main ingredient was heavy cream which also took off and unfortunately has never since come back down. Back to the economy - yes, by November we were sad to hear of layoffs, job cuts & business closures all over the state and nation. Boy, something we did not plan for. Fortunately we were going to open at the height of the holiday season. This was to help get us back on track since we opened behind schedule. Unfortunately ~ a big arctic blast from the north kissed us with two weeks of ice & snow leaving our neighborhoods paralyzed from normal business operations. Portland and the surrounding neighborhoods closed. Yes, CLOSED! We were in trouble. Our hopes to recover from our closure was now gone. What were we going to do?

During this time, we started what we called the "bakery consignment program" where people would come in and bake and lease our kitchen to produce baked goods for us to sell out of our shop. Although, it was a great concept people were scared to invest because they were scared to try anything during this so called recession at the time. It was a tough program to implement no doubt. During this time, I brought in Santine to oversee this program. She did awesome. Very on top of things she was. I enjoyed working with her. To make a long story short - she started her own bakery and we both came up with this idea (before the movie Julie & Julia came out mind you...) of how we could tell the world about our experience to help boost our sales and get people to buy local. Baked Dutch pastries & Scones. Two unique yet different baked good concepts.



Great - but, where do we go from here? Pondering...