The Meeting

We met and discussed our goals and business plans together tonight. I brought over a bottle of wine to celebrate our first meeting, only to find out...Santine doesn't like wine. Great. Funny thing is...she does drink liquor. Chocolate liqueur over ice. Dick, Santine's husband, instead drank the bottle of pinot blanc and brainstormed over ideas of our blog. What a start so far. By 1:00 am we were tired and felt that we understood our direction and will depart knowing what we needed to do next.

Or so we thought...

A couple of challenges we knew we had right up front. We both were computer illiterate. We both had family, school & church responsibilities we took very seriously. Now, when were we thinking this was going to happen?

Hmm...brain storming for a few more days after our first meeting we decided to start calling around to see if we could get some press on this concept of ours. Right away, our prayers were answered but, in a different way. More on this later. We just wanted to get up and run with it. So, we did.

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...

What's a blog?

My name is Santine de Roover. I'm a mother of five, and a month ago I had no idea what a blog was. Well here I am writing my first blog. It's a little harder than I thought it was. For one thing I'm NOT computer-savvy. As a matter of fact I just sent my first email last week. Jamie's mouth practically fell open when she heard this. This will be good for me!

I might not know how a blog works, but for a fact I do know how to work my mixer. I love to bake, especially my Dutch pastries. I have been in the United States for twelve years and love everything about it, however, more and more I feel like I want to keep the Dutch culture alive through my baking.

Back to my question...what is a blog? My answer would be that it is a story. A story told in short form yet very personal. This blog is about me and how I face my daily challenges in starting my very own bakery. Here you will get to know me and my family and how we face these challenges together.

Come with me on this journey as I document through this blog and through our video blogs you will soon find on YouTube.com. Share your thoughts and enjoy!

~Santine de Roover, Owner of the De Roover Bakery
(http://www.derooverbakery.com/)



My name is Jamie Yang. I have three kids, one husband and a business. What does that mean? It means I have to balance a family and a thriving business at the same time. I actually do know what a blog is but, my problem is that I am a horrific critic of my own writing and therefore do not blog...up until now. My story starts off at this lovely tea house I own which is called the Lavender Tea House. Here I have specialized in one particular product. The problem is... I am not the typically English tea proprietress you may expect to make this product. It's called a "scone." Pronounced "skon" in Scotland. A very European pastry made by a very south eastern asian woman. Typical? No. Delicious, yes!

This journey that Santine and I are on was started in a parking lot at our local YMCA. With the sun beating down on us and time flying away...we brainstormed on how we could get the word out about how to get the word out on our fabulous pastries that we make. In the end, we knew we were up to an excellent challenge. For one year we were going to document, Start-Up Mom's. We thrive at challenges and this is just the beginning.

It's going to take a lot of sweat, guts and an excellent partner to get through this. But, together we are willing to face these challenges as we promote and sell our unique pastries.

~Jamie Yang, Owner of the Lavender Tea House
(http://www.lavenderteahouse.com/)