A Tiny Homestead

Home Sweet Home Baker

Listen Later

Today I'm talking with Michelle at Home Sweet Home Bakery. You can follow on Facebook as well.

A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Cottage Foodie Con. The code HOME 15 will get you 15% off any ticket and is valid for the month of November

 

www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead

Muck Boots 

Calendars.Com

If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee 

https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes

00:00

You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Michelle Chesser  at Home Sweet Home Baker in Missouri. Good morning, Michelle. How are you? Good morning, Mary. How are you? I'm doing great.  I'm okay. I'm getting better. I've been sick for three weeks and I've mentioned it on the podcast and I actually feel  maybe 80%.

00:26

from the zero I was at two, three Tuesdays ago. So I think I'm getting better.  How is the weather in Missouri today? We finally got fall  and  I love it. I love the changing of the season. So it's chilly. have our, we started a fire for the first time this weekend. So  bring it on.  I am right there with you because I am north of you in Minnesota  and I was listening to the weather for the week on our local news channel this morning  and the cutie patootie boy.

00:56

who does the weather, said that we might get our first  mixed precipitation like sleet, snow flurries and rain on Saturday this weekend. And I was like,  yes, finally. Wow, that's early.  That's too early for me. Well, my birthday is tomorrow  and my daughter's is the 14th and we are 20 years and 10 days apart. And every year there's an unspoken bet as to whether we'll get snow before my birthday.

01:25

or in between my birthday and her birthday or after her birthday. So I think we are going to get snow  in between. She's in Florida, so she won't be getting any snow. Well, happy birthday. Thank you. uh Okay, so tell me a little bit about yourself and about what you do.  Well, I've started my bakery about 17 years ago for young children.

01:50

and  I wanted to find a way that they could grow up working, have a good work ethic. And so we started taking,  we grew a garden  and  started taking vegetables to the farmer's market. And  eventually we just started eating all our vegetables  and I've always loved baking.  So one year we took cupcakes to the farmer's market  and  we just grew from there and we added things and

02:19

When we added cinnamon rolls, it got crazy. And eventually we built a home on our property and added a commercial kitchen in our home. So we have a home kitchen and then we have a commercial kitchen right next to it. And that was to bake for a coffee shop, a local coffee shop in town. So I baked for them for eight years and just finished doing that in March.

02:48

So now I teach other home bakers  just how to grow and how to survive and balance everything.

02:59

Wow. Okay. So you started out as a cottage food producer and now you teach. that  the beginning to where you are now? Yes. And I still bake. I still bake and sell not as much,  but I still  I'm in the trenches and I'm, you know, the holidays are coming up and I'm going to be full force baking. Awesome. I love stories like yours where you go from, we're going to try a thing and then it becomes a real thing, like a much bigger thing. uh

03:28

Are you by any chance going to be coming to Minnesota for the cottage foodie con thing in April of 2026? absolutely am. And my husband is originally from Minnesota. He spent some of his childhood there. So when I told him it was in Minnesota, he's like, we're going, we're going. So I will be there. Yes.

03:51

Awesome. I will not be there. However, cottage fruity con is the new sponsor from my podcast. Awesome Yes, I will actually have a little thing at the beginning of this episode when it comes out on Wednesday morning talking about what cottage foodie con is but Matt the guy that that started it is a fantastic person I don't know if you've met him. I don't if you talk to him, but if you get the chance to when you're there

04:16

go say hi and tell him Mary sent you because he's super sweet. He's a really nice guy. Yes. I talked with him online and that was the first time I met him and I was blown away. He's really nice and really helpful and he knew his stuff. So I'm really excited about going and I'm looking forward to it. Good. I was hoping that you were going to say yes because I really wanted to break this news in

04:42

conversation, not just with a little blurb at the beginning of the podcast. uh I'm so excited for him and I'm really excited that you're going because I think you're going to find out things that you didn't know and you've doing this for a while.  But there's always stuff to learn that you didn't even think of. oh So anyone who's listening, if you're interested in going and learning about being  what Michelle has been and is becoming,

05:11

It's going to be great. It's the first year. It's called Cottage FoodieCon and the website is cottagefoodiecon.com,  which is harder to say out loud than I thought it would be.  Okay. So  have you gotten any clients for your teaching?  Yeah. And real quick about the Cottage FoodieCon, they are still running a special till the fifth. So you can get, think 25 % off.  If you go on their Instagram, you can see the code, but that'll be helpful.

05:40

Have I gotten any clients for my teaching? So on Instagram, I try to put out like a reel every day with a little bit of advice  for home bakers, em you know, a recipe or just some tough love or  encouragement or inspiration.  And then  I have a baker's library  that people can join. It's a membership  and we're revamping it at the end of this month, but it is full of like  so many resources for home bakers.

06:10

I wish I would have had it when I was starting. And we do a live session every month with a Q &A or a guest speaker.  And so it's been a real blessing to me. And I know  the members  really grow in there. And it's just nice knowing that there's other people going through the same things you are.  Absolutely. Community is everything when you are.

06:37

When you were getting started in a hobby or if you turn the hobby into a business, having people around you who are doing,  who are further ahead of you, lets you learn, but having people who are behind you coming up lets you teach.  And I'm going to go backwards a step.  I have a code that will be in the show notes for people if they want to sign up for the Cottage Food Econ. I completely forgot to mention it.

07:01

Okay.  So it will be in the show notes if people want to save some money on tickets. Yes. Okay.  you're not really like, see, the way that I read it, I thought that you were a coach, but you're not like a hands-on coach. You're an online coach. Yes, that's right.  Actually, this is funny.  The reason I started coaching other home bakers online,

07:28

is because in my local town, I would have people reach out to me  all the time and say, hey, Michelle, eh I'm thinking about starting a home bakery or I'm thinking about starting to sell my sourdough bread. Can you meet with me and can  I just pick your brain for a little bit? And this happened a lot.  And so it started me thinking like, because I never thought of myself as someone who knew anything. Like I literally just learned as I went  and

07:56

After talking with these women,  I realized that they, know, the things I thought were common sense, like, of course, everybody knows this. They didn't know because I didn't know either when I started. You know, I had forgotten what I didn't know. And so  it was like, wow, this could be something, you know, there's so many people out there that want to do a home bakery and there's just,  it would just be nice to be able to get out there, help them, encourage them and let them know.

08:26

that what they're feeling is normal, that they're not weird, and that there's things that they can do to help their home bakeries grow.

08:35

Yeah, it's so funny because people ask me questions about plants and I used to be way into gardening and I'm not anymore. I don't love it as much as I used to.  But the things that come up, like one of my friends  lived in a house where  her whole yard was shaded and she had a spot that was  open but shaded. And she was like, Mary, what can I plant in there that's pretty? And I was like, um do you want to be able to walk on it? And she said,

09:05

Probably and I said wild violets wild violets like dappled sunlight and they do really well in shade and she was like really and she's a really wild violets and I said any Forested area in the state of Minnesota. There's wild violets I said just don't let the DNR people see you digging them up if it's it's state land because you will get in trouble  and She was like, okay, I'm put violence in there  and then she ended up selling her house

09:33

So she didn't end up doing it. But it was funny because my first thought was hostas because hostas actually do love shade. And that was the first thing on my mouth. And she's like, I have hostas everywhere. I don't want any more hostas. I don't know.  I like I hadn't thought about this particular stuff in years because I just don't garden. My husband is the gardener.

09:58

And as soon as she said, I hate hostas, I don't need any more hostas, I need something else, I was like, wow, violets will grow there.  So yeah, you forget that you know things until someone asks the question. And then you're like, oh yeah, I do have that back in the brain somewhere. Right, right. You forget that people  starting out in the beginning don't have that experience or that knowledge that you learned either the easy way or the hard way. And you know, now it's our like,

10:26

I'm happy to share with them. I love sharing. And I love seeing people like a light bulb go off in their head. And I love hearing people say, thank you for letting me know that I am not the only one who feels this way. And thank you for letting me know that you still struggle and that you've had problems with this or that. And just being relatable and  letting people know that they're not alone is very helpful.

10:51

Yes, and don't let fear paralyze you.  If you want to try something, find somebody who's already doing it or go to the library or go to Google,  do the research and  try on a small scale to start with. Because if you have success  in that small scale start, it's going to make you want to keep going.  That's right.  There's no better feeling than  doing your first event.

11:19

I mean, you're scared to death. It is so terrifying to do your first event and putting yourself out there.  But the feeling you get when you're done,  there's no other feeling like it.  And  it's great sharing like  when I have guest speakers and they're talking about the first  time they did something. Other bakers who haven't done that yet realize that everybody has to do something that terrifies them and step out of their comfort zone. But if they did it, then that means you can do it too.

11:51

for and the thing that's great about  if you're a cottage  food producer, you're just starting that process,  usually if you screw something up, you're the only one who knows you screwed it up.

12:05

That's right.  That's right. And you don't have to sell your burnt cookies and you don't have to sell something that was, you know, that tastes terrible.  You're the only one who knows and you just keep doing it until you get it right. Yeah. And I've told this story before on the podcast, but I'll tell it again, because it's one of my favorite things about what I learned when I learned to cook.  I really wanted to learn how to do a roux. I saw Alton Brown do it on his show.

12:32

And I was like, I'm going to burn the first one. I know I am. I know I'm going to burn it. And I just was totally fine with burning it.  I literally planned  on scorching a pan and throwing the roux in the trash. That was what I expected to happen.  I did not scorch the pan, but I definitely burned the roux and I threw it in the trash.  And I tried again the next day and it was a little dark, but it wasn't burned. And that one went in the trash.

12:57

And I did it again the next day. And that one actually turned out the way I knew it was supposed to be. And I was like, oh, third time's a charm. OK, now I know how to make a root. Right. uh It's very helpful for other home bakers to hear that even experienced bakers mess up. mean,  Hold on. I'm sorry, Mary.  It's very helpful to other home bakers to hear experienced bakers still mess up.

13:25

we still forget the baking powder. We still leave the cookies in the oven, you know, 20 minutes past their time  and we still mess up.  And it's not like you get to a point in your, in your business where you reach perfection.  That's impossible,  but you can learn, you learn and you grow and you build confidence.  And that's  what I like seeing other bakers do.  Yeah. And, um,

13:55

I'm going to tell you a story from last night because it's relevant. I asked my husband if he could make a double batch of pancakes for dinner last night because I wanted to throw some in the freezer because you can freeze pancakes and microwave them and they're just as good the second time around. And I grabbed three, sat down with my butter and my syrup on my pancakes, took the first forkful and I looked at him and I said, what did you do differently?

14:20

And he said, I don't know what. And I said, they're very, very dense. said, your pancakes are usually fluffy. I said, these are dense. They're really yummy, but they're heavy. And he said, think I didn't add enough baking soda. I was like, oh, okay. He said, they're not terrible, are they? I said, no, they're fine. They're pancakes. They are dinner. I asked you to make pancakes. You understood the assignment as it were, but yeah, they're just different.

14:45

And he said, they're also not the kind I make when I make them the night before and let them sit in the fridge overnight. They're not buttermilk ones.  Those are very fluffy. And I said, okay. And I said, also, I said, did you put brown sugar in these instead of um white sugar? He's like, I usually do. And I was like, never told me. I said,  for some reason this time it tastes more buttery, which is usually a brown sugar thing. And he was like, you are obsessed with cooking. I was like, yep.

15:15

sure am.  So  yeah, mean, even if something doesn't turn out the way you expect it to, sometimes it's better, sometimes it's edible, and sometimes it's not, and you just throw it away and start over. Yeah, yep, you do.  And that's kind of how it is with business too. You learn what works and what doesn't.

15:37

Yeah, exactly. And I'm lucky enough to be married to a guy who loves to make pancakes and he makes the best yeast breads on the planet as far as I'm concerned. So I lucked out huge in the person that I found myself married to.

15:53

So  anyway, ah what else can I ask you? Did you always love to cook like even as a kid or was it new? No,  I didn't love to cook when I was young. I don't remember ever cooking  when I was younger. I remember baking the chocolate chip cookies off the back of the Toll House bag or peanut butter cookies every now and then.

16:17

ah But I never really baked until I was in my  20s and then I would dabble with  things if I could when I had time. I had four kids  in three years.  So that took over a lot. But then  as the kids got older,  I started, I was like, this is my chance. Like I love baking, I'm gonna try it. And it just grew and grew and grew. And it  kind of grew into a monster before I knew it.

16:46

So then my bakery got too big for me.  And so I had to pull back  a lot  because it was just taking over everything, every aspect of my life.  So  that's another thing I teach, know, go  make sure you have boundaries  and don't overstep them, even though that's really hard not to do  because success feels good  and it's flattering and you want to be successful, but sometimes that's not good for your family.

17:17

Yeah,  you have to.  I'm going to admit this. had to cut my podcast back to three episodes a week instead of five because I was having such a hard time keeping up with it.  And  I didn't feel like I was really listening when I was asking questions. And I was like, Oh, I can't remember what we talked about. I need to slow down. Right.  Right. And it's not just

17:43

the, you your podcast, it's not just the 30 minute podcast. You have editing  and planning and scheduling and researching all of that in the background. So it's not just the baking when you own a cottage bakery, it's the cleaning and the organizing and the  taking orders and the grocery shopping  and the dishes. It's so much more than just baking and the packaging. Yeah, I don't know if you have a dishwasher, but I do not. And

18:12

I  have been  really dragging my feet on doing any baking because when you're doing baking,  always seems like flour is the worst thing on earth to clean up once it's wet.  It sticks to everything. And I hate it.  When my husband made pancakes last night, he did it in the mixer,  the KitchenAid mixer, and he did not put water in the bowl right away. He just sat it on the counter and then came to eat.

18:40

Half an hour later, was like glue in that mixing bowl and I was like, God, I would give anything for a dishwasher right now.  So yeah, baking is messy. Like it's really fun, but it's a messy job.

18:57

Yeah, and it's really  owning a cottage bakery or a bakery business. I would say baking is  20%, 30 %  of your entire business. There's  so much more that when you are in the thick of it that you don't realize.  When I have young ladies come up to me or their parents and they say, my daughter wants to start a bakery. What's your advice? I always say, well, does she like doing dishes?  Because that's what she's going to be doing.

19:25

And so it's not all sprinkles  and icing. It's just so much more. um But it's rewarding. I really, really enjoy it.  Yes. And I think that's true of any business. mean,  we made homemade cold-processed lye soaps every other week for an entire summer three years ago.

19:51

My husband mentioned that he would like to make some soap again and I had a moment of, oh God. And I was like, why am I doing that? And it's because we made soaps every week  for an entire summer. And when you do it once in a while, it's exciting, it's fun, it's new, yay. When you make it into a job, it is no longer a treat or a novelty, it's your job. And if you love it, fantastic.

20:20

do it. But if you don't love it, don't drive yourself crazy.  a lot of bakers, I would say  99.999 % of bakers experience burnout because  they don't realize that they need to take breaks.  And especially like I always say, try to take off the month of January if you can, because you just went through the busiest season of the year. Try to take off for a month in January or at least a week.  Give yourself breaks.

20:48

you know, every now and then or else you're going to be so burned out and you're going to quit  when really what you just need is some breaks just to rest your body and your brain.  You need to rest your brain to not have to think about your business all the time because entrepreneurs  are creative souls and their brains never stop.  And so it's just good to take that step to take  and give your brain a little rest.  Absolutely, for sure.

21:16

I mean, I wake up every morning and the first thought in my head is, who am I talking to today? And when I go to bed at night, it's, did I get everything set for the episode that's going out tomorrow or the one that's going to be released that was out a year ago to take the place of the one I don't have for today? that never used to be me. My first thought was my husband or my kids.

21:41

And now that I have this podcast that I love so much, my first thought is the podcast and my last thought is the podcast. And I'm like, I think that's screwy, but I'm not sure. Yeah, I totally can relate.  And that's how my bakery was. It was just always on my mind. You know, what am going to do next? What's going to be the next big thing? How am going to grow? And I didn't want that to be number one. I really don't. And I still don't want it to be number one.

22:08

And so I've really had to discipline myself and train myself and just really keep myself in check because I, like my husband says, when I do something, I do it 100%. And he always would warn me about that. And I have to really just watch it. Yeah, I'm like that too. And when I floated the idea for the podcast of my husband three summers ago.

22:33

He was like, you should do that. You would be really good at that. He said, just don't let it eat you alive. He said, because you're one of these people where you get all excited at the beginning and you throw your whole self into it  and you run really fast with it. And then about a year later, you're like, eh, I did it. I don't care anymore. And I was like, you're not wrong.  Yeah, I would say that's me too. So I, your husband is a hundred percent right.

22:59

Yup. And he caught me doing it like six months into it. He was like, you are stressing yourself out over a job you have created for yourself that you don't have to do. And he said, honey, hi, I'm your husband. My name is Kyle. It's nice to meet you. And I went, yeah, hi, I'm so sorry. I did it again.  And then I sat down and made a plan and figured it out so that I could take it in smaller bites and a little bit slower. So, so

23:28

anything, any business like this,  you do have to have boundaries and you do have to know yourself and you have to have people in your life who will tell you that you're pushing too hard or ask you if you're okay. You're absolutely right. You were absolutely right.  And  it was a good slap in the face for me when I realized,  you know, my bakery had gotten too big. Um, and it wasn't like an immediate all out stop. took a couple of years to get it down to where I needed it to be.

23:58

A lot of prayer, a lot of prayer and waiting on the Lord. So um it was just a journey. So I've just learned so much over 17 years and I love sharing it with other home bakers.  I love that you're doing that because  you are the person who  if somebody comes to you and says, it says, I'm thinking about starting this. Do you think I should? You're going to be honest with them. Yes,  I will be honest with them. I've

24:27

I've counseled or coached  moms when they've got uh two toddlers and a newborn at home  and they're thinking, I think I want to start a sourdough micro bakery. And I'll say, I don't know that that would be, this is the right time for you to do that.  Like maybe  you could bake some loaves of bread,  maybe like 10 loaves of bread a week  and  have your husband take them to work or something like that.

24:54

would just wait till the children are a little bit  older  because you're going to, um I think you're going to regret it. It's going to be too much.  And can we, can we talk about sourdough for just a second?

25:16

Okay, I started a sourdough starter. It was doing great. Like I had opened up the jar, stuck a spoon in it and dragged the spoon through it and it did all that crackle noise that it does because the bubbles are perfect. And I was like, oh, awesome. I can make bread tomorrow and it's ready. Like I know it's ready. This is the first batch I'd ever started on my own.

25:40

And  got up the next morning, opened the jar and it had the pink mold on it. And I was like, well, I guess I'm not making sourdough today.  I wanted to cry, Michelle. I worked a month to get that starter to where it was and it was done for.  How do you avoid that? The only thing I can think of is maybe the spoon that I stuck in there wasn't clean or something. How do you avoid that?

26:09

That was a month worth of patience down the drain.  Well, you're talking to the wrong person because I don't do sourdough.  I've done it personally, but when people start talking sourdough and hydration and fermentation and starters, my eyes gloss over and I'm, you lose me.  So um that is not my level of expertise at all.  Well, damn, I was hoping you would know the answer. That's okay.

26:36

I interviewed the lady who has  the sourdough for beginners Facebook page, so I'll have to message her and be like, what did I screw up this time?  But I haven't started anymore because I am still heartbroken about this.  And  September, August and September are fruit fly month in Minnesota. I'm out there in Missouri.  And fruit flies  love sourdough sardine. If they can find a way into it, they will live in there.

27:05

And we have a garden. We have a garden. So we bring in tomatoes and cucumbers and stuff that whole time frame.  You bring in fruit or produce, there's going to be fruit flies. So  I have just let it go for now. I'm probably going to start up again in January and see if I can make it go. But that's probably the most heartbreaking moment in my cooking lifetime was opening that jar and seeing that it was bad. Like I had tears in my eyes and I don't do that about food.

27:40

That's why don't do sourdough.

27:44

Yeah, it's really finicky. I didn't realize it would be  as number one messy and number two as finicky as it is. I really don't know that I love it. I'm going to try again, but if next time fails, I'm just going to let other people make sourdough bread. That's what I choose to do, Mary.  Yeah. And I mean, I made two loaves of bread um from  two weeks after I started my sourdough starter.

28:11

and they were yummy but they were dense and it was because it wasn't quite where it needed to be. And I was so excited.  I was so sure I was gonna have the best loaf of sourdough bread ever. And then,  nope, the universe said, uh-uh, not today.

28:30

I am sorry. I've made sourdough before. I actually like making it. I just don't want to make it to sell. I will leave that to other people. Yeah. I figured the experts know what they're doing. I'll just buy it from them. It's just so much less hassle and heartbreak in my case. Anyway, did you end up actually doing a bakery, like a storefront bakery at all or not?

29:00

No,  I never had a desire to do a storefront. I've always said I would have liked to have owned a storefront bakery for a week just to get it out of my system and know that it's not for me because if I had a storefront bakery, that would mean leaving my home every day  and I love to be home. I love to be home. I'd have to wear like real clothes every day,  you know, do my hair.

29:28

And I just, as much as I think I would like it, I think I would like it for about a week.

29:36

Yeah, again, it becomes a constriction. You know, you have to play by the societal rules to be out in public. And I don't know about you, but I'm not really into the societal rules. I would much rather make cookies and put them out in my farm stand and let people just come and get what they want. Yeah, I love that idea. Those things are super popular right now, little farm stands or porch pop-ups. I love those.

30:06

I  love brick and mortar bakeries. I think people that do them are amazing.  It's not for me. You  would have to put a lot of money into something like that to start off, to make it how you want it to be.  And just the everyday opening.  One of the things that I did when I baked for the coffee shop  that I didn't think through was that they're open every day.

30:33

know, or five, six days a week. So the day after Christmas, guess what? They're open and they need pastries. when I, the day I was baking on Christmas day for the coffee shop and my husband was like, you're baking on Christmas day for the coffee shop. And it, I will never forget that. And I was like, they're open tomorrow.  And just  that realization of like, what am I doing?

31:00

Yeah. Whole nother set of rules.  So a lot of people will ask me about wholesale and I did wholesale for eight years and it was good for us.  But they'll say, should I, you know, what about wholesale? I'm trying to get into wholesale. And I'll say, well, just remember you'll be baking, you know, retail hours. They're open every day and you'll be making less money. Now some people like that because they can do it at home.  They have their deliveries. They don't have to mess with the general public and they, always have the orders.

31:29

They don't have to go out and get business  and they like that. But for other people, you're getting less money and you're working  usually more.  So it's a trade off. Yes. And  while you were talking, it reminded me of something that not everyone knows about because it doesn't come up in regular conversation when you're starting a business. There is something called a margin.  as I understand it,  a margin is

31:58

How much do you spend to produce the thing that you're going to sell? And how much do you get in profit for the thing that you sell? And whatever percentage there is between what you spent and what you made, that's the margin. Mm-hmm, right. I was talking to someone about this this morning. And when you're doing wholesale, you need, usually the rule of thumb is 20, 25 % less in retail that you're selling it to wholesale.

32:26

So are you able to make money if you're selling your products for 25 % less? So think about that. Now, if you're selling a lot, if you're selling a lot, you can usually make it happen.  But if you're only selling  three dozen cookies to a bakery or a coffee shop every week  and you're taking 25 % less, it's usually not worth it.

32:51

So people have to think of the pros and cons before they commit. Yes. And this goes back to my original statement about if you want to do something, do the research and try it on a small scale because then you're not really worried about margin. You're worried about whether you can do it. And you're learning what it takes to make the thing, what it takes to make it worth it to make the thing and whether you want to scale it up bigger. And that's kind of like a trial. See if you like it.

33:21

and then you can commit.  Yep,  absolutely. Michelle, this has been fabulous.  I would love to know how people can find you.  I am on social media  as homesweethomebaker  and then I have a website  homesweethomebaker.com.  Think about that for a second.  So yeah, homesweethomebaker. can find me lots of places  online.

33:50

Okay, awesome.  I appreciate your time and your expertise because you are an expert at this, whether you think so or not.  And as always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Check out my Patreon. It's patreon.com slash atinyhomestead.  I hope you have a wonderful week, Michelle. Thank you again. Thank you, Mary, so much for having me on. You're welcome. Have a great day. Bye-bye. Bye.

 

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store
A Tiny HomesteadBy Mary E Lewis