We Need to Have an Honest Conversation About Cottage Bakers
Don't underestimate the power of the chocolate chip.
I said what I said.
We need to talk about them.
You need to be aware of their presence, so you can best prepare for what’s coming.
What are cottage bakers, you ask?
They are basically a mafia. Working the streets, selling their wares, infiltrating the world with their warm scones, and gooey cinnamon rolls. They fill your local farmer’s markets and neighborhoods, with, get this - wholesome, nostalgia-induced joy that makes you want to sing the theme song to Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood while you round the bend to their driveway to collect your sourdough from their adorable baking stand.
The nerve.
The birth of cottage bakers dates back to the beginning of time, really. These mom and pop shops were the trendiest of trend for centuries. Your home was your business hub and store front, and the world was here for it. In recent history, cottage bakers' rise to fame really begins with Covid lockdown.
Forced to be home for months and months, many came face-to-face with the inevitable question: How hard is it really to make sourdough bread?
Now, many tangoed with testing the waters here.
From Clint Yeastwood and Obi-Wan Kenoughbi to Lady Crumbsworth and Lady Yeasterton, sourdough starters arose in brute force across the nation.
Many filled their homes with the smell of flour and victory. Others, whom shall remain nameless, failed repeatedly at remembering to feed their starter and may have unintentionally begun to grow critters in their glass jar. May Frodough Baggins rest in peace.
Nevertheless, great seeds of change were planted in this season.
What started as a nation-wide kitchen experiment, became the re-introduction of a homegrown business debuting at your local farmers market. And it wasn’t just sourdough bread - it was cookies, tortillas, cinnamon rolls, pizza crusts, jams, salsa, granola, and gluten free yummies as far as you could dream.
Cottage bakers have repurposed greenhouses, placing them at the end of their driveways, turning them into mini bakeries where neighbors line the streets waiting for them to open.
Sometimes they build their own stands they keep in their garage and wheel them out first thing in the morning. They pack them with pre-orders and fresh daily selections - all available through something that feels deeply refreshing: the honor system.
I’ve seen cottage baristas too - turning their kitchen into your favorite cafe, making coffee and drinks to order, delivered right to your car door as you pull up by the driveway.
And don’t forget the adjacent farm stands that offer eggs, produce, and even flowers to passersby.
This cottage baker made $27,000 in one week selling cookies, y’all.
Don't underestimate the power of the chocolate chip. There may be more fruit in serving your neighbors than we think — and perhaps a more joyful economy too.
I’m going to be honest here, and a little bit sappy.
I really love cottage bakers. I love their creativity and ingenuity. Their love for what they do and their dedication to do it. I love that cottage bakeries are sometimes rallying points for families and households to join together to make (and bake) beautiful things.
But there is one thing I love above all else.
I love that these businesses are built on this: loving and serving a neighbor.
It’s a simple and sweet example to me that as I build, create or pursue, whatever God puts on my heart, that it would somehow help a neighbor, like someone gave them a warm chocolate chip cookie and told them they mattered.
Jesus tells his disciples on the night he is betrayed, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35
This is so beautiful to me. One of the last commands of Jesus - to simply love one another. The Creator of all things, with hours left with his friends, who could have asked anything of them, simply commands them - to love. He didn’t ask them to build an empire in His name, to pursue power at any cost, to go viral on the interwebs (for His glory, of course). Loving others was a big deal to Him. He would lay down His life to demonstrate it.
His followers would do their best to walk it out through great persecution. One of the hallmarks of the early church was the simple, yet defiant, move to sit at a table together. The Greco-Roman world was a stratified society. You didn’t sit with people from a different class. But when people came to know Christ - they sat at the same table together. Love brought unity. Love brought them to the table. Love invited them to break bread together. Love would compel them to lay down their lives for one another. And this kind of love would quietly unravel an empire that could not stop it from spreading. (Spoiler: it’s still spreading.)
Baking cookies for your neighbors may not seem so earth shattering. But small things done in love have been shaping lives for centuries. I get idealistic in dreaming of what the world would be like if the governing factor throughout was how much we can love and serve one another. I know this is ridiculous. The world doesn’t like this game. Greed seems to be such a profitable motivator. I can’t change the way the whole world works. I know this.
But I can change me.
I can look at what I have in my hands and consider how it might help another. I can consider if the people in my life or community have enough to eat, safe places to live, a voice that’s valued, a heart that’s seen. I can start there. I can start with my home. I can start with my neighborhood.
I can simply start. I can simply love.
Cause maybe while the people at the top are vying for all the things they are vying for.
The rest of us can be busy building something together that smells like fresh baked bread, feels like hope, and looks like love.
Bakers, are you ready?