Allegedly Absurd Bakery

Today I'm talking with Dylan at Allegedly Absurd Bakery.  This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead 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. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company. 00:28 Today I'm talking with Dylan at Allegedly Absurd Bakery in Janesville, Minnesota. Good afternoon, Dylan. How are you? Good. How are you doing today?  I'm great. And normally I would say, how's the weather? But considering that you're in southeast Minnesota, I think, and I'm in sort of southwesterly Minnesota, we both know it's been a lovely day today. Yeah, it's been super nice out.  Yeah. Did you guys get that wave of humidity yesterday afternoon? Yeah, it was terrible. 00:56 Yeah.  you just instantly start sweating. Yeah. I have no idea where that came from. I didn't even know it was on the radars. I was like, this is gross. Hopefully it's not a trend.  So I have to know about the name of your bakery. How did you come up with allegedly absurd bakery?  So I was actually trying to name the donut. Okay.  And so I didn't want something like jumbo or mega.  In one of the words I use all the time is absurd. I'm like, that's just absurd. And 01:26 So I was like, well, that's kind of, could name a donut that. Yeah. I got to thinking a little bit more and I was like, you know what? I say allegedly a lot all the time. And it just kind of came together. There wasn't, you know, this aha moment. It was just like, oh, that could work.  I love that. Go ahead. So we came up with, you know, allegedly absurd and we were going to do allegedly absurd donuts. And the more I thought about it, I was like, you know what? 01:53 I don't want to do just donuts. I don't want to be confined to just that niche, so to speak.  And so bakery was the natural fit and that's kind of the rest of just history.  Very nice. So now my, my usual question that I ask people is tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do. Oh, I do a lot of things.  So in regards to the bakery,  so we just started this. 02:23 So this is our third weekend, so three weeks ago. Oh, okay. And so we're, pretty new as far as this one goes. Uh, the Tuesday before we started it, I told my wife, I was like, you know what? We're going to do this this weekend. And so I filed the business. started the Facebook page, all that stuff.  And we opened up, you know, that Saturday and sold out within,  gosh, I want to say 30 minutes, 45 minutes, something like that.  Um, so it was. 02:52 crazy how fast it kind of came together just on my side of things.  Yeah, just kind of crazy with timeline response, all of it.  to that,  we had co-owned and operated Lollipops in the Legion, which was a bakery.  And we exited out of that, took about, I think it was about 14 months off and kind of re-established what we wanted to do, what we wanted to be. 03:22 in terms of a bakery, right? So yeah, that's kind of the story of, you know, how that came about.  you, you, you left a standalone commercial enterprise to go to Cottage Food. Is that because a standalone commercial enterprise takes up so much of your time? No, it wasn't even about the time or anything. We had partners. Okay. And the relationship with the partners just wasn't 03:52 good. Like we had different values, different way of operating, just a lot of differences. And so my wife and I made the decision to step away.  Okay. Yep. Yeah. So that was a good transition for us. Okay. I feel like I asked a question that maybe I shouldn't have asked. Sorry about that.  Okay.  So, um, I saw on your Facebook page that you guys do a lemon Long John donut. 04:20 And I wanted to transport myself to where they are because I love lemon beyond any other flavor. Yeah, you would love it. It is extremely lemony.  So we have four kids and our oldest absolutely loves lemon. Anything lemon, he's like, yep, I want that. And so he tried it and he goes, you know, dad, you really captured the essence of I was like, what 10 year old talks like this? Like what's going on? 04:50 This is when my daughter who's two years younger than he has tried it and she kind of puckered up and was like, oh, that's so sour. So you have the one side who loves the lemon, loves that sour, sweet type taste.  the other one who's like, not quite for me.  Well, at least you have opposing opinions. And if she said this is terrible, then you would have had to think about it a little harder.  There is a lady, I think it's a lady who has a booth. 05:19 at the local farmers market here in LaSore and she makes lemon drop cookies.  They're about the size of a half dollar. And my husband brought some home when he was there last weekend.  And I had had them last summer and I liked them. And he brought them home this past two weekends ago,  not this weekend, last weekend.  And I knew what they were. And I was like, do you want any of these? And he said, if there's any left, he said, I will have one. And I'm like, OK, there's like six to a bag. 05:49 And I opened the bag up and I could smell lemon immediately. And I was like, oh, these might be way lemony than last time because I couldn't smell the lemon like that the first time I had them. And I took one and I popped it in my mouth and I bit down and it tasted just like a raw lemon.  It didn't.  The sweetness of it didn't kick in until after the hit of lemon. 06:16 And I must have puckered up because my husband looked at me, he's like, are you okay? Are you choking? And I just put my finger up and I finished chewing and swallowed it. And he's like, are you all right? And I said, I'm fine. I said, she changed how much lemon she puts in it. I said, that is the most lemon lemon cookie I've ever had my whole entire life.  It was delicious. I love lemon, but even for me, I was like, wow, that is getting right up to the line of almost too much for me. So. 06:44 It just depends. It just depends on how much you love a flavor and how what your tolerance is for it.  Yeah. And even the lemon itself, right? Like the recipe will call for the zest of three lemons or something. And so it's how big is your lemon? Because some of those are, you know, can get pretty big. Yeah. So you're trying your best to like weigh it out and measure and do all the things. And it really just depends on the day. It does. And it also depends on the age of the person eating the thing you made. 07:13 Because most people don't know that as you get older you lose taste buds they die So as a child number one, you've never tasted anything lemon in your life the first time You have it and you have almost every taste bud you were born with So that flavor is going to be more intense to a child Yeah, if you're 60 you probably had lemon flavored things before and you've lost about a third of your taste buds so 07:43 it's going to take more lemon to get that same reaction.  Interesting. Yeah. I didn't know about the taste bud thing until probably 10 years ago. I read it in something that was reputable and I went,  Oh my God, that's why older people really like their food to be saltier or sweeter.  Yeah,  exactly. And that's part of the reason I love my podcast because either I teach something to somebody they didn't know or you guys teach me something that I didn't know. I 08:12 freaking love it. It's my favorite thing.  So what else do you make besides donuts?  Dylan? So right now we're just doing long johns and cookies.  What kind of cookies?  So we do a dark chocolate chip. The last few weeks we've done a Northwood's butter cookie. So it's like a take on the Itasca butter cookie. I don't know what that is.  It's oh gosh, it's like a sugar cookie, but there is probably double, I want to say double the amount of butter in it. Okay. So 08:42 don't even know how to describe it to do it justice.  Yeah, it's really soft and silky almost.  Is it kind of like a shortbread only more fatty than a shortbread? Yeah, and a little bit softer. Yeah, okay. That would be a good way of describing it. Okay, because I love shortbreads. I think those are great.  Just so you know, I didn't grow up in Minnesota. I grew up on the East Coast, so I haven't even been to Itasca. 09:11 So, okay. It's super cool out there. We finally made it up last year and loved it. I would go back in a heartbeat to it. Itasca out there. Okay. Yep. North.  And the scenery is beautiful. It just feels calm and peaceful and peaceful, at least at the state park.  Yeah. Just cool experience. Yeah.  Um, it's interesting because Minnesota is beautiful everywhere. 09:41 And this is coming from a woman who did not want to move here over 30 years ago because I grew up in Maine. And I will always say that Maine is the most beautiful state because that's where I grew up. But Minnesota is a damn close second. 09:57 Yeah, it'd be cool to get out to the East Coast. We've done a lot of the West Coast.  We've never been out East. So that's on our, on our list of things to do.  Can I make a suggestion if you're going to go to Maine, New Hampshire or Vermont? Sure can.  Go at the end of May, 1st of June or go at like mid September to mid October. And the reason I say this is because in Maine,  mosquito and black fly season starts about the second and a half 10:27 week into June and those black flies will carry you away. They will leave welts on you the size of dimes.  They're nasty and they hurt and you will bleed. They're not fun.  And the reason I say September, October is because that's when the trees are starting to change and it's really, really pretty.  Good to know. to know. Yeah. And Maine in July and August is hot and muggy, just like Minnesota.  So 10:58 So if you want to go when the weather is temperate and the bugs aren't too bad, the times I just said are really, really good. Yeah. No, I like it. Yeah. I try to tell people this because I've had people I'd say I grew up in Maine and they're like, Oh my God, I was there in August and it's so pretty, but I got so heat sick. And I'm like, yeah, cause you went in August. Yup. Yup.  So anyway, I keep talking about geography on this podcast. I'm like, am I supposed to push this into a geography podcast? I don't want to. 11:28 So you said a double, a dark chocolate chip cookie. Does that mean dark chocolate chips in a vanilla dough? Or does that mean dark chocolate chips in a chocolate dough? Yeah. So dark chocolate chips in just a cookie dough. So I like to use the 60 % Ghirardelli.  Yes. I found that those are the best tasting in part two, cause of our kids. So we don't 11:55 Our kids have a hard time with a lot of processed sugars.  And so that's why I use the organic cane sugar in the donuts and all the cookies. Nice.  So a lot of that was just from a necessity on our end as parents. We see different behavioral things. Our son's eyes will actually switch if he has too much processed sugar. So like he'll get dark rings under his eyes. And this is all within a matter of like 20 minutes. Oh, wow. Dark rings. 12:23 His eyes are kind of glaze over. just the most interesting thing. Um,  until we just made the decision we're not going to do as much as possible, right? Obviously, you know, we go different places and eat different things, but when I'm making it, you know, that's just the standard in our household.  You're, you're a good dad.  We try, we try.  Okay. So I was looking at your Facebook page and it looks like you just set up a table and put the little display. 12:54 cubes, know, the plexiglass or whatever they are cubes on your table. And that's how you sell your stuff. Is that what I'm seeing? Yeah. So we have that. And then we also do pre-orders. Okay. So pre-orders have been the bulk of what we've been selling the past two weeks.  Um, which is amazing to me.  Um, you know, like I said, we sold out that first week within, you know, 45 minutes. And so we really pushed the pre-orders after that. Cause I was like, I want to make sure people can get it. 13:22 but I also don't want to have a bunch of stuff left over.  And that's taken on really well.  Yes. One of the problems with having a farm stand or a porch stand or whatever you're doing, we have a farm stand, so we have produce and eggs for sale all the time in the summer.  The problem with both is that if you pick, let's say lettuce and you put it in the farm stand and nobody buys it, it's no good the next day because it's going to wilt. 13:51 same thing with your baked goods. If people don't buy it, you're stuck with it.  Yep.  Nobody wants to be stuck with baked goods. mean, it seems like a really cool thing like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory fun, but I don't think that it's actually that fun. Yeah. You get sick of it after a while. So, know, you can freeze stuff.  Like we've done that where we'll freeze the cookies or freeze the donuts or wrap them up really good and then take it out as you want it. 14:20 But even that, gets to be a lot of donuts or lot of cookies. Yeah. And unfortunately you can't actually live on that because it's not good for you no matter how good the ingredients are.  you have, did you say you have four kids? Yeah, we have four kids. What are their ages? Oh, 10, nine, four and three.  Wow. Okay. So you've got the different developmental stages going on like I had with my four. Yeah. 14:50 Yep, isn't it fun Dylan? Isn't it busy? It is busy. It's good.  I would say I enjoy Being a dad the most now than I probably have in my life I'm actually able to be present be around when I'm home, which is something that's relatively new to me. I feel like I in the past I've I Would come home and want to not not escape, but I just wouldn't be present And I really worked on actually being home when I'm 15:19 If that makes sense.  Yes, it is the time immemorial problem with being a dad. And up until the last, would say 10 to 15 years,  most dads have a job that keeps them out of the house from seven or eight in the morning until five or six at night. And you guys are busting your asses, doing your job, trying to do it well to make money to support your family. 15:46 proud of every dad that works hard for their family.  But it definitely takes a toll. And I can say this as a 56 year old woman who has an 83 year old dad living in Maine right now. 16:01 It was really hard not seeing him.  And I still miss him terribly. He's great. He's doing fine. But dads get... I think they get a hard time because they're not changing diapers. They're not giving baths. They're not doing the things that the moms do because the moms are the ones who are with the kids.  I don't... I'm not saying that every dad... 16:31 is an angel because I know that to not be true. But I have real respect for the dads that try hard and work themselves hopefully not to death to spend time with their kids.  Yeah, it has been a real gift.  So I do asphalt full time in the summer. Yeah. So I've been doing that since I was 11 years old. And I've done some stuff in between there, but that's always been kind of consistent in my life. 17:01 And so some weeks I'm 60 plus hours, you know, depending on the week. Sometimes I work weekends. really just depends. And so I've had to choose to make that, you know, one of my top priorities.  And, know, you talk about like the diapers and all that stuff. The rule in our house has been the wife handles the input and I handle the output.  So I'm like, dang it, I got all the diapers. But again, I. 17:31 I had the opportunity to do that.  And whether it was the middle of the night in the morning, whether I had to get up for work or not, that was just the rhythm in our house when the kids were little.  And I always just wanted to be present or there as much as possible while also providing. What? While also providing too.  Yes. Yes. I have two things about diapers. One's about diapers and one is about sleep. 17:59 diapers changing diapers duty will make it so that you can handle any disgusting thing and not vomit.  Yep. Yep. And that's gross but true because I had four kids. I changed a lot of diapers in my lifetime.  And then the sleep thing. My last child who will be 25 in December. That kid did not sleep through the night until kindergarten. 18:27 And I was the one who nursed him and I was the one who got up with him because I was a stay at home mom. My husband had a job. So I didn't get more than three or four hours of sleep for the first two years of his life. I didn't get more than three or four hours of sleep a night for two years straight. I had friends who would say to me years later, do you remember when we went and took the kids and did this? And I'm like, no, I don't remember because I was a walking zombie then. 18:57 Kids are amazing. Being a parent is the most difficult but most wonderful job on earth if you want to be a parent.  Yes. Yep. So, again, drifting off into psychology because I have that too.  So do you get the kids involved in the baking?  Not so much right now. They do help sell. So when we sell, we're actually out there. 19:24 you know, boxing the stuff up and interacting with people. Yeah.  So they enjoy doing that, you know, the past couple of weeks.  Eventually, I do want them, if they so choose, to get their own cottage licenses. Yes. And then they can sell something as well. So then, you know, we'll figure out what percentage of the profit help teach numbers, all that type of stuff with them,  Again, it's as much or as little as they want to be involved.  Right. I don't want to push it on them, but the opportunity is there. 19:54 And our daughter definitely loves baking. She's always asking to help with different things that we're making here just for our family.  But as far as the donuts go, I do 95 % of it just because it's really early morning stuff.  Saturday morning, I'm up at two in the morning and, you know, rolling out the dough, cutting it, frying it, letting it cool, frost it, boxing stuff up. You know, there's a lot of steps and 20:23 They're not up. I mean, they're actually really early risers, um, but they don't come out of their rooms until seven o'clock in the morning.  If they had it their way, they'd be up at five 30. They're just early risers.  Your house must smell so good on Saturday mornings. It does even throughout the day. Like we took our daughter out for her birthday yesterday and went bakery hopping. So we went to like four different bakeries up in the cities and we came home afterwards and. 20:52 was like, dang, it still smells like donuts in here. I kind of like it.  Yeah, we made donuts from scratch four or five years ago, and we hadn't really done it before.  And I told my husband, I said, we can't make these very often. And he said, why not? And I said, because they're really good when they come out of the fryer, as it were.  said, but two days later, they're not very good because all that fat. 21:20 The dough just collapses on itself.  And he was like, yeah, I noticed. said, they're not as good a couple of days later. And I said, no, they're not.  I have a real problem when there's grease on my lips and on my teeth after I eat the donut half an hour later. It's just gross. can't handle it.  So fresh donuts are amazing. Oh my God. I am a donut fanatic. I... 21:47 I lived in Crystal for a while, many, many years ago in Minnesota.  they had a really nice donut shop there. And I had a friend who worked there.  And she called me one time and she said, do you and your daughter want to come down early and see how we do this? And I was like, I know how you do it. But my daughter, who was three or four at the time, I said, she would probably love to see how it works. 22:15 So we walked down to the donut shop and we went in the back door of the donut shop and my friend showed my daughter how they cut the dough and they did the frying and they had some that were cooled down and she showed her the machine that drizzles the frosting over the top and my daughter was just in wrapped.  She was so interested and I know that's not how you do it in your home kitchen because that you probably don't have the same kind of equipment but it's really interesting how much work 22:45 goes into this stuff. Yes, it's an insane amount of work. And I think, you know, doing one batch of a dozen is totally different than doing, you know, 12 or 16 dozen. Oh, yeah. Because you have to time it out, right? You have to make sure that the dough doesn't over proof after you cut it. Or, I mean, there's a myriad of things that you have to think about.  And. It's cool, at least for me to see. 23:13 how many different cottage bakeries there are.  They're all over the place.  And just for people like me or whoever to have the opportunity to do that, I don't know, it's just cool. Like, yeah, you have the commercial spaces, have, you know, we would drive all the way down to Red Wing to Hanisch to get donuts, which is an hour and I think it's an hour and half from us. Just because I like a really good donut. And I was like, you know what? We could do that. 23:43 I think we could figure that out.  But just being able to have the opportunity, I guess, is what I'm trying to say that I think I, at least in my life, have taken a lot of those things for granted. Yeah. Where I'm just like, oh, yeah, it's just normal.  And it's actually not. You know, we were talking about startup the other day. And I was like, you know, it's not that expensive to start it up. And my wife looks at me and she's like, are you, are you being serious right now? 24:10 I like, don't know. didn't think it was like that bad. I mean, we're not spending $100,000, you know? And so my perspective compared to her perspective was just totally different. I was thinking, you know, big plus numbers commercially. And she's like, no, for a normal person, this is a lot. I was like, yeah, yeah, you're right.  I'm glad that you brought that up because my husband has noticed that the attendance of people who are going to buy at the farmer's market this year has been way down. 24:39 And I think it's because money is very, very tight for a lot of people right now because inflation is so freaking high and people just don't have the extra expendable income right now. And what I want our listeners to know is that cottage food producers typically don't have deep pockets and they don't have the same. I don't know what the word is. 25:07 When a business, when a big business is going to buy supplies, they usually get some kind of discount because they're buying a whole lot of whatever the thing they need is in bulk.  And cottage food producers don't necessarily get that kind of discount.  So the reason that cottage food producers charge, I don't know. I don't know how many 12 cookies is right now from a cottage food producer, but I'm pretty sure it's not five bucks.  Not even close. I don't even know that you can make it for five bucks. 25:37 Yeah.  And so I think that people don't understand, number one, the heart that goes into doing what you do, Dylan. And they don't understand how much it costs you for the ingredients and your time to do what you're doing to provide it to the customer.  And so I am really impressed with what you do. 26:03 If I was going to be in Janesville, I would be stopping in for a lemon donut, but I'm not going to be in Janesville anytime soon.  So yeah, it's the other thing is that I am pretty sure that your donuts taste way better than the box of donuts I can get at Walmart for three bucks. I would agree with that.  You know, there is something about. 26:32 the type and quality of ingredients that you use. Yeah. You you brought up, you know, getting stuff in bulk and that's accurate. You know, what we're paying now for ingredients is a lot more than what we've paid in the past. Oh, yes.  Absolutely.  You know, we still use the 26:51 like online kitchen stores, you because we have access to some of those things.  So we do get a touch of a discount, but it's not like what we were getting before. Right. And you're right. People are having a tough time across the board financially.  And it is a splurge for a lot of people to go out to eat anywhere. Yes. You know, like we don't really eat out that much because it gets to be expensive. I like to eat out because I don't have to make the food. 27:20 Yeah. But also it's cheaper to do it at home.  And even with our price point, I wanted to go a little bit higher than what we decided on. And my wife was like, no, you need to be considerate. And I was like, okay, you've never steered me wrong before. Like I will always trust your gut and your intuition.  And you she's been right.  And you're not going to pay, you know, Casey's prices are higher than your Walmart. It's going to be more, but. 27:49 I think the feedback has been that it's worth the value overall. Um, and we've gotten some feedback here and there on different things, which is valid. And I appreciate the feedback because if don't know if something's wrong,  then I can't fix it. Right.  Yep. Yeah. And I don't know, people seem to be liking what we're doing and there's not really a good donut spot around here that I'm aware of. Like I said, we have the one in Redwing, which is an hour and a half away, but outside of that, I don't. 28:18 I don't know of any that are within an hour's drive. You're it Dylan. You're it.  I have one more thing that I want to say. I used to make a recipe called outrageous brownies for my kids for their birthdays.  It's a recipe by Ina Garten. I don't know if you know who she is. And these are like ooey gooey dense yummy double dark chocolate brownies. 28:47 My kids weren't really into birthday cake. And I said, what do you want for instead?  my, I don't remember one of my sons said, can you make a really good brownie? And I was like, I can try.  And it's a huge batch. It's probably 15 or 16 big deep fat brownies.  And we all would have one cause it was so decadent and so heavy that you didn't want more than. 29:15 And my husband would take some to work with him the next day. And he kept getting questions from his coworkers that had them. They were like, where did you get those? And he would say, my wife made them for my child's birthday. And they would say,  you gonna bring more in?  And my husband was like, probably when she makes them for a kid's birthday again.  And they were like, no, no, no. Can you bring in a pan of them? 29:43 And my husband said, do you have $50?  And they said,  for what? And he said, that's how much it costs for a pan of those brownies.  And people were like, how? And my husband explained the cost of all the ingredients and my time. And people were like, I think I'll just wait until you bring couple in again.  Yep. That's exactly what it is. Yep. 30:11 And they're delicious. I haven't made them in years because they are incredibly fattening and so, so sweet that I'm at the point where I'm like, I don't think I can eat it. I don't think I can do it. I think my stomach would hate me. I'm old. Don't get old, Dylan, because your stomach doesn't handle things the way it used to.  So yeah, it's crazy. People love things. They love cheesecake. They love really good brownies. They love really good donuts. 30:40 But right now everybody has to make a choice on what they're spending their money on. Yep. Yep. So I'm thrilled that you're doing this. And I was so excited to see that you were a cottage food business doing this. Yeah. Yeah. It's been it's been an experience. I would say a good one overall.  yeah, I'm I'm just honestly grateful for the opportunity. I didn't know, you know, what it was going to look like. We didn't know what the demand was going to be if there was going to be a demand. 31:10 And people have really shown up and supported and it's just been cool to see.  have, I have one more question.  Are people coming from towns around Janesville? Um, a little bit. Yeah. Yep. We kind of pull in from, I would say maybe 15 miles or so, which is a pretty good size radius for where we're at. And what's the, what's the population of Janesville? Maybe 2000 people. 31:40 Okay. So you have, you have a captive audience.  Yup.  That's a good way to put it. Awesome.  Fantastic.  I can't wait to see where you go with this. I will follow your Facebook page until it's no longer on Facebook. I promise.  So can you tell me the name of your Facebook page so people can find you? Yeah. It's allegedly absurd bakery and same thing on Instagram. 32:06 Okay. And if people want to pre-order, they can just contact you through that. Yes. Yep. Messenger is the easiest. Otherwise my phone number is on there too.  So text message works fine.  Okay. When are you going to build a website? You know, I have the domain and everything ready.  I just, I wanted to take it slow and I want to do it all debt-free.  Yes.  Anything that we can do, you know, saving, reinvesting, all that stuff is going to be debt-free. Yes. Cause I don't want to be beholden to 32:36 other people or other institutions.  That's a good plan. If you can stick to that, you'll do really well.  All right. As always, people can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com. Dylan, thank you for taking time on a Sunday chat with me. I appreciate it. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Have a great day. You too.