Bear Country Blooms & Bakery

Today I'm talking with Carrie  at Bear Country Blooms & Bakery. 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 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 Carrie at Bear Country Blooms and Bakery in Young America, Minnesota.  Good afternoon. Carrie, how are you? I'm great. Thanks for asking. I was like, am I saying Young America right? I hope I am. 00:22 Well, technically it's Norwood, Young America. But since I live on the Young America side, I try not to draw any more attention to our crazy town name than I have to. And so I just  stick with Young America. Oh, I thought Norwood  and  Young America were like just side by side, but it's actually one town. It is.  Back in the  90s, they decided that it would be more fiscally responsible to combine the two towns. But em 00:50 As the story goes, because I didn't live here then, uh the old German  blood did not  allow them to compromise with a new name. So Norwood and Young America combined to become Norwood Young America.  had no idea again. Love my podcast because I learned something new every time I talk to somebody. 01:14 And you might not even see Norwood Young America written because it's too long to fit on most things. So  my driver's license might even say NYA. So  I'm giving it a couple of generations  and will probably just be known as NAYA because  that's what people say when they see NYA and don't know about our town. Wow. 01:41 I have lived here for over 30 years in Minnesota and did not know that about Norwood Young America. I am so glad I got to talk to you today. Yeah, fun facts. I would say how's the weather, but since you're only about an hour north of me, I'm assuming that's been kind of gray and then the sun peeked out and it's kind of gray and the sun peeked out. yep. Humid. 02:01 The humidity has kicked in. um I did learn that a friend that lives  only  two and a half miles from here got significantly less rain than we got. um So that was an interesting fact.  Overnight, she had mentioned that her rain gauge had 0.0 something and mine was 0.8.  Well, Lasur, where I live, in my little tiny 02:28 plot of land in the cornfields and the soybean fields.  Got 1.8 inches of rain yesterday  between 2.30 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon. oh And so yeah, that's it really varies. I mean, we need it. So oh yeah, um I'm really, really thankful that this spring has not been like the past two though.  Yes. Past two, you know, has just been. 02:58 rain all of May and halfway into June. Yes. And you live on the other side of the river. So  I can relate to that.  Yeah, it was. is not fun to cross anyway and throw in a flood and it just got more complicated. Yes. Luckily my husband could get to work,  but we had a terrible growing season last year and the year before, because our garden was so wet. It took so long to get it It was like soup. Yeah. 03:27 Yeah, I heard that a lot. were,  you know, people come to the farmers markets looking for vegetables.  like, sorry, it's too cold. It's too wet. There's you got to wait an extra, I don't know, four or five weeks  for the second set of seeds or whatever the plant was that they were hoping to see fruit from. 03:49 It was bad. It was very, very bad. So we're happy this year with our farm to market garden. Yes, for sure. wasn't soup in May. Thank God. So all right. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do. Well, as you can probably guess, I am a gardener. I call myself a market gardener because I don't know many people that grow 80 tomato plants or 04:17 70 pepper plants just for fun just for themselves  Although if you can or you really like salsa, which is why we grow ours You could just be growing those for yourselves, but we grow to sell at farmers markets We used to grow onions and zucchini um And  as my other side of my business took off I had something had to give  And so some of the vegetables got cut from the list um 04:46 but I also grow flowers. So that's where the bear country blooms comes from. I do cut flowers that thrive here. people have to wait after peony season, they have to wait until about July before we're drowning in flowers. But it is worth the wait to grow flowers that are fresh, long lasting and aren't imported, which I think it's like 70 % of the flowers. 05:16 are imported.  our carbon footprint is a lot smaller  because of that. that's a positive there. um And then my bakery side of my business, um I've been a cottage baker for I think this is my sixth year.  But last summer I started  selling sourdough um and now  a year into selling, um it's gotten to the point where 05:44 My husband wishes I would give up the flowers, but I love it too much to do that.  But it's  pretty much an all-consuming  job in that sourdough doesn't give you a day off. It's got to be fed.  It does not. It needs attention. Yes. Yes. So yeah, we do farmers markets. have a 06:10 bakery trailer that's new for us this season. So we have a, we call her Poppy because our most popular muffin that we sell is a poppy seed muffin. And then we also have poppies in our garden. So Poppy is our bakery trailer that we sell from at markets and events. We average around 45 events in a year or so. We're out a lot. 06:38 Yeah, that's a lot of running around to sell things. Yes, yes. And we do have a farm stand. So  after that crazy season is over, about mid-October, then we dial it back  and people order their bread and they pick it up at the farm stand instead. Or  I do a delivery run  on Fridays as well. So  it's  a nice um way for someone who 07:06 likes to do a variety of things. I'm never bored and I'm never doing the same thing  two days in a row. Sure.  I have a question about your panties this season. Yes.  Did it seem like the panty season was one week? Because that's what it felt like here for our panties.  Sarah Bernhardt's, I think, opened  in maybe 72 hours, every single one of them.  Yeah. I do try to plant mine for the most part. 07:36 um We like to incorporate our perennials into our landscaping.  We do have a few rows of them, but they are contained in our flower beds.  And so I put some in the shade and I put some in the full sun to try to spread that out a little bit. But yeah, I did notice that too, that uh my need to look out the window to see if any peonies are starting to pop.  That window is really short. 08:05 as far as time goes. So  yeah,  I couldn't believe it. Last year our peonies bloomed for like a three week window. This year. This year, I swear to you, it seems like they just started maybe 10 days ago and they're pretty much done. Yeah, I,  I maybe have,  um, so I have two plants that are 08:30 in a different location by themselves. so they're still, they maybe have 10 more blooms, but otherwise everything else has either been  taken to the farmers market or is wrapped in um Saran wrap and in my refrigerator until, and then they'll get doled out into bouquets probably for the next four weeks.  But then that's it.  For anyone who doesn't know the Sarah Bernhardt, Bernhardt? Yeah. um 08:59 peonies are the light, light, light pink. They're like white with a blush of pink. And they're my favorite. I love those. They're wonderful. And for anyone else who does,  and also for some, anyone who doesn't know, that was really bad, sorry. ah What Carrie's talking about with them being in the refrigerator and Saran wrap is that if you pick the  blooms, when the buds feel like a marshmallow, if you gently squeeze them, they feel like a marshmallow. 09:27 you can wrap them, wrap the buds in Saran wrap and put them in your fridge and they will stay good for a while. How long,  do you think they'll stay good? Oh, I've heard people doing it for months, but um I don't have the patience to give up the refrigerator space. Yeah. So,  and then by July,  I have, um I think, 1,200 seedlings  of annual flowers in my yard right now, plus 09:55 you know, 40 by 80 of perennials.  I don't need them after  four weeks. So. Right. Exactly. Cause nothing really blooms  until the end of June versus July around here. Yeah.  Not for focal flowers at least.  No, mean, can use, um, you can use herb flowers. You can use sage and basil. Yes. can grow those, but it's just not the same. Correct. Yep. And I, we have, um, 10:25 uh large plot of flocks that becomes my filler and then as soon as things are  Ready, then we've got  zinnias. I'm not a Dahlia grower I don't think I know a sourdough baker who's also a Dahlia grower Those things are too high maintenance to do together Yes, yes. Yes, you're right. I tried growing Dahlia's two summers ago and they did fine but 10:54 I'm not in love with them. I think there's two kinds of women in the world. There are women who love to grow dahlias  and there are women who don't love to grow dahlias and I'm on the ladder. And I'm with you on that.  just  there is a  the payoff isn't there. I need a I need a two week  vase life before that beautiful bloom that only lasts three days is worth it. Yes. And I grew gladiola is the same year and  again really pretty  lovely. 11:23 Glad I tried it. I'm not growing them again. Yeah, no. No, I'm  by the time the garden is done, I'm ready to put it to bed  and not think about it again until January. So digging up Dahlia tubers is  not on my bingo card. Yes. And then you have to make sure you store them correctly so they don't get all gross. And it's just a thing. And kudos to the people who love to do it, who are obsessed with it. 11:53 Please do it, enjoy it. For sure, don't, admire people who do it. I know that this is not my, not in my skill set or my, not one of my gifts. And not your passion. For sure. For sure. Don't use. that all the time about bread. I can't, I don't know how you do it. Well, I enjoy it, so it isn't work to me. So I think that's how other Dahlia growers, or Dahlia growers feel that they enjoy it. 12:23 Yes, life is too short to put your time into something you don't really enjoy. That's a hobby. For sure.  Absolutely. The other thing that I really noticed this particular spring is that the tulips seemed to last forever. they did. Good observation. We had tulip blooms that bloomed and they were still nice a week later.  I still had color on a bloom um a week and a half ago. 12:52 Which is insane because it's, what, I  don't even know the date. It's the 8th of June. So yeah, that's crazy to have tulips. Considering how warm it was for those days, they should have just  blown out and been done.  yeah, it's been an interesting year.  has. Do you  have any crocuses that come up in the spring?  I would have if the weeds hadn't choked them out.  Okay.  We have a few. We have a couple left that come up. 13:22 And we only had like two or three blooms. That was it.  My hyacinths were that way. And I thought maybe it was weed pressure, but they tend to bloom around the same time as the crocus, if I remember correctly. Yeah.  I don't know. It was a bizarre spring for spring flowers. And I talk about peonies a lot on the podcast because they're my favorite flower. 13:50 So basically mid-May to mid-June is my favorite time of year because peonies.  And I made the mistake of saying to my husband last week, I said, don't cut any peonies yet because I don't want them to come in the house until some, you know, a bunch of them have bloomed.  And then they were already done. I was like, well, I guess I'll have peonies next year.  Oh, shoot. Well, you're not too far from me. I've got some in the fridge.  Yeah, no, it's OK. 14:20 I will live and they were beautiful. Like I could see them from the house and they were gorgeous. So how many plants do you have? I don't know.  Maybe 40. Okay.  Do you do uh the early, the mid and the late season? I don't know because I'm not an expert. I can tell you what I have. Well, I don't know what I have. even know what I have.  I just know that I have the uh 14:50 Okay. Yeah, I don't I don't know. I have the standard standard Bernhards. I have Sarah, whatever it is. I was screwed up.  I have the festival Maximus ones, the big white ones. Pretty. I have the I have coral ones. have the typical burgundy ones.  And I have at least one yellow. And I have  I have what I call  I have what I call Hello Kitty pink, but I don't know what the variety is. 15:19 Yeah, I don't. I know what you're talking about. I don't have that either.  There is a peony farm in Howard Lake. Have you ever been there?  Yes. Yes. They're not doing their peony days this year um because they're  doing some  dividing and replanting. But yes, that is one of our the highlights of our summer is going there and dreaming about having. 15:46 more. We only have, I think we might have 60 plants, but my long-term plan is to double that. 15:55 Yeah, we went there,  God, it's got to be at least 10 years ago, at least. okay.  Yeah.  And I  was just so excited. And my husband does not have the same peony addiction that I do. He does not care. So we went and he was a trooper and he wandered around with me as I wooed and awed over the firework display of peonies that were blooming. Yes. 16:22 We didn't buy any plants. We didn't buy anything because it's the wrong time of year. You have to order them to get them in Nepal. And he was like, are we going to do this every year? And he did not say it in a mean tone of voice. And I looked at him and I said, if I said yes, would you do it? And he said, maybe every other year. And I said, I don't ever have to come back again. It was worth it just to come once. Yep. Yeah. 16:50 And we haven't been back since, because I just was like, whatever peony um roots people want to give me, I will take, and I will just grow a whole field for myself. Yep, yep. It's only 45 minutes from our house, so  it's not. We make a day of it. My oldest daughter is an artist, and she sits off in a field by herself and  draws. And my younger daughter and I go and take his  notes as furiously as we can while we were taking pictures. oh 17:20 because we love it. Alrighty. So we talked a lot about blooms, but we haven't talked about the bakery part of your situation. So  do you do sourdough? Do you do yeast breads? What do you do, Carrie? Well, I started with um quick breads.  So  banana, pumpkin, zucchini.  We grew  our own vegetables for those things.  But then I wanted to learn sourdough. So I spent about six months. 17:49 figuring that out um and then  started selling that. So now I don't do any yeast breads at all. um Everything is sourdough um and  it's really taken off, completely changed our lives. 18:07 So are you using sourdough for like cookies and cakes too, or is it just sourdough bread? We have  a  chocolate chip cookie recipe that has sourdough in it.  And then we also do uh a sourdough muffin, which  tastes like a bakery style muffin, the big jumbo with the dome tops and all the crumble on top. uh And those actually ferment longer than my bread does. uh 18:36 we mix the batter um up to three days ahead of time. the  sourdough will, or the discard, I should say,  will mix with the flour that's added in the recipe. So they're gut friendly as well. Nice. Okay. I gotta know, did you get a sourdough starter when you started this from a friend or did you try making it yourself? Oh, this is a great question. 19:04 So we had been gluten-free for many years and that's  one of the main reasons why we started sourdough so we could  eat better tasting bread.  And I tried to do  a gluten-free starter,  which I was successful in making the starter. I made both starters at the same time,  one with um regular flour and then one with gluten-free flour. um But  because I was so new to sourdough, I wasn't good at either one of them. 19:33 and gluten-free  ingredients are so expensive.  I kind of let that one  fade away.  because  we were able to eat the regular sourdough,  we just kept that one alive. yes, I have been,  I started from scratch, my own  start.  And it's been,  it'll be three years in October that we've managed to keep it alive.  Nice. Yeah. um 20:02 I was trying to avoid sourdough.  I've told the story at least once on the podcast at some point.  I was trying to avoid it because I didn't want to have to deal with it. And a friend of mine brought me some sourdough starter.  And I kept it alive for like two weeks. And I went to move the jar and it slipped out of my hands and hit the floor and the jar broke.  Oh, shoot. There was no recovering it. Yeah, don't want let it start. 20:31 Yeah, no, that would be really awful. So she gave me recipe cards with, you know, how she made the starter and she gave me a starter recipe for something. And I looked at the recipe for how to start sourdough starter. Well, that's a lot of start words in there. Yeah. And I was like, well, I could try making some of my own and I did. And it worked. First time worked. I was like, oh, it's doing the thing crazy. And 21:01 I got it to the point where I could actually make bread with it and I made a loaf and it turned out very bagel-ish. The loaf was like bagel texture. Yeah, and I loved it.  Loved it. Like if I could do exactly the same thing again, I would do it that way because I really like bagel texture.  And I happened to have cream cheese in the refrigerator. Yum. 21:25 It was bagel bread. I was so excited. I didn't care that I would never use it for sandwiches. I was just like, okay, I just learned a way to make bagels without having to make bagels. Right.  And as people say in Minnesota, as people in Minnesota say bagels, it's not bagels, it's bagels.  And a bag is a bag. Who knew? Right. So  I ended up loving it. And then about a week later I made another loaf and it was, it was not quite as undercooked, but it was still really good. 21:55 And I was like, huh, this is too easy. And I kept doing the thing with the sourdough starter because I didn't realize that I could just put it in the fridge when I didn't need to do anything with it. And it was fall and we were bringing produce in from the garden. And as anyone knows who brings in fresh produce into their kitchen, fruit flies absolutely know when you have produce sitting on your counter. 22:26 And I had the lid on the sourdough jar, starter jar, and those little, I would say a bad word, but I'm not going to. Those little buggers managed to get under the rim of the jar and get into the sourdough. And I didn't know. And I came downstairs like two days later and the sourdough had the orangey pinky color to it. And I was like, I'm done. I'm done for now. So I made another starter. 22:56 uh, three months ago  and it has been sitting in my refrigerator. It's been sitting in my  refrigerator for a month now because I was like, oh, I can just put it in the fridge because I'm not going to do anything with  it Um, but the thing that was heartbreaking about the fruit fly situation is just before that happened,  I took a spoon and it was,  I don't know what possessed me, but I was like, I just drug it through the sourdough starter in the jar. 23:25 And it made that crackly noise because of all the bubbles.  Oh, so it's And I was like, oh, it's perfect. It's perfect. And then it was dead two days later.  Yeah, gosh, those fruit flies  are  rough. We keep, we end up just putting produce straight to the fridge so the fruit flies don't even know that it's there. But yeah, it's, it's its own season for sure  when you're bringing in produce. 23:55 oh It is and you really can't put tomatoes in the refrigerator because they get all mealy. Yes. So that was part of the problem. We freeze our tomatoes. So we'll core them and then freeze them immediately so we can process them as we bring them in without having to have  so many pounds to make a batch of something. So I can process four, I can process 40. It doesn't matter. They can get... Yep. 24:25 put in right away because yes, fruit flies are such little devils. 24:32 They are little effers. I wouldn't say the actual word, but they are little effers.  So I learned my lesson the hard way. It was heartbreaking. I was very sad. My husband got home from work and I was still mad about it. And he looked at my face and he said, somebody pissed you off today. said, my sourdough starter  was invaded by fruit flies and I had to throw it out because it got pink mold in it. Yeah, you don't want to risk like your baby. 25:00 He said, you're a baby. You've been tending for months. And I was like, yep, it's dead. It's in the trash.  He was like, do you want to talk about it? I was like, no, I want to forget about it. And he was like, OK, never happened. I'm like, OK, good. So yeah, it will break your heart. And it's so dumb. If you ever want to make one again, um you can let some of it,  you can take a piece of parchment paper and smear some on that. Let it completely dry. 25:29 And then I have probably in three different places in my kitchen bags of emergency sourdough starter. Kind of back up. learned that after, Carrie. I learned it after that. However, I have a question. when I, when I do that, there's no question. It's not an if, it's a when. When I do this again, can I take some of the starter smear it on parchment paper? 25:56 and put it in my oven at the lowest temperature and dry it or does it have to dry, you know, in the air? people use, in Minnesota, if you actually want to sell your sourdough starter, it has to be dehydrated. So um oven on low or an actual dehydrator either or um is a very common and  best practice for  saving starter.  Okay, good to know because we use the 26:24 We use our gas range to dry herbs on the lowest temperature. So I was guessing that the sourdough could be done the same way. Yep, for sure. Perfect. Awesome.  So I'm assuming that you have gotten feedback or reviews on your sourdough breads. What do people think of it? Well,  those reviews are the reason why I keep doing what I do. um Just hearing people say it's the only bread they can eat. It's the 26:52 um only sourdough that they will buy, the best they've ever had. um And that's the beauty of  sourdough is that you can find your audience and your customers.  And that doesn't mean there can't be other bakers in the area because everybody has different preferences. um So we have quite a few sourdough bakers  in our area, um but we all have our own customers  and  it all works out. 27:22 um And it keeps me motivated to uh keep my standards high so people  get what they're expecting. I was actually  unaware that  I should probably be using bread flour um because it's got a higher protein content.  But because I started with all purpose flour,  I  don't want to change because  I don't want to mess with my recipe. 27:51 I, that's the one part of business  that hasn't changed.  If it isn't broken, don't fix it. Right. There are a million other things that I have changed and streamlined  or dropped because  they weren't  worth it  time or energy wise or resources. um But that recipe that  I  had from the very beginning, um once I perfected that, I just stuck with that. 28:22 Fantastic. Yeah, my dad used to say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So yeah, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.  Right. And even though every recipe comes, always have, so one loaf of bread, I'll always have, you know, a quarter cup extra, which is like 50 grams. Um, and then I multiply  one recipe for me now, one batch  is 25 loaves. And so I always end up with extra, but I don't dare, I'm not changing it. I know how long it takes to ferment. 28:52 And so, yep, it's not broke. I'm not gonna fix it. Good, don't make it exactly the way you've been making it because it works and it's great.  All right, so Carrie, where can people find you online? um I am on Instagram at Bear Country Blooms, um Facebook  under Bear Country Blooms and Bakery. And then I have a website,  just my first and last name. So Carrie Pauly. 29:23 at or KariPauley.com. So C-A-R-R-I-E-P-A-U-L-Y.com. That's where awesome. So if people want to order bread from you, they can? Yes, we bake all year long and we have a pre-order system so people can let me know what they want and then not have to stand in line at the market. They can just come right up to the pre-order window and 29:52 pick up their order. 29:56 Fabulous. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me, Carrie. I appreciate it. As always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Have a great day. Yes, you too.