Baking Sourdough With Faith | Gretchen Mildon, Boomcakes Bakery #067

Hey everyone, it's Karissa from Shining Light on Minnesota. I have Gretchen here from Boomcakes. Welcome Gretchen. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. Yes. So, we have a lot to talk about today. Yeah. We're here in Roseville. You know Roseville? I do. I was born and raised. Yes. So, let's start back at the roots and then we'll work our way towards the bakery. Yeah. So, I was born and raised in Roseville. Um, I told you earlier that I was raised through the Roseville school system. Um, I became a firefighter and my first firefighting job was in Roseville. I got to serve the community that I grew up in, which was a dream come true. Yes. I met my husband on that department. So, Roseville has served me good. Yes. And we've done probably work for the fire department when you were probably serving. I'm sure more than likely. Yes. Yeah. So, let's dig a little bit deeper and talk bakery. Yeah. not originally where you thought you'd be and now all of a sudden you're not just baking for the fun of it, but you're also baking for a community and now selling some of it, too. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I thought I would be a career firefighter for sure. So, being a bakery owner was not in the plans. But I've I've always baked. I've always cooked. Um I baked and cooked with my both my grandparents, uh my both my grandmas, and loved every second of it. I loved how it brought family together. Um, everything that I love involves food really. So, I like to be the one that provides that. Um, but yeah, I started a bakery because my friend was pregnant and was craving sourdough and she can't bake. She's a great cook. Yes. Um, there's a big difference between the two. Very big difference. Yes. Very few people can do both. She does food prepping though. She does food. Very good prepping. Yes. Yes. Very good prep. I would let her cook me food all day long, just not bake me a cookie. So, I'm the one that does the baking and I made her bread throughout her whole pregnancy. Um, she owns her own gym, so I would bring her bread uh to the gym and her clients slowly were asking for bread and that's just kind of it popped off. It kept growing. It was an sourdough is one of those niches these Well, not really a niche, but sourdough is one of those things that people are more drawn to, for sure. It's healthier. It's it's it's very accurate. It's very good for your gut. So, if you're going to eat bread, I tell everybody all the bread, bagels, um muffins, pancakes, pizza crust, I make it at home and we eat it sourdough. So, every bread product, 99% of the bread products we eat in my house are all sourdough, but there's a lot more sensitivities these days, too. Yes. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So, I love it. So, now you're getting out there and you're selling it as well. Yes. And I do um not just sourdough. I do like baked goods as well, but like you said, sourdough is so popular right now that I sell out of sourdough. I can't keep it in stock. Um so that's kind of like a huge focus. There's a fat fkaca one too that I know that you specialize in that people just love. Yes. I every market that I go to, I have people that come and follow my markets to buy that ficasha cuz I will always bring that ficasha to market um cuz it's my best seller. Yes. So, let's talk a little bit about the clientele. I know that that's that's a niche because I know in when you're on camera, when you're off camera, people can be catty. Oh, yeah. Whether it's on camera, off camera, they like to critique and they like to say things and do things. Whether it's for the good or for the bad, people can be people. Yes. Yes. Um, I got into this because I love feeding people. Right. Right. I love baking. It's so calming to me. Um, so I was like thrown for a loop when I started joining like the bakery communities, right? And it's not so much clientele, it's other bakers I've I've like learned that like to critique your way of doing things, like to critique your recipes. You cannot monetize a recipe. Um, it's ingredients. If somebody three ingredients, there's three ingredients for sourdough. Flour, water, and salt. Right. though. Um, but you know, I it blows my mind when people tell you like a huge thing is to not be a cottage baker if you're new to sourdough because you haven't critiqued your craft, right? If you've made one loaf of sourdough and somebody wants to buy that loaf of sourdough, please sell that loaf of sourdough. Like, absolutely sell. Just like if you find something on the internet and it's your niche, sell it. Yeah. Whatever it is, do it. There's no right lane. Yes. There's no right time to start. Most cottage bakers, like most, every state is different and their laws, but it's pretty easy to get into. Um, they do it for a reason. So, you can do it from your home, so it's small. I would love to feed the world. I can't feed the world out of my oven, right? So, I am very big on how-to videos on my social media. I will tell you how to make stuff. I'll give you all the recipes. If you want to make it yourself and not buy mine, that's great. I love to teach people how to make stuff as well. So, I was I was a little taken back and I'm like so devastated. I know. I'm like, aren't aren't bakers supposed to be like grandmas and aunties that just want to feed and helpful and let's feed more people? Yeah. Let's get in the kitchen and bake together, right? Yes. So, I'm one that will help you. You have a question. I don't care. Well, I think it's it's interesting, too. I mean, it's kind of one of those things that like you get out there and you want to help people. It it's food. Food is supposed to bring you to the kitchen. Yes, you're supposed to bake and all eat together. And it's it's one of those things that you do together. It's not supposed to break you apart literally, right? Like it's not it's not something that's like getting caddyy and being like, "Hey, that's mine." Yes. I'm not supposed to It's a recipe. Recipes are to be shared from generation to generation, right? It's not copyrighted. No. And look, I if your grandma had like a secret recipe that was passed down, I understand not giving that away, but it's bread. It's bread. Yeah. Yep. You're not using any secret ingredients. It's just bread. Yeah. I mean, I think it's it's fun the way people are. I mean, I get that they have secret recipes and that's great and fine and dandy. And I love that they do that and it's handed down. So be it. But at the same time, people need to eat. Yes. And they need to learn. And taking that step forward and empowering other women and another empowering other people and getting more people into the kitchen and sharing and breaking the bread and doing what they need to do is very is a part of our culture and we need to get more people out there and invite them into taking that first step, especially new moms. Yes, that's that's very important. And I've noticed that baking really is a skill that's kind of gone by the side because we can it's so quick and easy to buy something. Um, so not everybody knows how to bake things or like knows where to start or knows the difference between baking soda and baking powder. What does that do? So they get a little scared. Yep. It's not that big of a deal. And there is a big difference. And I know my kids even see it. Mom, did you actually make these cookies? Or did you just go buy the frozen ones and throw them in? No, I made them. It's, you know, it's the recipe. Or did you actually make the brownies or did you go buy the brownies? Like there's a big difference. And it takes like 10 minutes to mix together cookie dough. Absolutely. Very easy. There is a very fine difference though between melting butter the right way and having the melted butter because the cookies will flatten. There's certain things that make make the cookies turn out and people need to learn and it's fun to have the kids in the in the kitchen helping, too. For sure. Absolutely. I mean, it's just one of those things that it's making memories, too. Absolutely. Those are my favorite memories is baking with my grandma's. Yep. And having having passed those down to other generations and friends and family, too. Baking is fun. Cooking is fun. just getting more people in the kitchen and doing things like that, too. Yeah. So, this ended up being a side job. You also do payroll and things on the side, too, right? Yes. So, um my husband owns a semi-truck and trailer repair shop. We also repair RVs. Um once the shutdowns happened, everybody bought an RV and there was like a boom in need for RV repair. So, we do do that as well. We have um Diesel Mechanics. Yep. Uh he owned that when I met him and then his office manager quit one day and he thought he could do it on his own. I too many hats. Too many hats. I worked for a bank for a while so I have the mind for numbers. I have the head for organization. I'm very organized. He's not quite as organized as me. So it was natural that I fell into that role. Yeah. Um I don't love it. Right. This is not my passion. I don't want to do numbers. I don't want to do the payroll. No. No. Um, it's definitely not as exciting as firefighting. So, uh, the bakery is like my creative outlet. Your d-stresser, too. Yes. My d-stresser. I look forward to going home and like working at my bakery as opposed to running payroll. Yeah. It's funny. Everybody has to have a distressor. Yeah. How do you find that like when you were doing the firefighting that people didn't have a distressor? What did they what did they have or what did the firefighters have for you guys to do to distress when you went home? You know, we went through a lot of trainings. We talked a lot about d-stressing. Depending on incidents that you went on, you would have people come in and talk to you after. Um the stress is a lot different, right? Firefighting than payroll, obviously. Um you know, it I was very lucky that I met my husband doing it. Yeah. Um it doesn't always work to date somebody or marry somebody in the same field. But you cuz you have to understand. Yep. So that was very nice. Um a lot of people think it's so funny that him and I still work together, live together. If he's going to go on a 10-minute parts run, I leave my office and go with him, right? Um but that's just because that's how we learned to communicate, learned how to be together. I trusted him with my life before he became my boyfriend, right? Um, so you know, talking about it and getting outside. Honestly, fresh air is one of the best things you can do. I know we live in a state that's cold, but I honestly love winter walks. I like the crisp air outside. Yeah, it's good for your lungs. It's very good for your lungs. Working together. I know a lot of people mention about working together and having that work life balance, which isn't always quite there. I mean, it's it's I I get it. Trust me, I do. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's it's one of those things that it's easier to understand when you're actually in the relationship. You know, it's you understand what he's going through. He understands what you're going through. So, it's like one of those things you go home, you don't need to shut it off. You just understand what his day is like and he understands what your day is like. So, it's it's easy. It's an easy flow. The e like the easiest comparison is or example is during the pandemic, right? We were business owners. Other business owners may know what you're going through, but unless you're speced essential, so we got to stay open. Yeah. So, it was nice when he came home that he already knew that I knew what was going on at work. He didn't have to download me on anything. He Correct. I think it actually works better in the long run for your work life balance because I know everything that happens at work. You know, his life or his day was stressful. He knows yours is. So, it's like if he shut down, okay, I'm just going to let you be. you do you and he doesn't have to come home and I understand communication with your partner is very important and if we didn't work together I'd want to know what happened at work but he doesn't have to explain that to you if it's already like okay we get to walk in the door and be done unless there's something pressing right it is done yep and he yeah I mean that's totally what it is easier to do it that way so what do you think is next for the bakery you guys have your bread you have your fkaca what else do you think you're going to be you do some cookies and brownies what are some of your specialty items that you have. Um, so Christmas is coming. I'm very excited to do Christmas baking. I have because I grew up baking with both my grandmothers. I have specific recipes that are like handed down during Christmas time. I can't wait to do Christmas cookies and baked goods. Um, I've been throwing around the idea of doing just a little box of cookies for Santa. So, you can just like, you don't have to be the one that makes them. You can just say, "Hey, I made these for Santa." Yep. So, if you do cookies for Santa, um I just recently set up um drop offs at my friend's gym. Oh, fun. So, drop off performance. Yep. Complete performance. I would love to kind of get into more businesses to do drop offs like that with um the cottage food laws in Minnesota. You have to you can't wholesale sell. So, I couldn't sell to like a grocery store and have them resell my bread. Got it. But, I can sell and then do drop offs as long as the customer is paying me. Um, so I would love to kind of do that more. It's a little bit different than doing porch pickups. Porch pickups can be hard in the winter, especially since we live in such a cold. Um, I live in Northeast Minneapolis on a pretty busy street, so it's a little hard to like stop. So, I would like to be able to expand that way and feed the community that way. Yep. So, that's kind of what I've been throwing around for sure. Yeah. Very exciting. So, you have you have the baked goods, you have the cookies. Yeah. You just recently found your faith again. Tell a little bit about that. Yeah, so um a probably year year and a half ago. Um my friend, she's like my one friend. So yeah, that's okay. It's good to have your It's good to have one friend. Yeah. Um she's pretty strong in her faith. And I grew up going to church um my whole life, 18, 19 years old, and then I kind of stepped away. Yep. Um, you know, I love my dad for bringing us to church. It definitely gave me that foundation, but I didn't have like my own relationship with Christ. It was kind of kind of a more of a force. You're just not understand partially forced, but you know, you went cuz you had to. Um, so then I didn't have to go anymore, right? I wanted to just kind of you don't you don't fully understand it at that age is what it is. Yeah. Yep. Um, and then the last year, year and a half, uh, was a little rough. And I had like prayed during my 14 years of not doing anything, but it was never like real, I would say. Like I really didn't feel it in my heart. Yep. And if you are a person of faith, you know that, you know, you kind of got to pray from the heart. Yeah. So, I had a breakdown moment and I prayed to God and I asked him for something and I don't I'm not like a religious like I know that this is the way to do it, but I kind of made a deal. Mhm. And he kept his end of the bargain. So, my end of the bargain was I would go to church. Yeah. I would walk in I hadn't walked into a church for a church service besides a funeral or a wedding for 14 years. Got it. Um, so it's kind of like your like coming to Jesus moment like, "Okay, I'm doing this." Yep. Um, selfishly, I knew that my friend went to a half an hour mass on Friday, so I was like, "Perfect, half an hour. I'm on and out. Do this." Yep. Super easy. Um, I did not grow up Catholic, right? So, she's Catholic, so she had to help me with the whole thing. Um, and then I didn't want to stop going that one day, right? So, I knew that I wanted to Yeah. I wanted to explore my faith and I knew that um the church that I grew up in wasn't necessarily the church that I wanted to go back to. Um I wanted to find one that kind of spoke to me. Yeah. So my favorite person in the whole world besides my husband is my great aunt. She is a Presbyterian pastor. Yeah. So I called her and I asked her about churches down here. And you know living in northeast Minneapolis there is two churches on every corner. Yeah. So, I just spent probably six months going to different churches around. Yep. Figuring it out. It's exhausting, I know, but it's very important. You have to find one that speaks to you. Yeah. Yeah. And I kept going back to Friday masses. I would go every Friday and then on Sundays I would pick a different church cuz I thought it was so cool that Catholics had mass every day. Yeah. It was It was convenient. Yeah, it was convenient. So, I could fit that in and then check out a new church. Yep. Just keep going through it. Yeah. So, I kept kept going back to the Catholic church. Uh, my husband was raised Catholic as a kid. He was not in his faith anymore either. Um, but when I decided that I wanted to convert to Catholicism, it was kind of like a one two where he could be my sponsor and kind of come back and do the classes with me. Perfect. He is my best friend. So, we like to do everything together. Um, it's nauseating, I know, to some people, but I get it. That's that's that's good that you have that stuff. I mean, it's it's sometimes in relationships you have that and sometimes you don't. And when you can live together and be a best friend and go through life and go through the things that you guys have gone through and still have that, that's perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, we I converted um I was confirmed this past Easter. Amazing. Congratulations. Thank you. Um and I've just been deepening it all the time. I so much so that uh on my for the bakery you have to have like a list of ingredients of caution foods of your you know there's a whole list of things and I put little Bible verses on each amazing um sticker. It's just my little way of yeah which a lot of places don't do that and a lot of places I mean there are specific businesses and specific places that when you go I mean that'll be their question. Do you believe in God? Do you believe in you know Yeah. And sometimes people will go to those places specifically for that and sometimes people won't and it's just who they are. Yeah. And I'm not shy about my faith. I would never like deny it or um like stifle it for some people. It is the nice thing about owning your own business. You can nobody can fire me, right? If nobody wants to buy my bread because your bread, right? Yep. Um but it is it is like such a cool little thing to put out there. I don't want to be pushy, so I don't It is what it is. If you see it, you see it. If you don't, you don't. Yep. So, you lived in Texas for a while. Yeah, I lived in San Antonio for about six months. Yes. And you did some firefighting out there. I applied for San Antonio. Yep. I applied for San Antonio Fire along with 5,000 other people. They were hiring 8 to 12. I was not one of the 8 to 12, which is a big selection. Yes. Very big selection. Um, you know, and it was honestly a blessing. I didn't really like it. It's a great city to go to for the day. Big city. It's a very big city. Um, I don't dislike Texas. I just wouldn't move to San Antonio. you wouldn't have the cool crisp winter like you had. Exactly. Um so I came back um I had the best boss when I was in high school. He gave me my job. I just went back and I was like it didn't work out. Can I come back? Um and he let me come back. So I had a place to land. I applied for Rosevilleire. I got on within the first year of coming back and the rest is kind of history. What do you think is the best advice that you've been given? Um, don't be afraid to fail. Fail fast. I think it was Gary Vee that said that. Fail fast. Yeah. That's one of one of my favorite quotes is to fail fast. And it it's still hard for me to concept sometimes, but it's so true. It is because I have like I have so many ideas. I have so many like cool interests that you just keep trying them until you find one that sticks for you, that works for you. Right. You don't have to give all the other ones up, but this is the Yeah. This is the one that's working right now. Put your put your best foot forward. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So, I've been meeting a lot of people lately, and it's it's interesting to me when I ask somebody, I'm like, "What are your hobbies?" And they're like, "Well, I don't really have any." I'm like, "Well, how can you not have a hobby? There's got to be something out there that you love or enjoy. Like, let's try something together then. Let me help you." You know? What have been some of your other hobbies? I know you've talked about the baking and you mentioned some powerlifting. Yes. So, I was a competitive powerlifter. That's how my friend Jordan and I met. We had the same coach. Y um when she got pregnant, obviously she had a stop and it just worked. I was in a time of change as well, so I stopped. But working out is definitely still part of my life. Um I love to work out. It's a great stress relief. It's a It's great for your body to move. I truly believe that motion is lotion. Um as an entrepreneur, everybody is always like, "Well, when are you going to retire?" My husband and I say probably never. You don't because if you don't use it, you lose it. Like regardless, you have to do something. I hope I'm doing I hope I'm baking bread at 85 or something. You're doing something. Your brain will stop working if you don't use it. Yeah. Oh, so besides baking and working out cuz now those are kind of like integrated into my life. I love camping. I love going on hikes. I love getting outside. Yes. Yeah. Good. Good. What does your husband like to do for fun? He also loves to go camping. Um he loves working with his hands. So he loves working and building furniture out of like metal and wood. That's super industrial stuff. Um I fun fact work worked at Henipin County Jail for like a blip. In that time I met a gal who worked there and no longer does. Her and her husband opened up a um resort in Niswah fun. And we outfitted the wedding venue with some stuff like their arches, their head tables. Um, we outfitted some of the resort stuff for them as well. So, that was super cool. That is cool. I mean, you never know who you're going to meet as long as you have a conversation. Exactly. Or who they have in com or connection or anything like that. Traveling. Have you done any traveling? Um, the last time I traveled, I went to Bise and that was probably like three years ago. Otherwise, I haven't traveled too much. Like camping wise, where do you like to camp? Um, you know, we're so busy with work that we can only do like 2 or 3 days. There's a super cool campsite um in Spring Valley, Wisconsin that's like an hour from our work. So, we can leave on a Friday after work, go camping, come back. The dog, we have two dogs. What kind? Um, so Boomcakes Bakery is named after my boxer. His name is Boomer. Fun. I've called him Boomcakes his whole life. He's 10 and a half. Acts like he's two. Yep. Um, so I have him as a boxer and then we have a Boston Terrier named Taco. Oh, fun. He's our pandemic dog. We got him two days before the world shut down. Do they get along? They love each other. Love each other. And then we have a cat who actually rules the house. They are scared of her. Of course. Right. Just walks around improper, I'm sure. Oh, for sure. Yes. What do you think's next for the bakery? Anything new and exciting that you're going to try that you haven't tried before, or is it all the old recipes? Um, so I would like to make the holiday baked goods a lot bigger. Um, last year I did just a couple. Just kind of growing it, figuring out how I can grow it while still cooking in my home kitchen. Um, I would love to get to the point where I can buy a bread oven and just Yes. Thanks so much for Do you think that you would get to the point where you'd want to bake outside the house or would you like to keep it inside the house? Um, you know, right now I like baking inside of the house. I ultimately would love like I don't you know like a YouTube cooking show or I I love teaching people. That's really like giving back and for so I would love to be able to do some like I feel really bad about classes and people paying for a class for me to teach you how to bake. Um so a YouTube is a free way for them to get it. Let's do together. Yeah. So I would love to do a baking show like that somehow. What about doing classes at your house? Um, you know, I going to people's houses. I would go to people's houses. Yeah. Um, or like a big venue. I know there's kitchens that you can rent space out. Um, yeah, I would love to teach people. Yeah. Well, I know you were at an expo not long ago um that they do. Do you do a lot of those? Um, so I have done the wellness fair. That one that was my third year. This year I um we had a couple like deaths in my family that happened super suddenly. Thank you. Um, so I had lined up quite a few like um, markets and stuff that I just kind of went on autopilot with. Went to those markets. I haven't really checked out I didn't check out too many markets outside of that. Um, but I know December and January is when you start signing up for summer stuff. So, I'm excited to sign up for like festivals in the summer and farmers markets and different events like that. Well, we have an event coming up in April. Okay. where we have a bunch of vendors here, um, contractors, things like that. So, if you definitely want to have a table and set up your stuff, that would be perfect. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And I know you do a lot of stuff around Blaine, too. So, I know that there's always stuff going on for sure there, too. Yes. Yes. Blaine is like my second home. That's where my gym is. That's where my church is. That's where everything is. So, you have a lot of stuff going on. You have a lot of bakery stuff coming up for the holidays. How can people get a hold of you? Um, so my all my social media is Boomcakes Bakery. Yeah. I have an Instagram and a Facebook. Um, they can message me on there. My personal all my personal social media is Gretchen and Joy. So feel free to message me on there. Yep. Yeah. Perfect. Last question before we wrap up, and this is a good one. What kind of advice would you give to the younger generation coming up? You know, help each other. It's not a competition. It's great to have healthy competition, but to like genuinely be happy for someone to grow because I think the ugliest thing is to not help each other and to want someone to fail. So, I believe that if you put yourself in a position to help others, it will come back to you tenfold. For sure. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for being on today. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to have you to our site and let everybody else try your breads and your baking. Yes. Thank you. Yep. Thank you. See you later. Bye.