TRUMBULL — For many years, Melissa Matzke dreamed of acquiring a bakery.
The Trumbull resident has lengthy loved working with her palms and her oven to produce specific issues. And, even however her job took her to other destinations for significantly of her existence, she by no means missing her enthusiasm for baking.
“I baked at home,” Matzke stated. “I baked for mates. I baked for household. I baked for donations.”
In the latest yrs, she’s discovered gluten-free baking, to accomodate her husband’s gluten sensitivity, and she’s learned more and much more about the science of baking. In between all of her expertise, and ongoing compliments from pals, Matzke began to imagine that perhaps starting off a bakery was not such a ridiculous concept — but she balked at the strategy of finding a retail space and all the operate and fees that arrived with it.
“It’s a risky proposition for anyone to do, in particular a person who has not performed this before,” she mentioned.
She determined that she would start off her bakery small business from dwelling and mmm…baked goodness was born. Matze’s household-centered bakery small business, which she begun in January, sells scones, muffins and galettes, all baked in her have oven. It is a single of many home-based organizations to pop up in Trumbull lately, with other individuals together with Pure by ShaSha, which sells organic entire body butter, confront scrubs and other objects.
There are numerous doable causes for this mini-business enterprise increase, explained Rina Bakalar, Trumbull group and economic progress director. Just one is that, in October 2018, the Connecticut Department of Shopper Safety started accepting purposes beneath a new “cottage food” regulation from those seeking to promote food items created in their household kitchens.
Point out law beforehand demanded all food stuff distributors to use business kitchens.
Bakalar mentioned the COVID-19 pandemic has also transformed the way a lot of men and women assume about work.
“I assume some individuals are on the lookout at reinventing their lives and priorities and wanting at function in another way,” she claimed. “People are getting their passion and commencing companies out of their residences.”
For Matzke, starting her bakery from dwelling was a excellent way to dip her toe into the environment of business enterprise ownership.
“To me, the largest gain to possessing an in-household company is that I get to check my enterprise,” she stated. “I bought to take a look at the thought with a really small money threat.”
Matzke mentioned she is accredited for a cottage kitchen area, which means she can offer the goods cooked out of her home.
There are limitations to these kinds of firms, such as that she just cannot offer any foods that needs to be refrigerated. Matzke reported she’d like to take a look at expanding to a professional kitchen at some position, but, right now, she’s focusing on her relatively brief record of solutions and selling primarily to some others in Trumbull.
“My check current market was Trumbull and it however is Trumbull,” she stated. “The local community has been overwhelmingly supportive.”
She’s also fairly constrained by the reality that she’s baking at dwelling in a standard oven.
“My oven’s like your oven,” she said. “It’s not specifically massive and only so substantially suits in it.”
Matzke does most of her baking on Fridays, and juggles the bakery business with her complete-time position as a statistician. It is a tricky equilibrium, but she said she feels she’s offering an critical company.
“Eating is incredibly psychological for men and women,” Matzke stated. “There really should be some enjoyment with it. You shouldn’t just throw foodstuff in your mouth and go. There should really be some mindfulness to it.”
She’s hoping her food items, which have fresh new elements, supply that for individuals.
“It’s built new in the oven,” she claimed. “You can flavor the butters. You can taste the cinnamon and the sugar. I come to feel like I’m bringing element of my home into your home.”
