Tina Meseck will celebrate the first birthday of her business, Better For You Bakery, at the Greene County farmers market this Tuesday, July 14, from 4 to 6:30 pm on the east side of the courthouse in Jefferson. Meseck will have birthday treats to give away, made better by Better For You Bakery.
Just one short year ago, Tina Meseck started Better For You Bakery as an unlicensed home baking business from her home kitchen. She baked for customers and offered her items for sale during Greene County and Glidden farmers markets during the 2014 summer market season. It wasn’t long however before her customers began to plant seeds of a dream for a year around business.
She chose her business name to directly reflect her baking style. She takes traditional recipes, deconstructs and rebuilds them in order to change, alter, cut or blend in areas related to fat, flour and sugar to turn out a better product – all from scratch – that more people can enjoy. She thinks of it all as going “back to basics, but with a better for you twist”.
Fast forward one year from last summer and a lot has changed while the core values of her “better for you” baking mission remain the same.
Last fall after an unsuccessful commercial property search, Meseck took a nontraditional route from most business models by buying a 1920s house in a residential neighborhood in Jefferson. With help from family and local contractors, she was able to get the location upgraded to meet the criteria needed as a commercial kitchen to secure her food processing license from the state of Iowa.
With the purchase of the house, she was also able to expand her business by including a gluten-free only area and selling gluten-free baked goods. Her business moved from her home to this business property in January of 2015. She is a LLC licensed and inspected food processor with the state of Iowa and has also taken the ServSafe class to obtain her national certification in food safety.
Meseck doesn’t offer a traditional stop and shop bakery due to her location and respect for the residential neighbors that surround her business property. So while you can’t stop and browse a case of her tasty selections, you can order custom baked goods from her directly. She still sells directly in smaller portions during the Greene County farmers market on Tuesdays, and Greene Bean Coffee carries her cinnamon rolls and variety of coffee cakes sold by the slice.
So what’s next for Meseck? During the course of year two, her vision and goal is to connect with more businesses to make her gluten, gluten-free and granola products more accessible to customers. She also plans to continue upgrading the outside of the business property.
