A seed sown at the Greene County farmers market is sprouting into a year-round business in the snows of February. Tina Meseck, doing business as Better For You Bakery LLC, is launching her fulltime business in time for Valentine’s Day treats.
Meseck’s business name, Better For You Bakery, is descriptive. She learned to love baking from her grandmother and her great-grandmother, baking traditional recipes with traditional disregard for their nutritional content. About 10 years ago, she and her husband Tod, a pharmacist, took a close look at what their family was eating. They didn’t like what they saw.
It was then that Tina started “restructuring” her favorite recipes, finding ways to change the sugar, fat, and flour, without sacrificing flavor. “No baked goods are 100 percent healthy for you, but they can be better,” Meseck said. “If you play with the sugars, the fats and the flours, you can enjoy the things you like, in moderation, of course. You don’t have to give up good tasting food.”
At the suggestion of family and friends, she used the 2014 farmers market to test how people would respond to her style of baking. She sold sweet breads, cookies muffins, pies, scones, cupcakes, cakes and granola, all of which were well received by new and, as the season progressed, repeat customers. She has continued to bake to order for some of her farmers market customers.
Meseck baked in her family’s kitchen, meeting all the requirements of the Iowa Department of Inspection and Appeals as an unlicensed home baking business. The summer’s success prompted her to find a way to grow Better For You Bakery into a fulltime business.
She looked at several commercial locations in downtown Jefferson but didn’t find something suitable in her price range.
She credits Jefferson zoning officer Tom Heater for steering her toward her next business decision. “I wasn’t envisioning a ‘shop-and-stop’ business. I wasn’t thinking of a place for people to buy a cupcake and a cup of coffee and visit,” she said. “What I wanted was a place where I could have a commercial kitchen away from my house where I could bake in larger quantities and meet the stringent guidelines for licensing. It was time to move my business out of my house.”
At Heater’s suggestion, she started looking for a non-traditional business location. In October she purchased a small 1920-vintage house at 303 S. Maple St in Jefferson and began renovations.
She and her family, with help from local contractors, updated a lot of areas one might expect would need an update in a house of this age. Those updates also included expanding the kitchen and dining room workspace, adding a dual purpose division between the front entry and the food processing environment, more ovens, a second refrigerator, and the large triple wash and hand sinks required for all licensed food processing businesses. She turned one bedroom into an office and the second bedroom into storage. The back pantry was transformed into a space that will be dedicated workspace for gluten-free baking as of March 1. There is no sit-and-chat coffee shop space, as the location is zoned residential. Meseck is looking forward to sprucing up the outside once spring arrives.
Better For You Bakery is a state licensed food processing facility. Meseck is excited to be able to have a lot more space to work in and offer limited delivery options. This relocation and licensing means more options for customers in the areas of cold and hot held foods from previous shelf stable items only.
Her business will continue on a customer order basis. She plans to offer a menu each month with selections from categories such as: breads (sweet and yeast), pies, muffins, bundt/layer cakes, cupcakes, cheesecakes, rolls, scones, biscotti, bars, cookies and granola. The menu will change often as she creates new recipes, adds other types of food choices and finds what her customers like best or request. She is an avid gardener and will incorporate seasonal fruit and produce she grows herself or purchases from Farmer’s Market vendors. She will suggest times when customers may pick up their orders at her Maple St location, and she will offer limited delivery, also on a set schedule.
The monthly menu will be available on Better For You Bakery’s Facebook page and via a customer newsletter. Persons can sign up for the e-newsletter by sending Meseck an email at better4ubakery@gmail.com, or by calling her at 515-391-9549.
Cupcake bouquets and sweetheart cheesecake are available now for Valentine’s Day. A full menu will be available after Feb. 17.
As she gears up for business, Meseck is appreciative of the support she has received from family and friends, including her discerning taste testers, the farmers market customers who have continued to seek her out, and the skillful local contractors who helped prepare her bakery location. “All of them have helped me turn my passion, baking, into an exciting business venture,” she said.
