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Delaney Peters with Delaney’s Sourdough

Podcast Episode #132 —

Delaney Peters with Delaney’s Sourdough

 
 
00:00 / 59:59
 
1X

Delaney Peters lives in Wasilla, AK and sells sourdough baked goods with her cottage food bakery, Delaney’s Sourdough.

Delaney has only been in business for just one year, but her sourdough bakery has already grown immensely. At her weekly farmers market, she usually sells over $2k worth of bread in just a few hours!

And yet, she says that she started the business by accident, and had no expectations of it becoming a big thing.

What You’ll Learn

  • How a serious eating disorder led Delaney to artisan sourdough bread
  • How Delaney “accidentally” started her cottage food business and experienced unexpected growth
  • The “best decision” Delaney made when starting her business, and how it can boost your sales
  • How to manage and optimize your production schedule for maximum efficiency
  • Why you must choose the right markets for your business
  • When to upgrade to a commercial bread oven
  • How Delaney rapidly grew her Facebook & Instagram accounts without focusing on the algorithm
  • The importance of limiting your menu options
  • How to find balance when building a business while raising an infant

Resources

Delaney’s Sourdough website (Instagram | HotPlate | Facebook |TikTok)

HotPlate (ordering platform)

Alaska Cottage Food Law

Sponsor

Simply Bread mixes technology and community to power the next generation of bakers. 

Baking is not just a hobby or a business; it’s one of the simplest things that brings us together as family and friends, cultures and communities, all around the globe.

The Simply Bread oven marries traditional baking techniques with cutting-edge technology.

Simply Bread aims to make the world’s highest-quality baking products accessible to everyone, and the oven’s versatility allows it to bake bread, desserts, and more.

You can bake up to 15 loaves in 40 minutes, use its programmable steam generation and manual steam release feature, control each of its three deck’s temperature individually, and connect it to WiFi to access data about your bakes. They have also designed a line of baking accessories, the perfect addition to anyone’s bakery.

If you’re looking to upgrade your baking game from beginner to professional, they simply have the right products for you. Simply Bread is a baker’s best friend.

To check them out, go to forrager.com/simplybread

Transcript

This transcript was computer-generated, so there may be errors

David Crabill: Welcome to the Forrager Podcast where I talk with cottage food entrepreneurs about their strategies for running a food business from home. I’m David Crabill and today I’m talking with Delaney Peters.

[00:00:12] But before we begin, I’d like to tell you about the Simply Bread Oven. As you’ll hear today, it’s the oven that Delaney chose for her cottage food bakery and it is a pretty unique oven.

[00:00:23] It combines traditional baking techniques with cutting edge technology, so it’s both practical and futuristic. You can use it to bake breads, desserts, and more, and it’s a workhorse. You can bake up to 15 loaves in just 40 minutes. You can connect it to wifi  and control each of its three baking decks separately from each other, plus many more features designed to help you get the perfect bake every single time. And Simply Bread doesn’t just do ovens. They have a growing line of high-end baking accessories available because their mission is to make the world’s highest quality baking products accessible to everyone. So if you’re looking to upgrade your baking game from beginner to professional, they simply have the right products for you. I encourage you to check them out and I think you will be impressed too.

[00:01:13] To learn more, go to forrager.com/simplybread.

[00:01:17] All right, so I have Delaney on the show today. She lives in Wasilla, Alaska and sells sourdough baked goods with her cottage food bakery, Delaney’s Sourdough.

[00:01:28] Delaney has only been in business for just one year, but her sourdough bakery has already grown immensely. At her weekly farmer’s market, she often sells about $2,000 worth of bread in just a few hours.

[00:01:44] And yet, she says that she started the business by accident and had no expectations of it becoming a big thing.

[00:01:52] It has been quite the ride for Delaney, So let’s jump right into this episode and learn how it all happened.

[00:01:57] Welcome to the show, Delaney. Nice to have you here.

[00:02:03] Delaney Peters: It’s so good to be here, David.

[00:02:05] David Crabill: Well Delaney, can you take me back? How did this all get started?

[00:02:10] Delaney Peters: Oh man, well, I was making sourdough bread for my family and, I had just had my kid and I thought it’d be fun to just make some extra loaves and see if anyone in my neighborhood or my area wanted some. And I really had no idea what cottage laws even were. I was just kind of like, very casual about it.

[00:02:35] David Crabill: And I saw that somewhere you said that you started out just trying to make healthy food for your family, correct?

[00:02:44] Delaney Peters: Yeah, there were certain things that we decided we wanted to make from home and bread was one of them and we were eating so much of it that I was making multiple loaves and thought, oh man, this is really fun and just wanted to keep going. So, yeah, just born out of a desire to make better food, really.

[00:03:05] David Crabill: Well, as I was digging through your social media feed, I did come across an interesting post where you talked about an eating disorder that you struggled with as a teen. Can you share a little bit about that?

[00:03:20] Delaney Peters: Yeah, so, um, when I was in high school, I struggled with what’s called orthorexia which is like anorexia in that there’s a restrictive element but you actually hyperfixate on Healthy food, essentially, but so much the fact that it’s actually detrimental to your health. I actually eliminated so many things from my diet like good bread. That I was not doing myself a service at all, and, Yeah, I think in that post I was just sharing that You know what, like, we can be free to eat good food, and, the amazing thing about sourdough is, it’s flour, water, salt, and it’s fermented, and these are things that we can allow ourselves to eat and nourish our bodies with.

[00:04:10] So yeah, that’s part of my story for sure, and, yeah, it’s something that I hope I can um, continue to share that,

[00:04:18] if you are struggling with an eating disorder, you’re not alone. You’re not the only person that’s felt that way, and you, are loved deeply, and you can see the end of it, and you can nourish yourself without fear, if anyone does want to reach out to me, who may be struggling, or have questions about it don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

[00:04:42] David Crabill: Well, it sounds like, even though it was a disorder, you still had a fixation on food or you’re, it was definitely a focus for you. So did you expect to eventually start a food business at some point?

[00:05:00] Delaney Peters: No, No. So, before I got um, professional help with my eating disorder I actually had to go into like a treatment facility but around that time I started to learn more about exercise and nutrition, ironically, um, and so that’s kind of where I became more conscious about my health and, from there I went on to be a personal trainer.

[00:05:33] This is post recovery while I was in college Then I realized, I think I might be more interested in the nutrition side, and started doing more of my own research on ancient nutrition. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Wise Traditions podcast, but I started to do a deep dive and like, wondering what did our ancestors eat or what, how was food supposed to be made?

[00:06:02] And that led me to sourdough. And then eventually I left my career as a personal trainer to sell bread. I did a whole 180 essentially.

[00:06:13] David Crabill: Well, it’s kind of interesting. Cause I feel like most people land in sourdough just because maybe somebody gives them a starter or, they’re introduced to sourdough bread, you know, cause somebody gives them a loaf or something, but it sounds like you kind of came onto it through like research and trying to find food that was really good for you.

[00:06:33] Delaney Peters: Yeah, I think in my recovery you kind of need to be able to eat all foods but there are foods that you do feel good eating. So, I found that, oh, there is bread that I can enjoy and my body can enjoy too.

[00:06:51] David Crabill: So when did you start to make sourdough?

[00:06:55] Delaney Peters: I started making sourdough in 2020. but my Dad, actually, growing up, made sourdough, so it wasn’t like, a totally foreign concept to me, but I didn’t make my own starter or anything until then.

[00:07:13] David Crabill: Was it completely coincidental that you started at the same time that thousands and thousands of other people started given the pandemic and being at home.

[00:07:24] Delaney Peters: Yes, and I started, and people were like, Oh! Are you like following someone on Instagram or something? I’m like, what? I mean, I had Instagram, but apparently that was not my algorithm at the time. So yeah, it was totally coincidental.

[00:07:42] David Crabill: So you definitely would have started it anyway, even if it weren’t for the pandemic.

[00:07:47] And then how long did you make it before you started to get really serious about it?

[00:07:54] Delaney Peters: It was a few years. I didn’t start selling until late last year. So I, I did wait a while to get it down and for it to become like, second nature to me.

[00:08:06] David Crabill: Yeah. We’re here recording this at the end of October 2024. it looked like you just had your first anniversary. Right?

[00:08:17] Delaney Peters: Yeah, September 28th is when I made a little Facebook post saying that I had extra loaves.

[00:08:23] David Crabill: So, you’ve only been doing it for a year, and what has the last year been like?

[00:08:30] Delaney Peters: Well, it’s been a learning curve. I joke that I like, accidentally started this business, so every week I’m learning something new and trying to become more efficient. And become more professional. So late last fall, I made extra loaves and then I did like a couple small markets and that’s when the, I started to get the ball rolling of like, okay, this can become a thing. And then I did some more markets this spring which then led me to my, uh, little Farmer’s market stint for four months, which is super fun , but in the midst of all that, I’ve been doing weekly pre orders for pickup, so I’ve had consistent bake days and somewhat of a growing sales base.

[00:09:23] David Crabill: You say you started the business by accident. Why do you say that?

[00:09:27] Delaney Peters: I really didn’t see it becoming like a major thing. I was just like, oh, I bet people love bread and might want me to bake a loaf when we make our bread. And I had no idea that cottage food laws were even a thing. Until after I posted it, I was like, oh, I should probably make sure that this is legal.

[00:09:50] I mean it is Facebook. People sell stuff all the time, but let me just make sure I can sell food. And then I realized, oh, people like literally do this. And so, yeah, it was a little bit of a, I would say, accident just in that nature that I didn’t know what I was doing.

[00:10:05] David Crabill: Well, It’s interesting because from your social media posts, it really seems like this is a big passion for you now. But, It didn’t start that way,

[00:10:17] Delaney Peters: Right. Yeah. I have always loved baking and wanted to marry that with my passion for real food. I think it was something that I knew. Deep down I wanted to do, I just had no idea the capacity that I could do it in, if that makes sense, so At the time that I started selling bread, I mean, I was still working as a personal trainer, a new mom, so I had a lot of other things on my mind, but once I was able to step back and think about Okay, people love bread.

[00:10:53] I love making their bread. Like, Let’s see what I can do with this. Then I think the passion of like, supplying people with real food has just continued to grow in me, and I can see this being my thing for a very long time.

[00:11:07] David Crabill: Yeah. You mentioned you were a mom how old is your son?

[00:11:13] Delaney Peters: Yeah, my son, Kellen, will be 18 months here in a couple of days. So we’re just a year and a half in.

[00:11:21] David Crabill: So he was only six months old when you started this business.

[00:11:27] Delaney Peters: Yep.

[00:11:28] David Crabill: What does that been like?

[00:11:31] Delaney Peters: Oh, man. It’s not been easy. When we first started, he was taking more naps. He was not as mobile. And now he’s all over the place, and I have a bread oven in my living room, so there’s just more logistics and energy required from me and my husband to just, keep him out of things and in some ways keep us sane.

[00:11:55] But it’s a lot of fun and he loves watching and I’ll get him his little like workstation set up and he pretends to mix cookie dough and stuff. So there’s joys in it and there’s also some extra logistics and working around, what he needs.

[00:12:11] David Crabill: Yeah. I think it was one of your very first posts, and maybe your very first event, where you were wearing him in the front of you. Yeah, we were pretty big into baby wearing, so when he was small enough, could just throw him in the carrier and do my market.

[00:12:31] I was going to say, that’s kind of an unfair advantage, you know, you have a baby to attract all the people over to your booth, right?

[00:12:37] Delaney Peters: I know, I know. My mom did say something like that. She’s like, I feel like this is a good marketing little thing you got going on.

[00:12:46] David Crabill: Although I’m sure now that you’re in the thick of it, you probably wish you had started the business a few years ago before you had a baby to keep track of, right?

[00:12:57] Delaney Peters: I do, I do. Sometimes I think about that. I’m like, Man, I picked the most inconvenient time of my life to start a business, but, I guess no regrets, I’m learning a lot from it

[00:13:09] David Crabill: Well, some people would, given the fact they have a six month old, just say, you know, this is not the right time, you know, I’ll wait till they’re older. Why did you decide to move forward?

[00:13:23] Delaney Peters: I mean, I definitely didn’t go into it thinking I’d be doing big pickups of bread, but it’s kind of in my personality that I’m not extremely patient and I’m highly motivated, so I often take on more than I can chew, but this business is teaching me where I need to be and how much to take on and how much I can’t which is actually really good for me.

[00:13:54] So I’ve taken on a bit, but I have like, a capping point that is really good for my family. yeah, I’m kind of just learning about my capacity. As a mom and as a wife and a business owner right now.

[00:14:08] David Crabill: So when you started the business, guess you did a little post saying you had some extra loaves and then Got a little more serious about selling. What was that initial response like?

[00:14:21] Delaney Peters: Oh, there’s a lot of interest for sure. And I had a couple of my personal training clients say to me like, we’ve been waiting for this. We knew this was going to happen. I’m like, what? So, yeah, I’ve had a lot of, really sweet, sweet friends support me and that got the ball rolling as far as like word of mouth.

[00:14:48] David Crabill: So you posted on social media, you got some interest, you realized, Oh, maybe I could turn this into a business. What was the first step? Was it putting more effort into social media? Was it attending an event? Like, when do you feel like your business really became a business.

[00:15:06] Delaney Peters: I think after my first event that’s when I realized, okay if I am gonna do this, I need to figure out resourcing better bulk ingredients, packaging, and all that because, yeah, I think at the time I was You know, just getting a handful of bread bags off of Amazon and things like that. So, I just realized, okay, if I’m going to sell this amount, I need to really get organized.

[00:15:35] So my first event was a good eye opener. And then after that, that’s when I started, posting a little bit more and. Getting the Instagram account and all that.

[00:15:46] David Crabill: What was that first event like?

[00:15:49] Delaney Peters: Well, I laugh about it because my sweet friend who has a freeze dry good business, she invited me to this like outdoor salesman I don’t even know what event it was, but she invited me to this, and I was thinking in my mind, Oh, this is like the perfect crowd like, nature enthusiasts, stuff like that.

[00:16:13] This will go great. I apparently missed the point that it’s a gun show. So, It was like me, my friend, she says she sells well there every year, and then just like an entire ice rink of guns, and I’m like, Oh gosh, I don’t know if this is the best market for me to have come to, but my parents showed up and my dad went to like every booth and was like, Hey, you guys got to try my daughter’s bread.

[00:16:41] And so by the end of the day, we sold out. So that was great.

[00:16:46] David Crabill: But it sounds like maybe it took some marketing effort from your dad.

[00:16:51] Delaney Peters: I think so. And, that was one of the markets that I chose to do like samples.

[00:16:58] David Crabill: When was the first market where you feel like it just really was the right fit?

[00:17:02] Delaney Peters: I did a little Christmas bazaar. Just a couple of months later, or maybe a month later, and yeah, we had no issue selling and sold out within a couple of hours. So that’s when I was like, okay, I think it’s all about the market that you do, and I was still like, pretty early in my business, so I didn’t have a following or anything. That’s when I realized, okay, yeah, pick and choose your markets and make sure your branding is clear, your messaging is clear. And yeah, I think each market is a little bit of a, you learn something from it.

[00:17:38] David Crabill: So was that the first few months of your business just doing one off events?

[00:17:45] Delaney Peters: Yeah, I was still posting that I had bread available every week, I didn’t have an ordering software yet or anything super organized. It was just a Facebook post and a message to DM me if you want a loaf. And then, by the time I did that Christmas market, I had already had Hotplate set up, which is a software I use, and that sort of thing.

[00:18:12] David Crabill: And what were you actually offering at these early markets?

[00:18:15] Delaney Peters: I was just doing my artisan sourdough and I had a couple flavors that I would do and then I was also selling scones. So I just had those two items at the time.

[00:18:28] David Crabill: And were you using a Dutch oven with your. home oven to do everything?

[00:18:34] Delaney Peters: Yep. We had three ovens in my, my home oven. And then eventually we got a double oven downstairs. And so I was able to make, seven at a time. So yeah, lots of Dutch ovens and doing the whole shuffle.

[00:18:50] David Crabill: So when did you get to a point where you kind of knew that this thing was going to take off and you’re going to focus on it full time?

[00:18:59] Delaney Peters: I met with my brother who is a very successful businessman. He gave me some really good advice and I realized, okay, if I want to push this thing forward, I really need to invest in the equipment that’ll let me do that. So by new year’s, I still was only selling like pre ordering. People were pre ordering maybe 20 loaves a week from me, which is doable with the Dutch oven situation.

[00:19:31] But I knew in my heart that I wanted it to grow to something more, and I wanted to do events. That were a little bit bigger. by New Year’s, I knew like, okay, I think I want to invest in a bigger oven and another fridge so that I can push it forward.

[00:19:51] David Crabill: So this is only three months time, right? I mean, you went from having very little expectations to getting to a substantial point where you’re all of a sudden looking at investing significant money into equipment.

[00:20:05] Delaney Peters: That’s kind of my personality.

[00:20:09] David Crabill: So what are the next few months like? Like, when did you pull the plug and choose to make those investments?

[00:20:17] Delaney Peters: My husband and I talked about it a lot. We got to a point where, I mean, he was always On board for me just going all in, by beginning of February, I had ordered my bread oven, and they actually had a really big amount of orders that they were not expecting, and so my bread oven took a few months to get to me, which is kind of sad, but early this year was just a lot of like waiting, and trying to become more efficient with my, equipment and everything that I had at the time, in anticipation for my oven.

[00:20:54] David Crabill: Did that actually limit the number of events you did, or did you just put more effort into the Dutch oven situation?

[00:21:03] Delaney Peters: Yeah, I didn’t do a ton of events early winter and all that. I basically put my energy into planning some of the bigger events that were gonna happen in the spring. So, By the time my oven got here, I was ready to go for a three day market. I basically was bringing bread in the morning to the market while my husband was home mixing dough for the next day and it, yeah, it was utter chaos but super fun and a good experience.

[00:21:37] David Crabill: that three day market, what event was that?

[00:21:42] Delaney Peters: It’s called the Alaska Vintage Market.

[00:21:45] David Crabill: How long had you had your oven when that market happened?

[00:21:51] Delaney Peters: Oh, probably three weeks.

[00:21:55] David Crabill: Okay, and there’s always a learning curve, right?

[00:21:59] Delaney Peters: Yeah, I was super nervous about that because yeah, I kept calling and emailing the like bride distributor like hey, Is there an expected date on this? Because yeah, I have a big market and I would like to master the oven by then, but I did several bakes with my oven obviously before and it the learning curve was really seamless as long as you have your dough fermentation and timing and shaping down, the bread oven is easier than the dutch oven situation, in my opinion.

[00:22:32] David Crabill: had you already committed to that three day market?

[00:22:37] Delaney Peters: Oh yeah, I was already committed. So that’s why I was anxiously awaiting for my oven because it was like, delayed a few times.

[00:22:47] David Crabill: Do you think you would have backed out of it if your oven didn’t arrive in time?

[00:22:52] Delaney Peters: could have, but I bet I would have figured out something. I probably, I don’t know, maybe I would have baked through the night.

[00:23:02] David Crabill: And how was that first market in terms of sales?

[00:23:05] Delaney Peters: It was good. Yeah, it really helped me start to chip away at paying off my oven and all that. That was a little bit in my mind, the incentive of doing the market is like, okay, got this. Big oven that I want to, earn back for my sales essentially and that this market would really help me do that.

[00:23:25] So it was a really good time.

[00:23:26] David Crabill: Which oven did you go with?

[00:23:29] Delaney Peters: I went with the Simply Bread Oven.

[00:23:33] David Crabill: And why did you choose that oven?

[00:23:36] Delaney Peters: Oh, so many reasons. I really love the automation about it. A lot of bread ovens don’t have automated steam injection. They don’t always have the best like, even bakes, and I, so I did a lot of research and asked a lot of my micro bakery friends on Instagram their thoughts, and I decided well, I’ve seen a lot of people that go from one bread oven to the Simply Bread Oven, so I might as well just go straight to it.

[00:24:08] That was my reasoning at least.

[00:24:10] David Crabill: And what was the feeling like when your oven arrived?

[00:24:14] Delaney Peters: I was so ecstatic and just ready to get it set up and get baking. I don’t know. I’ve never like purchased a new car. So it felt like I was getting a new car. I don’t know. It was pretty cool.

[00:24:28] David Crabill: Well, you’re up in Alaska, right? And so, I don’t know, I’d assume that there might be issues with sourcing ingredients in a more remote part of the country. Has that been an issue for you?

[00:24:41] Delaney Peters: It can be, it’s usually not an issue of like getting a certain ingredient. It’s more of the time that it takes to get here. Especially since things can be either driven on a truck through Canada to us or on a barge. I don’t have a ton of issues getting my ingredients to me, but if there’s certain items that I want, like equipment wise, that is a little bit of the tricky part, is getting the good equipment to me.

[00:25:11] Because I can’t use something like Webstaurant on which is a super great resource for bakers down in the lower 48, but for me, they don’t actually ship to me So I kind of have to get creative in that but we have multiple Costco’s up here I can get the organic all purpose flour there. We have people that Sell wholesale like spelt berries, and rye, and all that that I use to mill for my loaves, so there’s not a huge issue with that.

[00:25:43] David Crabill: And you’re in kind of the greater Anchorage area, right? Do you think that’s why you’re able to source things more easily?

[00:25:52] Delaney Peters: Yeah, yeah, definitely, um, during my high school years, I lived in Skagway, Alaska, which is very isolated. You can only get there through boat or plane. So, that’s it. Microbakery there is a lot harder than here in Wasilla.

[00:26:10] David Crabill: Yeah, as you might recall, One of my recent guests was from Skagway and we talked a lot about their challenges stuff.

[00:26:16] Delaney Peters: oh yeah. so you did this three day market how did your business progress from there? Did you just start doing more big markets? Did you start doing consistent markets

[00:26:30] Yeah, so I had a couple week break and I went back to my weekly pre orders and then I went to the Matanuska Farmer’s Market, which is a newer market in my area. All local farms um, there’s another baker there and there’s a local coffee roaster. It’s just very small and.

[00:26:54] their emphasis is on basically stocking up on your weekly groceries. And so, I had my eye on that market. Basically since the beginning of the year because I personally enjoyed it so much first year. So I joined them. They’re so gracious to allow a second baker, which is really great of them. And I had that market every single week from the beginning of June to the beginning of October.

[00:27:24] So that was extremely consistent for me and it really helped me move my customer base in a way that I hadn’t been able to do that before.

[00:27:33] David Crabill: now that? You’re out of that farmer’s market season. Have your pre orders picked up?

[00:27:40] Delaney Peters: Yes. so I, knew going into the market that I wanted to offer weekly pre orders for pickup at the market so that if there are items that people really want to have but maybe they can’t get there right when the market opens or they know we’re gonna sell out or something that they can do that.

[00:28:02] So every single week we had pickup there along with additional things that we brought and I think that was the best decision I made all year because people would come in line, they would see, oh man, they don’t have the roasted garlic artisan that we want. But next week we can pre order instead and make sure that we get that.

[00:28:25] So that really helped me get my in person customers into my ordering software. And become like a retaining client of mine essentially. So yeah, that, the market really helped with that.

[00:28:37] David Crabill: Do you offer subscriptions?

[00:28:41] Delaney Peters: I would love to, I just really haven’t found anything, in very brief research I should say, that Is as like seamless as I’d want.

[00:28:54] David Crabill: So that’s only a technical issue. You think that subscriptions would work well?

[00:28:59] Delaney Peters: Yeah, I would love to do subscriptions for sure.

[00:29:04] David Crabill: So as your business has grown how has your menu evolved over time?

[00:29:09] Delaney Peters: Well, now that it’s grown, I’m not offering every single flavor of bread that I make. I reduced it down to a flavor of the week, essentially, and then my traditional loaf. And then I always have my English muffins on the menu. I always have a scone flavor on the menu. And then uh, Rotating like fun pastry or something or fun bread.

[00:29:37] But I try and keep my options on the lower end just so that I don’t get overwhelmed.

[00:29:46] David Crabill: So you’re saying that you were actually offering more flavors in the earlier stage of your business.

[00:29:54] Delaney Peters: Yeah, I had probably four or five that I just had available. Yeah, now I do, still have those same flavors, but I Yeah, I’ll leave it pretty limited, because otherwise, maybe I only sell one cinnamon raisin, and then I have like, I don’t know, it just becomes a lot if there’s low quantities of many things, if that makes sense.

[00:30:16] David Crabill: do you feel like the orders have picked up a little bit in terms of people buying a flavored loaf because they know that this is their only chance to get it for a few weeks or something like that?

[00:30:30] Delaney Peters: yes, I think so, and I think that there’s something about having a ton of stuff available on the ordering platform that is overwhelming. Because um, I’ve looked at, I don’t know, different bakers or it doesn’t even have to be baking. When I’m ordering something from someone handmade, if there’s 20 options, I’m overwhelmed and I can’t even choose.

[00:30:53] So something about the like lower choice situation is just easier for people, I think.

[00:31:01] David Crabill: It prevents analysis paralysis.

[00:31:04] Delaney Peters: Exactly. I mean, My goal is to not try and please everyone if I don’t have, you know, everything available, but I really want to keep the things on there that I know are really good and I can’t be a master of like, everything all at once. So, yeah, I think it helps my quality.

[00:31:22] If I’m not pulling too many places.

[00:31:25] David Crabill: What are your most popular items?

[00:31:28] Delaney Peters: Other than the sourdough bread, my sourdough English muffins are really popular, which is why we keep those on every week and then my scones.

[00:31:39] David Crabill: And are all of your products sourdough?

[00:31:43] Delaney Peters: Yes. Yeah. All products go through a long fermentation and yeah, that’s the heart of what we do.

[00:31:53] David Crabill: It looks like you use only organic flour. Why did you choose to go all organic?

[00:31:59] Delaney Peters: The goal for me is I want to give my customers something they can feel good about and feel good about giving their kids. And You can find the more highly processed things anywhere else, but I want to be unique and offer people more wholesome option, you know? And that’s just the heart of what we’re trying to do is. become, the place for people to go when they don’t have necessarily the time to make their own sourdough bread but they want something organic and wholesome.

[00:32:32] David Crabill: With you using only organic flour, obviously that’s gonna drive up the cost, Where have you landed with your pricing?

[00:32:41] Delaney Peters: My pricing is actually not super different from any other like, micro baker in my area or even in the lower 48. I found that Just because I’m in Alaska, I don’t really, think I need to go even further than the normal. But, Generally, sourdough bread is at least the artisan loaves, if it’s a good size, it’s either 11 to 12 dollars per loaf, and that’s where my loaves start is at 12. I’ve had no issues selling that. I think people really do see that it’s not sliced loaf of bread from the store. This is a handcrafted, food product. So that’s where I’m at right now. But I do try and stick within the normal range for a sourdough micro baker.

[00:33:28] David Crabill: Are there other good options for someone who wants to get a real authentic organic sourdough loaf in your area?

[00:33:39] Delaney Peters: Yeah, there’s just a couple other people that sell on Facebook or, a couple of other bakers who sell organic sourdough. Maybe not as consistent week to week basis, but there are options. So yeah, I’m one of a few.

[00:33:57] David Crabill: Are there any brick and mortar bakeries that do it?

[00:34:02] Delaney Peters: There is a little restaurant that does sell some bread, but I’m not sure if it’s organic or not. I know of a couple bakeries, but a lot of it is all yeasted stuff. So, I’m not super sure if anyone is really, I guess in the same category as me, as far as brick and mortar goes.

[00:34:21] David Crabill: I was just wondering if there was A growing demand in your area and it was just not tapped yet, you know, and you just kind of tapped into it. yeah, I think so.

[00:34:33] Delaney Peters: In a lot of those bakeries, I mean, they sell out of their bread really quick. So, There’s always room for more, I think, in my area, for sure.

[00:34:41] David Crabill: Do you feel like you have converted a lot of people over to sourdough with your business?

[00:34:48] Delaney Peters: Yeah, I think so. I had, you know, several people that just wanted to try it who maybe haven’t had sourdough or thought sourdough was like, really sour when it’s not. And, there’s quite a few people that it maybe wasn’t even on their radar or a part of their regular diet that are now as you will.

[00:35:11] David Crabill: When I was checking out your hotplate account, I saw you had a fruit butter. Seasonal fruit butter. And then you have the herb and oil dip. Now, I’ve definitely seen other sourdough bakers that do the kind of oil dip as an extra purchase, but I don’t know if I’ve seen anyone do the fruit butters. Has that been a good like, secondary source of income for your business?

[00:35:36] Delaney Peters: Yeah, it’s been good , it does better at like an in person market, but, yeah, we made it last year, too and we just used it with our samples, but we didn’t actually sell the butter, and people were all like, Asking for the pumpkin butter. Like, can we buy a can of this too? Or a little jar of this, this too?

[00:35:55] Oh, I didn’t make any extra. Sorry. We don’t have Trader Joe’s up here. So if you have Trader Joe’s at home, you’re probably familiar with their seasonal pumpkin butter and that’s pretty popular. So it’s just me bringing it to Alaska a little bit.

[00:36:11] David Crabill: Now, Alaska recently improved the law this year. which I know you’re familiar with. Has that impacted your business at all?

[00:36:20] Delaney Peters: Oh, yeah. Tremendously. Earlier this year, I had a couple coffee shops reach out asking if they could sell our scones and I basically had to say well, technically I can’t because cottage food laws don’t allow me to sell third party. I wasn’t at the point where I was wanting to go and get a commercial space and I still do really need something that keeps me home with my kid, and then this summer Cottage Laws opened up and they now allow third party sales and a few other really great, points of, that don’t necessarily affect me, but affect a lot of other cottage food makers. Our state has really great laws now, and so I’m currently selling Anywhere from 250 to 300 scones a week to a couple of different coffee shops right now. And that has been really great.

[00:37:20] David Crabill: That’s quite a large number for wholesale in addition to what you’re already doing. And how much are you typically selling weekly with your pre orders and your markets?

[00:37:32] Delaney Peters: so for my market, I was kind of capped at my fridge space. I need to get a bigger fridge And that’ll allow me to do more loaves, but we were averaging 70 loaves a week and Then we’d bring, maybe a hundred scones. We’d bring 25 bags of English muffins We’d bring focaccias, maybe like 10 to 15 of those And then, we’d have probably around 75 100 cookies, the market was just like, bring as much as you can sort of thing, but right now, post farmers market I’m averaging maybe 40 plus loaves.

[00:38:14] At least for my pre orders, and then for my scones, I’m doing like, 64. I could probably do more, but I only sell a certain amount for each pickup so, that’s where I’m at right now with that, and then, I’ll sell uh, Couple dozen baguettes

[00:38:31] David Crabill: Those are some pretty large numbers for a market was the market season, was that just one day on the weekend?

[00:38:39] Delaney Peters: one day in the middle of the week on a Wednesday. And the hours were pretty strange. It was four to seven. how that market is successful, I don’t know, but every single week we would have lines, which was a super huge blessing. yeah, And virtually had no issue selling there and neither did the other baker, which is really great.

[00:39:02] I just really love that we both did really well.

[00:39:04] David Crabill: You are bringing quite a lot to the market. Were you selling out each time?

[00:39:09] Delaney Peters: Yeah, There was one week we didn’t, and that was because it was pouring rain, but every single week we would sell out.

[00:39:17] David Crabill: that’s a lot of product that you’re running through the market each week. I mean, I’m, what is this, like, 1, in revenue per week?

[00:39:27] Delaney Peters: not factoring in other costs. Yeah, at least 2k.

[00:39:32] David Crabill: Wow, And that’s like 2k of sales within 3 hours?

[00:39:38] Delaney Peters: yeah. Something about that market, I don’t know. People would just get, there right at 4 and would stock up. And, uh, you know, Those numbers do include some of our pre orders. So, some of that was sold, you know, ahead of time, but we would try and bring more than our pre orders, if that makes sense.

[00:39:59] David Crabill: Well, Pre orders or not, I mean that’s pretty crazy and I don’t know if that’s a record, but it’s very near a record for anybody who’s been on the podcast. That’s a lot of product for a market especially a farmer’s market. But the limitation of that is that the market’s only open for a certain period of the year.

[00:40:21] So what are your plans moving forward? Because that’s gotta be a little bit challenging to go from a certain weekly income to now probably a, Significantly reduced weekly income, right?

[00:40:32] Yeah, and something about that too is just something I kind of grew accustomed to, like, since moving to Alaska, even my husband’s job is going to slow down here in the winter. So last night we were talking about like, okay, super great that you have this business and like, let’s think about maybe some ways that we can, you know, kind of make up for his lack of hours come winter.

[00:40:56] Delaney Peters: With my business a little bit and get him a little bit more involved, which is really amazing that we even have that opportunity, but it is a little bit jarring going from a big market every week to like, Oh, I don’t even have anywhere to go. But this coming November I’ll have a couple markets and that’ll, that’ll help. Especially with Christmas coming up, there’s going to be more. Gift shopping and hopefully maybe some bigger orders. So I’m not too worried about it, I guess.

[00:41:30] David Crabill: Well, it’s interesting because even though the markets closed down for the year like, those people are still out there. They still need bread for their family each week. Do you feel like there are things that you could do or could have done better to get their Info or, or try to get them onto a list or something like that.

[00:41:52] Delaney Peters: Yeah, well a lot of my weekly customers right now, found me through the market. So, We had a little sign at our booth that said weekly pickups. Scan this QR code. And Then they could put their phone number in our system and get a text whenever we post our menu. So I do still have a lot of my regular market customers in that system, which is really great. I’m sure there are things that I could have done, more, and I could have had clearer, maybe, marketing and branding week to week. But I think that, with social media and everything hopefully a lot of them have found our page or, word of mouth is really great too. but I feel like I do still feel connected to a lot of my farmer’s market customers

[00:42:45] David Crabill: Well,

[00:42:47] your markets included pre orders. And so Do you feel like the people who were custom to pre ordering has that also slowed down now that you’re out of the market season and they can’t pick up there anymore?

[00:43:00] Delaney Peters: honestly. My pre orders have grown a little bit, so I think that the people that maybe weren’t pre ordering and just standing in line, maybe caught on too. Because my market this summer was in Palmer, which is, I mean, not very far from my house, but I’m in Wasilla, I decided once the market ends, I want to have two pickup locations.

[00:43:26] So I have one in Palmer, which is 10 to 15 minutes from me. And then I have one here at my home bakery. So e very customer that comes through me has two pickup location options, which allows, more availability for them, which, you know, is more convenient.

[00:43:43] David Crabill: With the quantity of bread that you’re selling each week, is it just you and your husband? Do you have any help on top of this? right before that Alaska vintage market in May my, my Twin sister uh, McKenna, she moved up here with her husband, so I actually hired her on to be my baking assistant, which has been amazing.

[00:44:09] Okay. So it’s been the two of you for the whole summer. Making it work Yeah,

[00:44:16] Delaney Peters: Could not do it without her.

[00:44:17] David Crabill: Was that just circumstantial that she moved up or did she move up specifically to help grow the business?

[00:44:24] Delaney Peters: I think it’s a both and. we always wanted to live in the same town as each other, and so it just kind of worked out that I had a job offer for her, but the timing was perfect, so it worked out really well.

[00:44:38] David Crabill: Do you consider her to be kind of like an employee, or is she, at this point Almost like a co owner of the business.

[00:44:47] Delaney Peters: oh man, that’s a good question, cause we’ve gone back and forth about maybe we should just, co run this and it be like our full thing but I think right now. She’s at a point where employee is a good status. I’m still teaching her the sourdough ropes in a lot of ways.

[00:45:08] And it’s not even necessarily that she’s not capable. It’s, She’s also expecting her first kid. So I really don’t want to pressure her into, Okay, let’s run a business together. When she’s gonna go through a very, new stage in her life. As you know, like, becoming a new parent isn’t really the time to start Business, if that makes

[00:45:29] David Crabill: I do know that. And yet, here you are.

[00:45:34] Delaney Peters: Yeah, I know, I’m one to talk. I’m waiting to see how things go and how, how she’s feeling post baby, if that makes sense.

[00:45:43] David Crabill: I wasn’t familiar with Wasilla, Alaska. I looked that up on the map, and I couldn’t help but noticing when I looked it up, that very close to you, On the map, it showed that that’s where the Alaska State Fair is.

[00:45:59] Is that something you’ve had your eye on?

[00:46:02] Delaney Peters: Oh man, it’s hard to say because it’s a, what, four or five day event for a few weeks and the back to back days for markets are just really hard. Uh, I mentioned I did that. Market in the spring that was three days long and I truly don’t know if I want to do that sort of a thing just because the turnaround and the amount of hands needed to pull that off is just a lot and Yeah, I mean that would be amazing.

[00:46:33] I’m sure maybe I could do a day at the state fair or a couple of days But I don’t know if I would be able to do the whole fair if that makes sense

[00:46:43] David Crabill: Well, maybe Eventually you’ll invest in enough equipment to have a mobile trailer where you can make it on the fly.

[00:46:52] Delaney Peters: Wow, that would be amazing. Yeah, if I could be making it at the fair, then I could.

[00:46:58] David Crabill: so Do you have any estimate? of how much bread you’ve actually sold now in your first year.

[00:47:05] Delaney Peters: Yeah, I ran the numbers a couple months ago, or maybe a month ago, and at that point I was over 2, 000 loaves. So, I’m gonna guess maybe 2, 500 loaves so far.

[00:47:21] David Crabill: So that’s 30, 000 just in loaves alone.

[00:47:28] Delaney Peters: Right.

[00:47:29] David Crabill: then you have other things on top of that, like your scones and your muffins and

[00:47:33] your focaccia.

[00:47:34] Delaney Peters: yeah, which I couldn’t tell you off the top of my head at the moment. I’d have to look.

[00:47:41] David Crabill: But this is a very substantial business and growing. I mean, what is your home like? Is your home just maxed out?

[00:47:51] Delaney Peters: Yeah, like I said I definitely need another fridge. But in my garage I have a designated dough fridge. But yeah, I think I’m ready for another one for sure. But Right now, I’m I’m kind of toying with the idea of turning my spare room into another little workspace and then I’ll have more space for ingredients and other equipment too because right now it’s just not being utilized.

[00:48:19] So, I’m definitely at the point where I’m, very much maxed out in my space for sure.

[00:48:27] David Crabill: when you’re doing the markets or even today? Now you still have a lot of pre orders. What is your weekly schedule? Like, like, how are you churning out that much bread?

[00:48:37] Delaney Peters: on Mondays, my sister comes over and she helps me, wash bins that maybe weren’t washed before you know, I’m exchanging bins with my coffee shops, so I’ll have like, You know, empty bins from scones and such that I need to use, but they’re maybe not cleaned yet. She helps me with that. Just help me get, cleaned up and organized for the beginning of the week.

[00:49:01] Her and I will work together. We’ll pre measure dry ingredients. yeah, again On Mondays. Make sure we have the packaging, Labeled or stamped and, organized and set out for the next couple of days. And then. I’ll make sure I have my starter fed Monday night, and then Tuesday morning, we’re mixing all of our artisan dough.

[00:49:23] We’re mixing our baguettes. We’re mixing our English muffins, I’ll either have already mixed my scones on Monday, or I’m continuing to mix scones on Tuesday. Tuesday is kind of like the chaotic, crazy day it’s a lot of work, and then later on Monday, we’re pre shaping, we’re adding inclusions, we’re shaping our dough, putting it in the fridge, and then Wednesday, I’ll usually start out solo on Wednesday with my son, getting bread into the bread oven, and then later in that day, she’ll come over and she’ll start packing the loaves for me, helping me organize the bags for orders, and just keeping things tidy. we kind of work right now in a three day work week, which is really convenient for me. I do have to have like, sSet days where I’m like not doing anything because otherwise I’m doing something every day and then I feel really scattered So we have a pretty good flow right now.

[00:50:28] David Crabill: So you’re doing pretty much everything in just three days?

[00:50:34] Delaney Peters: Yeah,

[00:50:35] David Crabill: That’s pretty crazy. And I mean I guess obviously it helps to have your twin sister

[00:50:42] everything, but still, that is impressive that you’re pulling off that much production out of your home. in just a few days time each week.

[00:50:52] Delaney Peters: Thank you. I mean, In a lot of ways, it’s crazy, but it’s good.

[00:50:58] David Crabill: We do have talk about social media. You’ve only had your Instagram and Facebook accounts open for a year now, But your Instagram’s already over 2, 500 followers. How have you grown it so quickly?

[00:51:13] Delaney Peters: I think just sharing things that just pop into my head, I just share and not thinking about it too much, in a way, has helped. And Once I learned that cottage food was a thing, I really set out to find others in my industry, essentially, and really wanted to learn from others and grow in that way.

[00:51:34] So, A lot of the people that I follow are doing the same thing, and we chat, and so, there’s a little bit of, like, a community aspect to my social media that I think maybe accounts for a natural growth.

[00:51:49] David Crabill: I don’t think I’ve ever had someone come on that’s had the kind of social media growth that you’ve seen and just say they drew like that because they didn’t think about it too much. Like, I feel like most people are like, you know, in the algorithm, you gotta know the algorithm, you gotta post this number of times per day, are you posting like, consistently on, like, a certain number of times per day, or

[00:52:12] Delaney Peters: Oh man, I feel like earlier this year I was posting maybe like once a day, but I actually haven’t posted in a couple weeks. I’ve just been kind of like I mean, I really love, you know, connecting on there, but I have a suspicion that maybe being a girl with a bread oven in their dining room is like a little bit niche.

[00:52:35] And so maybe that attracts a little bit of attention. So part of it is circumstantial probably. but I don’t post as much as I have. before, at least while I’m sharing this, but I think sharing, you know, something on your feed, especially reels two to four times a week is, has really contributed to my growth, I’d say.

[00:52:58] David Crabill: You know, it looked like you pretty much focus only on reels, is that right?

[00:53:04] Delaney Peters: Yeah, Yeah.

[00:53:06] David Crabill: And I saw somewhere something about an e book.

[00:53:11] Delaney Peters: Yes, yeah, I recently wrote an e book with a couple of my micro bakery staples, so it has my organic, traditional loaf recipe plus my English muffin recipe. And then a whole lot of other guidance on caring for your starter, how to get a good loaf and just sort of the basics with sourdough.

[00:53:36] David Crabill: Is that e book something that you sell?

[00:53:38] Delaney Peters: Yeah, it is.

[00:53:40] David Crabill: Well, it kind of indicates to me that you’re very interested in helping others. You know, Not just running your business, not just providing food for your community, but you’re also interested in helping other bakers. And that fact alone might be part of the reason why your Instagram feed has grown like it has, just because if you’re providing valuable content and helping other people that contributes to the growth.

[00:54:09] Delaney Peters: Yeah, for sure. And I definitely do get messages of, you know, for help and advice. And that is really fun to me. I do understand that, you know, your recipes are a little bit of like you’re. Business security, but you know, that is why I do charge for that information, but it’s really in depth and I would never want to sit on here and just gatekeep because there are people that can’t just order bread from you every week and maybe they do want to try and I definitely want to help in that way.

[00:54:43] David Crabill: Another thing that I noticed kind of outside looking in to your Instagram feed is you’re very open, like you are on all of your posts pretty much. And also your son is often on those posts. Like you don’t try to hide him or, protect him from, social So it seems like a very intentional choice.

[00:55:06] To infuse yourself and your own family and living situation into your feed.

[00:55:13] Delaney Peters: yeah, and I, I think there are like general concerns with, posting family on social media. but If I’ve ever gotten any like weird things from anyone, I immediately block, okay? So there’s that, but um, yeah, I really want to be myself. If I’m going to post on social media it has to be authentic to me.

[00:55:36] And part of that is including my personality and my, my family and the people that are important to me. So do with that with you will not, that’s not for everyone, but. I have a lot of fun with it.

[00:55:48] David Crabill: Well, Your business has certainly come a very long way in just a short year’s time. As you look ahead, what are your plans?

[00:55:57] Delaney Peters: I’m taking a little bit of a breather, like I said on social media for a second, while I kind of, essentially, Recover from the farmer’s market because those were really intense weeks. I will be honest. They were very exhausting, but I’m kind of in a vision mode right now.

[00:56:16] So I’m thinking about you know, growing my social media and Hopefully, you know growing in a way that I can help more people who want to bake or even want to have a business and I do see myself keeping up with the weekly pre orders and I would like to grow my wholesale a little bit just for that consistency factor. that’s been really helpful just to know like, okay, maybe orders are down, but I, I do still have my wholesale and that’s something that’s really great and consistent. And then like, thinking further to next summer, I would love to continue to do that farmer’s market and have that be my like, bigger on season as far as out of the house kind of sales.

[00:57:03] David Crabill: Well, With the sales you’re already doing, you’re already at a point where you could be looking towards a commercial bakery. Is that something you’ve thought about, or have you ever I think this is going to get to the point where you have a brick and mortar.

[00:57:18] Delaney Peters: Yeah, I don’t know. It’s so hard for me to, I mean, the, the dream of it sounds amazing, but It’s hard for me to think about what that would look like with also wanting to be super present with my kid. So Running something, I don’t know, a whole group of employees and having the overhead of a bakery is really daunting.

[00:57:43] But, I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility if I think about maybe even further down the road like, a few years, potentially. nowhere near this release date, essentially.

[00:57:54] David Crabill: What drives you to keep pushing with the business and why do you love it so much?

[00:58:02] Delaney Peters: I really love and have a passion of like, being my community’s real food producer. And, Helping families in my community become healthier, we think about what’s in the bread products that we see every day, all day, and knowing what’s in them and knowing how that’s affecting people today really pushes me to um, continue to. Make the bread and help my community in this small way.

[00:58:33] David Crabill: Well, Thank you so much Delaney for coming on and sharing all that with us. Now, if someone would like to learn more about you, where can they find you or how can they reach out?

[00:58:43] Delaney Peters: Yeah, you can find me basically anywhere on social media, at Delaney Sourdough. I’m most Engage as a on Instagram. that’s probably the best place to find me, the best place to message me. Sometimes things get lost on Facebook. So find me on Delaney Sourdough on Instagram and yeah, it’d be really fun to meet some friends from this podcast.

[00:59:09] David Crabill: Well, Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing with us today.

[00:59:13] Delaney Peters: Thank you, David.

[00:59:15] David Crabill: That wraps up another episode of the Forrager podcast.

[00:59:21] For more information about this episode, go to forrager.com/podcast/132.

[00:59:28] and if you’re enjoying this podcast, please take a quick moment right now and leave me a review on Apple Podcasts. It doesn’t have to be a long review, but it’s truly the best way to support this show and will help others like you find this podcast.

[00:59:40] And finally, if you’re thinking about selling your own homemade food, check out my free mini course where I walk you through the steps you need to take to get a cottage food business off the ground. To get the course, go to cottagefoodcourse.com.

[00:59:53] Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you in the next episode.

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