Family Bakery Brings In Big Bucks

Family Bakery Brings In Big Bucks FARM HOME Food When Martha and Moses Troyer moved their family from Wisconsin to Colorado in 2011 they needed to find ways to support themselves Starting a bakery was a natural choice Martha’s mother had run a successful Amish bakery for decades prior selling pies rolls noodles and lots of candy to local gift shops She decided to follow her mom’s winning recipes making a few modifications to make them unique At the time she had three small children with one on the way Her Amish baked goods took off quickly at the local farmer’s market After two years of managing the market primarily by herself Martha realized her girls could be an asset “They wanted a playhouse ” she explained “so I told them to start earning money to buy one ” Martha was running out of time to bake her popular molasses cookies so she put her daughters in charge of them The girls boosted their marketing by setting out samples at their stand to entice customers and the cookies soon became a bestseller It didn’t take long to raise the money for their playhouse and the girls have also purchased ponies a saddle and more “Just this past week the girls bought a registered German shepherd ” says Martha “Now we’ll be able to make money off the puppies too ” The family is also saving their tip money with plans to take a trip together to Maine or Alaska The family bakes all day Wednesday and Thursday morning for the Thursday market Everyone works together to make over 300 fry pies 30 pies 50 to 60 loaves of bread and over 200 rolls and donuts Martha says donuts and fry pies are the most profitable “Making 200 donuts costs just $25 in supplies I sell them for $3 each so that’s almost $600 ” There’s a 2 a m wake-up call for the Saturday market to finish the last of the cookies and then everything gets sold within a matter of hours in a rush of market activity While the Troyer family has managed to make their Amish bakery a success they want others to know just how much work is involved “We make money on this yes but we make money while people are sleeping It takes a lot of hard work to be a success but financial freedom is worth it ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Martha Troyer ph 719-942-3189

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