The Business of Baking
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Another story about Martha's Vineyard foodways from the Martha’s Vineyard Museum archive in Edgartown, Massachusetts. Rosalie Splende was born in 1904 to a family of 10 children. When she was growing up the family had no car so her mother would hitch up the horses twice a week to go and purchase ingredients to bake bread. Her mother baked and sold bread out of the family home to people on the island. Her mother also made delicious hot biscuits for the family which they ate with quince preserves. I call biscuits the utility retail food that can be sold at breakfast lunch and dinner. There’s so inexpensive and they can easily be mass-produced if done well. The key to entrepreneurship is starting small, expanding slowly, and finding the right strategy for marketing your product. Rent a space at a farmer’s market as a way to get started.
