A Weird Bakery in White

Weird, crazy, healthy and tasty. Baking with beets, carrots, pumpkin, oats, flax, anything but flour. At an old farmstead near the small town of White is a hidden gem, owned by a passionate baker: Sheila Rae. Whatever you've got left from your garden; Sheila will create it into something tasty in the oven.

The farm & bakery

The smell of fresh baked goodies lures me into the bakery at the farm. Bizzy Lizzy Flourless Bakery is the name of Sheila's company, which started seven years ago in Michigan. Convinced to try something else than flour, plus a neighbor with lots of excess produce from his gardens, led to the first and only flourless bakery in the U.S.. Four years ago Sheila and her late husband Erik decided to relocate their Michigan based bakery to the farm in South Dakota, where Sheila grew up. Bizzy Lizzy is a family-ran company, named after Sheila's daughter Elizabeth. Lizzy is a junior in high school who helps with baking and gardening.

Sheila in the bakery

What is Lizzy "Bizzy" with? During my visit, Sheila is continuously taking muffins and trays of granola out of the oven. Lizzy's grandmother is baking carrot-muffins, and employee Shawna is thoroughly cleaning equipment. Grandpa helps with the garden. Sheila also gets help from cousin Laura, and part-time help from her aunt (dietician) Sharon and uncle Jim. New recipes are being tried with an endless creativity. She is getting ready to record videos on how to use the ready-to-use baking mixes. When she explains to me how to stir a jar of salsa and a bag of mix together to bake a savory bread, I am wondering how long the instruction video will take. It cannot be more than 20 seconds; it's that easy.
Besides preparing baking mixes, muffins, granola and cookies for grocery-chains in the I-29/I-90 area in South Dakota, Minnesota and Nebraska, she drives 800 miles to Michigan with 3000 fresh muffins and other products every three weeks. THREE THOUSAND MUFFINS; I would turn into a muffin myself.

Lizzy & her "crew"

How "Bizzy" is Lizzy? Depending on orders, a day at the bakery starts around 7:00 am. Lately, Sheila has set a new goal: taking Sundays off. She proudly tells me she did this once. Alright, a confession: she did work 2 hours that Sunday...

Lizzy's grandma making carrot muffins

Sheila stores produce for the bakery in a giant freezer. Wasting food is the past. Leftovers can be collected in a big freezer bag, frozen and used for spaghetti-sauce in a personal household. She tells me about a lady in Michigan, who buys all leftover produce at local farmers markets, prepares and freezes it and donates it to food banks.

Sheila lets me taste a fresh baked - still warm- chocolate/red beet cake. Absolutely delicious, but it almost feels unfair. To get a more realistic idea, I buy a bag of the Red Velvet Granola at the grocery store. A crunchy oats-mixture with chocolate that melts in your mouth. I can taste the beets. It is not too sweet. Since I opened up the resealable bag, there is no way I'm going to keep my children from munching from this treat. They like it as a snack, I love it for breakfast. I'm wondering how this would taste if you'd add some red pepper or hot sauce. Spicy chocolate, hmmm... Bizzy Lizzy must be thinking I'm even weirder than she is!

Lizzy's garden, ready to plant seeds

Sustainability, creativity and a different philosophy about food seem to be the keys of Sheila's success. Plus the support from her family. Her goal: going National; not limited to selling baking mixes internationally. More info about Bizzy Lizzy is available on their website: www.bizzylizzybakery.com.