What's Working, What Isn't, and What I'm Still Figuring Out

This business is a living thing. It changes week to week, and the only way to keep it honest is to keep talking about it openly. So here is where things stand.

What Isn't Working

Offering Two Different Flours

For a while I was baking with two different flours... my standard choice for all-purpose flour (King Arthur's) and Hayden Flour Mills, a local heritage grain I genuinely love and believe in. The problem is simple: I am one person, and the local grain loaves are not moving the way the standard sourdough is - PLUS SHIPPING. (The shipping was the same price as the bag of flour even though it's coming from Gilbert. And if I want to go get it, it's a tank of gas, which we all know isn't a reasonable cost anymore.)

That is not a knock on Hayden. It is a beautiful product, and the bread it produces is something I am proud of. But splitting my production between two flour types adds complexity I cannot sustain alone right now. Until I grow enough to bring in help (and have more ovens), I am simplifying the offering and focusing on what my customers are actually reaching for each week.

When the time is right, the local grain comes back. For now, I have to be honest about what I can do well at this scale.

The Banana Bread Learning Curve

The banana bread has been one of the most popular items on the menu (not surprising to me at all). It has also given me the most trouble behind the scenes, and I think you deserve to know why.

The original recipe calls for three bananas. Not in grams... just three bananas. Which sounds straightforward until you are bulk baking and one banana is twice the size of another, or the batch is juicier than last week's. The result was inconsistent tops... sunken in some loaves, perfect in others. It was driving me a little bit crazy.

The fix was converting the entire recipe to grams. Weighing everything precisely, every time. The last couple of bakes have been significantly better, and the consistency is where it needs to be.

The other banana bread issue is pricing. I had it at $8 per loaf. That number did not account for the actual cost of the good flour, the oven time, the labor, or the care that goes into each one. It was underpriced, and I knew it. The price is now $12 for an 850g loaf $12.50 with nuts. That is the honest number, and I am standing behind it.

The Driveway Situation

This one is becoming urgent. My property has two driveways, and the house sits back from the street, so people pull in the wrong way and meet each other head-on with nowhere to go. There is already a sign directing people to pull in by the sourdough sign, but it is not enough.

What I need is clear, unmistakable directional signage that tells people to pull in on one side and exit the other. A one-way flow through the U-shaped driveway. Until that is sorted, pickup day has more traffic chaos than it should. Working on it.

What Is Working

The Sourdough Classes

This has been one of the most unexpected joys of building HKS.

Three groups of people have come through my home kitchen now to learn how to make sourdough. I have met some of the most genuine, curious, interesting people through these classes. People who want to learn a real skill and are willing to show up and put their hands in the dough to do it. Every class has reminded me why I started this in the first place.

It has lightened up my life in ways I did not fully anticipate. I hope it has done the same for theirs.

Getting the Rhythm of Bake Days

This one has taken longer than I expected and I will not pretend otherwise. Figuring out the timing of bake days... the starter schedule, the bulk ferment, the shaping, the proofing, the bake windows... all while managing everything else I carry... has been a real challenge. But I am getting it down. The process is becoming more familiar, more predictable, more mine. That matters.

What I'm Still Figuring Out

Do I Want to Grow This?

Honest answer: I don't know yet.

Fridays only works for me right now. But I find myself wondering whether to expand... another day, more volume, something different. The problem is that I have already reached the cap of what I can produce alone in this kitchen alongside everything else I do. My body and my schedule have limits and I have learned to respect them.

And yet. I love the idea of making this bigger. What that looks like, I genuinely do not know.

So I am asking you. If you order from HKS regularly, if you have been to a class, if you have followed along from the beginning... I want to hear from you. Would you want more? A second pickup day? Larger quantities? Something else entirely? Reach out through the contact page and tell me what you think (or comment below).

Marketing... and the Privacy Problem

I have not marketed HKS in any real way. That has been intentional.

Before I put this business in front of more people, I needed to know that my body and my nervous system could handle it. Running a food business out of your home is not just a logistical challenge. It is a personal one. People come to your house. They know where you live. That requires a level of trust and openness that I have had to build slowly and deliberately.

I will not put my home on TikTok. Putting it out on Nextdoor, IG, and FB has been hard enough.. The tension between wanting to grow and wanting to protect my home and my peace is real, and I am still working through what the right balance looks like.

What I know is that I will not compromise the safety and calm of this space for the sake of visibility. Growth has to happen on terms I can live with. I am still figuring out what those terms are.

If you have thoughts on that too, I am open to hearing them.

There is more to this story. It's constantly unfolding.

Pre-orders open every Friday night at 7pm on Hotplate. Pickup is Fridays, 3–6pm. I make extras for those that miss preordering.

Questions? Visit havenleighkitchen.com.