KGUN 9NewsCommunity Inspired JournalismOro Valley News

Actions

'I love baking for people': One Tucson baker brings her sourdough dream alive — right from home

One Tucson baker brings her sourdough dream alive — right from home
home bakeries in Tucson
Posted

ORO VALLEY, Ariz. (KGUN) — The smell of sourdough fills Annemarie Desmarais's kitchen. The fresh loaf sits on the counter straight out of the oven while Desmarais works on stretching and folding the new dough.

"Everyone always says it's the best sourdough ever," he said. "It's all really fresh, no additives or artificial anything in it."

She opened her bakery Annie's Sweet Crumbs almost a year ago — baking everything from sourdough to cinnamon rolls — right from her own home.

“Oh i love baking for people," she said. "It makes people happy and it makes me happy that they are happy.”

She's able to operate her business out of her home kitchen because of Arizona's Cottage Food Law. This allows people to make, sell and store food from their homes. Bakers have to have a food handler's license and obtain other requirements through the Cottage Food Program. She said many home bakers chose this business model because it avoids the expenses of a traditional storefront.

“I bake in my home kitchen and I don’t rent a kitchen or do anything like that," she said. “It is a lot of work because I am the entire business. So I do marketing, the book keeping and all of that.”

Customers can pre-order the loaves and pick it up from her house, but they can also find her at local farmers markets. She said on the weekends, she sells bread at the Foothills Community Market.

“You meet a lot of great people at markets," she said.

But down the line, she does hope to open a traditional space.

“I'd want to open a brick and mortar and maybe have a coffee shop and a bookstore," she said.

But in the meantime, she hopes more people will support home bakers like her.

“Support is always good like either monetarily or sharing on social media," she said.

——-
Tina Giuliano is a reporter for KGUN 9. She is a native Arizonan and grew up in Scottsdale. Tina is passionate about storytelling and is excited to work telling Tucson's stories. Share your story ideas and important issues with Tina by emailing tina.giuliano@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.