A Piece of Tradition, Made with Care

Melissa Lanphere, Wheatsfield Marketing Manager

This week the co-op started carrying breads baked locally by Piece and Freedom Bakery. We have a love for connecting our members and shoppers with the people behind the food they enjoy, so we asked them to share their stories, traditions, and care that is baked into every local loaf.

  1. How did Piece & Freedom Bakery begin? What inspired you to start baking and eventually turn your passion into a business here in Ames?
    It began at the Ames farmers market in may of 2023. It is hard to believe that now we have a brick and mortar and a commercial kitchen all on Main Street. Our mission is to expand the palette of Iowa by showcasing flavors that are not common to Iowa and US. We love people venturing out and exploring things they might not have tried otherwise.

  1. How did the partnership between your families come together? What does it look like to run a family-centered bakery, and what does each person bring to the business?

    Hanna moved from Washington, IA where she also participated in farmers markets. She moved to Ames because her partner is at ISU. After a couple of successful markets we understood we can work with each other and we made a big move to open 301 Main Ste 107. Hard to put in words, my mother is the head baker and the bread maker for the business, Hanna is customer service and sales and I make sure it all stays afloat.

  1. Your name has such a meaningful story behind it! What inspired the name Piece & Freedom? What does it mean to you personally, and what do you hope customers take away from it?

    My friend who is now in Poland due to the war has come up with the name, she and I thought what do people need in this life, firstly freedom – freedom to choose who to love, what to do, where to work, freedom of word, financial freedom that is essential to us, but sometimes all we need is a piece of cake to get us through the day.

  1. We’d love to hear about your logo and visual identity. What inspired the design, and what do its elements represent? We understand that the design incorporates elements like wheat, flowers, trees, and the sun. How do these symbols connect to your values or vision for the bakery?

    You are absolutely correct, again the design of the logo was my friend Anna Sedleruk who now lives in Poland, she and I sat down (virtually) and said we are Ukrainian and this logo will shout it in every element, the sun- is what we all need to live, the trees symbolize that we Ukrainians are rooted in our land and identity and the wheat is our homage to being the bread basket of Europe.

  1. What ingredients do you prioritize when developing your recipes? Are there particular qualities you look for in your flour, butter, eggs, chocolate, nuts, fruit, or other ingredients? 

    Of course, chocolate is only 70 or 60 percent for all cakes and ganaches (we use mini chocolate chips for apple chocolate keks but it is the only exception), butter for our desserts is Wutrich (german), flour for our bread is King Arthur. We use the things we would use in our homes. If we cant read it we dont buy it.

  1. How do you approach ingredient sourcing? Do you work with particular farms, mills, or suppliers? Are there ingredients you prioritize sourcing locally, organically, or from specific regions? We’d love to know what matters most to you when selecting ingredients.

    We do get our rye flour from Early Morning Harvest Mill, we get our dill from Pammel Grocery store. Hazelnuts we buy from a farm in North East USA. Eggs we buy through our food distributor.

  1. Are there ingredients or additives you intentionally avoid? For example, do you have any preferences regarding artificial colors, preservatives, flavorings, or other additives? Are there any ingredient standards or practices you follow that shoppers might appreciate knowing about?

    We don’t do any colorings AT ALL, our spinach raspberry cake is green, everyone thinks we add someting – we don’t. It is the spinach (fresh) that makes it green, no powders nothing we cannot read.

  1. How do you choose ingredients that deliver the flavor and quality you’re looking for? Are there particular ingredients where quality makes a noticeable difference in the finished product? We’d love an example of how a thoughtful ingredient choice affects the taste, texture, or overall experience.

    We are obsessed with ingredients that bring the star flavors to surface, if it is Kyiv Cake the first thing you will taste is the cashews and hazelnuts, because that is what makes the cake have a wow factor. Everyone always says our lemon baked goods are so good, well because we spend time zesting every lemon and juicing it always ourselves.

  1. What has it meant to grow your business in Ames? You’ve grown from farmers market beginnings into a downtown bakery. What has surprised you most about the community’s response, and what have you learned along the way?

    My father said to not expect people to go to downtown and buy bread this is just not something that will happen. Well, we sell 200-300 loaves in a week. But also the people who come in and say I have not had this before and I would like to try are the ones that bring me joy. I also love that some couples went on a first date in our store, got engaged and got married and had their cake from our place for their wedding a full circle moment for us. We also had a neighbor at the farmers market Wendy who sold shirts, we got to be super friendly and her favorite cake was Kyiv cake, she always had a piece at the end of the day, when we opened our store she was there with her family we loved that! But moreover, a year after her son and daughter in law were our first big wedding order for 220 people!

  1. Is there anything else you’d like Wheatsfield shoppers to know about you or your bakery? This could be a story, tradition, ingredient philosophy, personal inspiration, or something about your business that you wish more people knew.

    We are ukrainian women owned business, we care about everything all the time it is our biggest pride and stress, haha! We want the bread to look beautiful, to be tasty, we want you to come back. We want to meet your family we want to be a part of your circle. We care about your health and well being, we are upset when we dont see you for a long time and we are overjoyed when we hear that you have been travelling and thought of us as you were eating a new cake. We are a part of this community even though we are not from here and we are grateful for that.