Local bakeries and grocers prepare for busy holiday season

When it comes to the holidays — particularly Thanksgiving — many people have food on the brain. Especially those working in local bakeries, pouring not just pumpkin puree into pie crusts, but also long hours and late nights into preparations for the holidays.

Despite the stress of the season, though, many are happy to devote their time to the tradition.

Kathy's Pies

 

In 30 years of business, Kathy's Pies co-owners Kathy McCauley and Terri Weyland-Henecke have learned the importance of preparing early for the holidays.

'You can never be too prepared,' Henecke said.

Extensive notes from previous years have helped them learn from their mistakes, and the No. 1 lesson they've learned, McCauley said, is simply having enough product on hand.

'If you think you've got too much of something, you're probably wrong,' Henecke added.

It all begins in August, when they forecast their output and begin making and freezing product — to the tune of 2,000 pie crusts, for example.

'We're trying to get enough product built up that it's ready for us to use the week of Thanksgiving, because we don't have time to make everything from scratch,' Henecke said.

On an average day, Kathy's typically sells about 100 pies. But for the week of Thanksgiving, they'll sell 6,000 — a month's worth — in one week.

'The week of Thanksgiving, our oven will not turn off for four days,' Henecke said. 'We wear shorts that whole week, because it gets hot in here.'

Two days before Thanksgiving, they'll work 18-hour shifts, churning out hundreds of pies by the hour.

'You go home at 7 o'clock at night, sleep for a couple hours and then come back at midnight,' Henecke said.

If you're lucky, you'll actually sleep, she added. Usually, you're up all night 'thinking about all the stuff you've got to do when you get back, and you just know it's not going to get done.'

Another challenge is decorated sugar cookies.

'They're very labor intensive and time consuming,' Henecke explained. 'When you're doing 900 to 1,200 cookies a day for the next day, it's painful.'

She said people don't realize how tough it is to work at a bakery.

'Everybody thinks it's fun,' she said. 'But you're kicking butt the whole time you're here — especially this time of year.'

McCauley agreed, it's a love-hate relationship.

'Have there been years where I've said, 'I don't want to do this anymore?' Yes,' she said.

But sometimes, she admitted, it's not so bad.

Sometimes, the anticipation is worse than the actual work, Henecke agreed.

Regardless, the holidays are their biggest moneymaker all year, so they don't have much of a choice.

'Without the holidays, I'm not sure we'd be here,' McCauley said. 'We wouldn't be the same, at least.'

Jules Bakery

 

Like Kathy's, Jules Bakery in Marion also has been preparing their 'plan of action' since August.

Owner Juli Hardin said that after 15 years in the business, it's not too difficult to anticipate what customers will order because many order the same thing every year.

'Holidays are about traditions,' she said. 'You can't do this for so many years and not know your customers.'

One of the bakery's most popular item is the decorated sugar cookie with signature buttercream frosting.

The bakery usually sells about 100 cookies each week, but that number quadruples for Thanksgiving and Christmas — typically 20,000 to 30,000 cookies from Halloween to Christmas.

Although planning ahead helps alleviate some of the stress, sometimes the biggest hurdle is making sure ingredients are available and at an affordable price.

A shortage of pumpkin three years ago had Hardin scrambling for fresh puree, and this year she's concerned about rising egg prices because of the recent bout of bird flu.

Despite what's going on behind the scenes, Hardin strives to create a relaxed environment for her customers.

'The holiday time is stressful enough,' she said. 'When our customers come in here, we don't want them to be stressed. We want them to be able to smile.'

This year, Hardin is just happy to be back in the kitchen after a lung cancer diagnosis last year kept her in the hospital.

Baking during the holidays is 'the best job in the whole world,' Hardin said.

'You know those memories you have with your parents making Christmas cookies? Being able to do that for a job is great.'

Deluxe Cakes and Pastries 

 

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, in the crammed kitchen at Deluxe Cakes and Pastries in Iowa City, you'll find owner Jamie Powers and her three employees — Mary Simmons, Heather Hughes and Gabby Cardenas — already logging many hours, trying to get 'ahead of the game.'

Even on days off, 'when you're not physically in the shop, you're mentally in the shop,' Powers said.

At least 150 pumpkins need to be cut, gutted, roasted and pureed for pies, breads, cakes and other baked goods.

Deluxe also makes at least 500 white chocolate-dipped gingerbread turkeys. It's a Deluxe Thanksgiving tradition that customers crave each year.

'The bakery is a holiday tradition,' Powers said, which is why she tries to create a 'unique experience' for her customers that maintains a 'small shop feel' focused on fresh, local ingredients in treats that 'taste amazing and look darling.'

Everything is made by hand — including croissants, cakes and cookies. It's that sort of care that Powers said she thinks brings the holiday spirit to her customers.

'If you work in a true bakery around the holidays, if you can catch a glimmer of that spirit of serving other people in such a delicate, decadent way, it's truly intoxicating,' she said.

Making everything by hand also means you have to be extremely efficient, which can be stressful. But stress doesn't scare her.

'Some bakeries take for granted they're going to be busy around the holidays,' she said. 'I don't.'

Sure, it gets 'a bit monotonous,' she said. But 'it doesn't get old.'

Even things that seem like a chore aren't so bad when you're fast on your feet, said Simmons, who's been working at Deluxe for more than 10 years.

'We've been doing this dance for a long time and have seen ups and downs ... it gets fast and intense, and sometimes, when you're moving quickly, mistakes are made,' she said. 'But we also have an esprit de corps (sense of unity) here that's good.

'There's great, crazy humor that helps.'

Plus, Powers said, 'it's pretty easy to keep your spirits up when there's gingerbread constantly coming out of the oven.'

New Pioneer Food Co-op

 

Miriam Alarcon Avila, a prepared foods coordinator at New Pioneer Co-op, said the holiday season is no doubt the most difficult season of the year.

'It's a lot of stress, a lot of physical work,' Avila said. 'It's also a big responsibility to make sure that the food you are cooking is incredible and perfect.'

This year, the co-op is trying to take the stress out of the holidays for its customers by offering a take-home box that contains everything needed for a Thanksgiving meal — including a turkey, side dishes and dessert.

'They're a great way to save time,' said prepared foods manager and chef Matt Steigerwald. 'They solve your whole day.'

'You don't have to worry about anything except heating it up,' Avila said.

That means a lot of behind-the-scenes work at New Pi's hub in North Liberty.

In addition to making its regular supply of food to be sent to its three locations in the corridor, New Pi also will bake hundreds of bread loaves, pies and more to fill orders for holiday take-home boxes.

At the end of the day, you go home and 'your tired body feels like it's going to collapse,' Avila said.

But, 'it's really a magical time,' because in the end, when you receive customers' thank-yous, it all becomes worth it, she said. 'That's when you realize that all the work you started months ago in preparation ... it's invaluable.'