Today we’d like to introduce you to Allie Carlson
Hi Allie, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I started baking at a young age with my mom making cookies and quick breads. Through my teen and early adult years I took every food class I could. My favorite chef was Anthony Bourdain and my favorite baker was Alton Brown. After college, I worked as an EMT, a medical lab tech, and became a stay at home mom in 2021 when my son was born. Motherhood did not come easy to me. I was haunted by childhood memories that I didnt even know I had until my son was born. Post partum anxiety and depression took hold and i found myself profoundly depressed. I felt i was failing as a mother, I had lost my sense of self, and I was letting everyone around me down. I was angry, I lashed out at those closest to me, and I had little hope I’d ever find a way out of the hole my depression put me in. I began going to therapy on a weekly basis and forced myself into a routine. Then my sister-in-law received some sourdough starter from a friend and asked if I’d like to try making some bread. I followed the directions she had sent along with the sourdough starter and made my first loaf. It turned out nothing like i had hoped, but it was edible. I could see some ways in which i could improve, but I needed to learn much more about the process if i was ever going to troubleshoot further. I dove head first into learning as much as i could about how to make sourdough, sifting through the information overload on social media was a daunting task, so i turned to youtube videos and good old fashioned books. For a year, I baked 2-4 loaves per week, slowly improving with each bake. learning from every mistake and before i knew it, i had found my sense of self again. Solving problems, taking pride in what i was making, and sharing my loaves with friends and family became my lifeline in motherhood. It helped me to show up as a more present mother because i had something that was just for me again. so often motherhood is a thankless job, and for someone who has always worked in a workplace receiving constant feedback about the job i was doing, this was seriously lacking in my role as a mother.
After a year of baking, I signed up for an artisan bread immersion class in grand marais. it was the best decision i had made when it came to my baking journey. so may skills were unlocked during that class and i learned so much all types of bread, but i knew i wanted to focus my bread on sourdough. The number one takeaway from that class was TIME=NUTRITION. Sourdough is the key to making carbs a staple in our diets again. I began researching the history of grains and discovered ancient grains and heritage grains and how they differ from the grains used to make commercial bread. I knew then that i wanted to make my bread using freshly milled ancient grains. I began selling my loaves under a cottage sales license and people love it! It’s been such an honor to provide bread to my communutiy, and soon i will be scaling up by taking over the lease of Ritual Salad in duluth and opening my very own bakery!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I struggled with sifting through the information overload when it comes to sourdough bread on social media. Sourdough can be made in so many different ways, it’s the oldest form of bread! if our ancestors could make it with no equipment, why is social media making it so complicated?
I struggled with depression and being a stay at home mom.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My former name was mad science sourdough. A play on the fact that i am a former lab tech and how sourdough is very much a science. but it is also an art, and the importance of the types of grains used are so much more important than i ever realized. Which is why i chose to change the name of my bakery to Mystic Grains. I use all organic flour. I freshly mill ancient grains that go into each loaf. I source local ingredients like, maple syrup, wild rice, honey, and spices whenever possible. all the ingredients i use to make my bread are organic, from olive oil to rosemary, to cinnamon and pumpkin. I am most proud of the selection of ancient grains i use in each loaf of bread. Einkorn goes into each original loaf. spelt goes into my jalepeno cheddar loaf. im working on incorporating kamut and rye as well. I believe this sets my business a part from the other bakeries in town. einkorn is a powerhouse of nutrition. some may call it a superfood! and it goes into each original loaf i make. flour water salt baked frest daily. I want readers to know that i will soon open a bakery and i want to offer classes on how to make sourdough. i want to provide a community atmosphere by selling other local products that align with my values as a business. high quality ingredients, made locally, from scratch. Community building is so important to me becasue i have really found a sense of community in starting this business. I never felt this way before and it is such a great feeling to have a community of people who believe in making higher quality foods for their families. Im so grateful to be apart of that.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
The importance of community. The covid crisis divided us. we had to come up with creative ways to stay connected. now that we are getting back to the way things were, we need more in person interaction again. more community events, reasons to get together, break bread together, support one another, uplift our community members, and show up for the people who mean most to us.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mysticgrains_bakery
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1AM4t5zVYE/
