Saying that I love Lisa and the Two Daughters Bake Shop is an understatement. I LOVE Lisa. I met her at the beginning of the Juice Caboose season this year at my first North Vancouver market. I was thrilled to be in the presence of a gluten free bakery booth and we were quickly swapping goods in no time. She is a BIG fan of the Bacon Slicer at the Juice Caboose and I am a big fan of her cookies, and donuts and baguettes and and and. It wasn't before long that I got to know Lisa better. She has a fantastic sense of humour, is a super duper mom and an all around awesome human being to be around. It's been wonderful getting to know her and having her in my corner.
Her gluten free goods are just so delicious and now her goods are popping up more and more around the city. She recently opened up her own bakeshop, expanding from the market and it's a sweet little shop here in North Van that I know that C and I will be frequenting often. I asked Lisa to share a little about herself and her baking for us all.
Welcome Lisa, my lovely, talented and enchanting friend.
EC - What are your biggest challenges as a mother?
Lisa - Not having breakfast with my girls everyday. Sawyer, my youngest, has taken to getting up at 5am so she can eat with me and then go back to bed when I leave, I cherish those mornings.
EC - How did your work as a baker begin?
Lisa - I have always loved to bake and have been doing it for as long as I can remember. Everytime I pick up a food magazine I go straight to the baking. It became a career when I was unable to find a job after being home with my children for 11 years. I had always worked part-time and was planning to return full time once the youngest started school. This was right around the time that the economy was hit hard and there was a lot of competition for the few jobs on the market. Rather than be discouraged by this I looked at it as an opportunity to reinvent myself, when I look back now I realize that I was not intereseted in going back into the grind of working in an office and sitting at a computer all day, I was a different person with different ideas. So I signed up to sell my organic baking at local farmers markets, at this point I was using regular wheat flour in my baking. About 8 months into my new business venture our youngest daughter was diagnosed with Celiac Disease and an extreme egg allergy. I know some sort of cosmic joke, right. I was floored, now what? Well, I reinvented myself again, took about 6 months to learn how to bake gluten free and egg free. I launched again at the local farmers market and found greater success than the first time. After that the opportunities just started coming, we found this great little spot here in lower Lonsdale and took the next step in growing our business.
EC - What motivates you?
Lisa - My family. Teaching my girls that no matter what life throws at you, you carry on and make the best of the situation.
EC - What lessons have you learned from selling your baked goods and starting a business?
Lisa - My husband has been self employed for many years so running a business is not a new concept. With that said, I have been able to apply alot of the lessons learned from mistakes made in his business to our new venture. I have also learned how much I love people and their stories, everyone has a different story to tell and to be involved in such a personal way is truly a gift.
- Queensdale Market, top of Lonsdale (at 29th)
- Sprout Market, 700 East 7th, North Van
- Nourish Market, Lynn Valley Square
- S'wich Cafe, 7th & Queensbury
