Lancaster Made Sweets

What do sweets have to do with refugees? For Jennie Groff it means everything. She is co-owner of Stroopies and The Sweet Shoppe here in Lancaster. They have been on a mission for over a decade to provide meaningful employment to resettled refugee women in Lancaster, PA. They are known for their deliciously delightful Dutch-inspired Stroopwaffels that are made from scratch and are sold at The Sweet Shoppe on Duke St. in Lancaster City, along with homemade ice cream and other sweet treats.

Another Lancaster County business that focuses on making sweets (among many other things) from scratch is Scratch Bakes, headquartered in Ephrata with a second location in Lancaster City. Owners Laura and Jason Will join me to share their origin story when Laura started baking cupcakes in their townhouse and selling them on Facebook. Scratch Bakes has grown into two full service cafes, serving more than just sweets. They have a passion for creating high quality foods from scratch, including soups, sandwich sauces, and their incredible salad dressings.

Check out these two beloved small businesses for some incredible treats made from scratch right here in Lancaster County.

- Jason

(all of these words came from my brain)

Links:
The Sweet Shoppe
Scratch Bakes

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_02 0:00

So Good Lancaster. Welcome, goodies. That's you. I'm Jason Mundock, and this is So Good Lancaster. You know, sweet treats have magical powers.

SPEAKER_09 0:11

They really do. I believe that.

SPEAKER_02 0:13

That's Georgia Hall. She's our producer here at So Good Lancaster.

SPEAKER_09 0:16

If you think about sweet treats on a larger scale, I think they have the power to do a lot, at least happiness, to bring happiness. Because ice cream can mend a broken heart, cookies make you feel like a kid, you know, it's Christmas. Baking cookies.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Sure.

SPEAKER_09 0:32

Pie makes you believe in miracles.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_09 0:35

And also if you think about like celebrations in life. Birthdays.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

I will give you that.

SPEAKER_09 0:40

There's always sweet treats.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Anytime you're celebrating, you do it with sweets.

SPEAKER_09 0:45

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Now, eating a cookie might not solve all your problems, but I do agree that it'll help you forget about it for a few seconds.

SPEAKER_09 0:51

Exactly. Moments of happiness.

SPEAKER_06 0:53

I feel like there's so many things that, you know, can divide us in this world, but food is definitely one of those things that brings us together.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

That's Jenny Groff from Lancaster Sweet Shop and Stroopies. She joins us today to not only talk about sweets, but also share how they provide meaningful employment to refugees from all around the world, right here in Lancaster. Another local business known for their sweets is Scratch Bakes. Their home base, their headquarters, the mothership, is located right downtown on Main Street in Ephreda, with another location here in Lancaster City. Here's Laura Will, co-owner of Scratch Bakes with her husband Jason.

SPEAKER_10 1:27

Lancaster County is kind of the land of homemade baked goods and stuff. You know what I mean? Like farm stands, like who pulls over at an almer stand and get flowers. Everyone! Like I it's very normal, um, is what I've kind of come to find.

SPEAKER_09 1:41

You know, the great thing about both of these businesses is that all of their treats are made right here in Lancaster County from scratch.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Today on the program, we're talking sweet treats in Lancaster. Right here, right now. Let's go. So good Lancaster is powered by the Candy Factory, also known as TCF, a co-working and social club in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania. ClubTCF.com. Check it out. It's time. This is So Good, So Good. So Good Lancaster. Cooking was always at the center of their relationship.

SPEAKER_10 2:11

Our relationship started in the kitchen.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

Yep. Meet Laura and Jason.

SPEAKER_10 2:15

Hi, I'm Laura Will. I am the co-owner of Scratch Bakes Cafe.

SPEAKER_03 2:20

Hey, I'm Jason Will, and I'm the other co-owner. Actually, my wife owns it completely. I just work for her.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

The two high school sweethearts from Ephrada met as teenagers working together at a local restaurant, which funny enough laid the groundwork for their life in the food world. When Laura started baking, she didn't have any formal culinary training, just a love for the food network, her mom's old KitchenAid mixer, and a dream. She began selling baked goods right out of her townhouse. Then things quickly took off from there.

SPEAKER_10 2:54

And I was a home baker and I was decorating cakes. And then more and more people started contacting me, which I thought was bizarre. Because I just thought, why would anybody want to buy a cake from me from my house? But Lancaster County is kind of the land of homemade baked goods and stuff. You know what I mean? Like farm stands, like who pulls over at an almer stand and get flowers. Everyone. Like I it's very normal, um, is what I've kind of come to find. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_04 3:21

Laura single-handedly started making cupcakes at home while I was working and selling them online. And people would come buy them out of our townhouse.

SPEAKER_10 3:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:32

And I think that's a good thing. And I came home one day and there was there had to have been 20 people there.

SPEAKER_10 3:40

That might be a bit of an experience.

SPEAKER_04 3:41

There was a lot of people there.

SPEAKER_10 3:42

Oh, it was for Mother's Day.

SPEAKER_04 3:44

They were sitting around in our living room talking and stuff while she was piping cupcakes in the kitchen.

SPEAKER_10 3:48

Yeah, two customers got there early and they were chatting on the sofa in the living room, and Jason was like, What's going on? I'm like, oh, they're here early. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Right there. Within a couple of months, they moved into a tiny storefront in Brickerville at Bricker Village, launching the business with their own savings, no loans, and Jason working a ton of freelance gigs to make it all happen and become the Lancaster County staple we know today.

SPEAKER_06 4:14

Stroopies came first.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

And this is Jenny.

SPEAKER_06 4:17

My name is Jenny Graff, and I am the owner at Stroopies and the Lancaster Sweet Shop here in Lancaster City.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

Aaron Powell The Lancaster Sweetshop may sell Stroopies. However, Jenny explained that they are two separate businesses, though she owns both of them.

SPEAKER_06 4:29

Two of our friends from our house church back in 2008 had this idea. They had friends from Holland. We were helping a lot of resettled refugee families in the city. They had this idea: could we make this Dutch strope waffle treat with our resettled refugee friends, provide meaningful employment, help them as they're getting started?

SPEAKER_02 4:47

Aaron Powell The Stroopies journey began in 2008, but it wasn't until 2010 that Jenny and her husband became owners, leveraging the resources of her husband's family candy shop in Millersville. They started making Stroopwaffles with the support of their friends in the candy shop's equipment. Initially, they weren't sure if there was a market for Stroopwaffles in Pennsylvania Dutch country.

SPEAKER_06 5:06

We were excited about the idea, but at first we weren't sure if we could like if we could actually market it. So they were familiar with this concept already. And so it was kind of Lancaster's best kept secret. Like we were making the stroke waffles surrounded by cornfields out in Millersville. And started realizing yes, we indeed could sell the stroke waffles. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

By 2016, they opened their own sweet shop in Lancaster, offering their families chocolates, the famous Stroopwaffles, and ice cream from the local Pineview Dairy. When Pineview stopped wholesaling, they encouraged Jenny and her team to make their own ice cream. After some hesitation, they took the plunge, and it's been a big hit. Even though Stroopwaffles aren't originally from Lancaster, they've become a must-try treat for visitors. But making it in the local sweets industry wasn't always smooth sailing. For Scratch Bakes, Laura shared that when they first opened, it was during what she referred to as the cupcake boom. You know that period around 2012 when everyone was hooked on the food network show Cupcake Wars? When the cupcake boom fizzled out, sales at Scratch began to decline. So they had to come up with a solution.

SPEAKER_10 6:17

Jason said, Okay, hear me out, you're not gonna want to listen to this, but you can do so much more. I think that you should add food. And I said, You're crazy. I am not doing that. But then he said, uh, babe, I'm gonna be brutally honest with you. I don't know how much longer this is gonna go. If you ever want this to be a bigger company, if you want this to be a hobby business, it can stay this way. Um at our location. Like it was great. It was a quaint little bakery on Main Street, and it still is. But he said, I know you can do more than that, and I I think you should. And I said, No, we were pregnant with our third. I said, You're nuts. I'm not doing that. And then I did, you know, I said, All right, let's try this. So he talked about whenever he was interning in Philly, uh, when during his Kutz Town years, he he would go to this one sandwich shop all the time, and he said, Everybody, it gets packed for lunch. Offer some sandwiches. Um, he said, Everybody needs a place. There's nothing like that on Main Street in Ephraim. And at the time, there wasn't. There was no cafes. There was nothing down there other than a handful of stores. Every cafe that had ever tried down there failed miserably. Um, it just was not a destination for something like that.

SPEAKER_11 7:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 7:30

And a lot of people back then weren't familiar with cafes the way people are now. We've had a lot of people. Um, a lot of people moved over COVID and stuff. A lot of people went to different states. There was a lot of people, you know, uh changing careers, going moving all over the place. And I think we've seen a lot of people come move to Langster County through the past five years. Absolutely. From the bigger city, absolutely. So it's funny because like he shared, people coming in going, you'll never make it. They didn't they had never seen this concept, they had never what it was. So now people come in. I mean, Lancaster County is just boomed, and nobody is confused about anything of what we're offering. They get it. They I want a latte with oat milk and avocado toast and you know, it's totally normal now. And uh, but when we started, it was not. We were kind of pioneering something totally different, as cheesy as that may sound. People didn't get it. And we were really trying to carve something out down there that we wanted to share in our community that we thought was lacking, that we thought, hey, we wouldn't would like to be that. We would like to carve that out down here.

SPEAKER_02 8:37

Laura and Jason have had a front row seat to effort as transformation over the past few years. The local businesses all complement each other, making the community stronger and more vibrant. In a place like Lancaster, building that sense of community is key, with local support and inclusivity driving its growth. Part of Lancaster Sweet Shop's mission is to create opportunities for refugee women by providing meaningful work, stability, and a chance to build new lives here in the area.

SPEAKER_06 9:05

We all know, right, like that Lancaster County, Lancaster City has always had a history of welcome. Um I mean, if I go back ten generations, our family came as uh refugees. Uh so anyway, I always say it's kind of like in the DNA of our soil. And it's always been happening. But we noticed uh around 2008 that uh we were actually working at fixing up affordable housing uh units in our neighborhood in the city. And a a lot of families just started coming from around the world at that point, moving into our neighborhood. And um, our friends were just like, could we use something as simple as like a cookie, a suite, uh, and create a meaningful business that could provide great employment and a chance for uh the folks coming to actually create. I know they have lost so much and they're never gonna replace uh what they've lost, but to to be a welcoming community as they're starting over again. Um honestly, I feel like as this has evolved and bloomed and grown over the years, that that is really the greatest gift, that sense of community and belonging and uh feeling like I'm not alone and that there is hope in a new place. So, yeah, the idea was really simple right from the start. Could we make stroke waffles and create this community? Uh we currently have a community care team that helps as a part of the paid work day to help with English and kind of like wraparound services. We are now an all-women's crew. That kind of changed when I took over the helm uh back in 2010. We're a team from Syria that has resettled here from Syria, Sudan, Congo, Nepal, Eritrea. It's awesome. And like literally the women, like, I don't know, they're truly my heroes, and I feel like it is the deepest privilege to be able to work with them. And uh starting, they're starting to become team leaders and welcoming the new women that are coming. And uh yeah, so then the goal is that if the women have dreams to launch, or to like for uh one of our families from Syria, they had two businesses that were destroyed by the war in Syria, and so their goal when they came here was to really relaunch those. And so then the team and um our team at Stroopies, you know, if those are their goals, then we try to do what we can to help them uh do that. Uh or if their goal is to stay, then we we allow that. So it's kind of both things are are going on. Um yeah, so through the years, I think there has been approximately around 50 women that have um found employment at Stroopy's, and it's really been a great joy.

SPEAKER_07 11:45

I love a lot of sweet places, I get a lot of desserts. Um I would say at Hello Mango, it's a new Asian bakery that just opened up, and they have so many different kinds of treats there, so many different flavor profiles that I hadn't experienced before personally, but it was a really approachable way to try everything.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

I've been to the Swedish fish in the last couple weeks. I like to be able to pick and choose and create my own little bag of goodies.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Uh, nothing bunk cakes has the best bunk cakes ever.

SPEAKER_03 12:14

Uh, probably Lancaster Beignet Company.

SPEAKER_07 12:16

Kelsey's Sweet Box on Prince Street, they have these little cheesecake bites and they rotate out the flavors. It's like the perfect amount of cheesecake, and it's lovely and delicious. It's a very cute shop.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

If you have workplace flexibility and can work from anywhere, you probably know how lonely it can get working all day, every day in the same building where you sleep. I.e., your house. TCF Co-Working and Social Club in Lancaster is the solution. Get out of the house, work around other humans, in real life, and get social with a ton of clubs, activities, and events. TCF offers community, full-time, and private office memberships and day passes if you're just passing through town. Check out ClubTCF.com, book a tour, and get plugged in. One of the things that makes Lancaster so special, and I think a lot of you might agree with this, is the homemade from scratch cooking. The food here captures the warmth and authenticity of Lancaster's community, creating meals and treats that feel like home. A feeling that Scratch Bakes captures perfectly. What separates Scratch Bakes from another any any old, you know, bakery that's in Lancaster?

SPEAKER_10 13:26

I would say what absolutely separates us is that they are completely scratch recipes that I have um scribbled in a notebook. It's hard for me to train new people because I am almost like an old-fashioned grandmother recipe box where people will train and they'll say the recipe says this. I'm like, oh yeah, that was from five years ago. We've changed that. That's different now. You know, it's um finally someone came and typed up my recipes. They were like, this is a jumbled. It was organized, but I was so used to being a sole proprietor for a long time that whenever we grew and have actual staffs now, uh, it is very much um recipes from my heart and um from all over the place that Jason and I I don't know, the places we've gone and liked and bits and pieces of everything. But really truly, it is all completely homemade and you can't get it anywhere but our place, the stuff that we offer. Um all the baked goods, all the sauces, all the latte syrups, our our soups we make from scratch every day, our sandwich sauces we make from scratch every day. So anytime we have people coming in and training with us, um, it's very much a learning curve that a lot of people these days are not used to because they'll say, Yeah, I can cook, yeah, I can bake. And I go, No, you're really, really going to be baking. You're really like it's not a cake mix, you're not opening a bag, you're cooking and baking. Um I think that comes through in the food and the baked goods that we offer.

SPEAKER_03 15:01

It's uh all the salad dressings are made from scratch.

SPEAKER_10 15:04

But a lot of times people will come back up to the counter on a daily basis and go, um, I just wanted to say that I was not expecting that to be good. Like as it was as good as it was, and then they'll leave a half dozen or a dozen because they go, That's like a real baked good. I have never eaten a cupcake like that, or I've never had a brownie like that. And that's always cool because that happens fairly often. And I'm like, Well, thank you. That makes me feel good about what we do.

SPEAKER_02 15:33

That's great. Um so so your recipes have the word pinch, a pinch of this.

SPEAKER_10 15:38

Oh, for real, yeah. I'll be like, oh, her handwriting at the top corner.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

Smidge, just put a smidge in. Lancaster Sweet Shop also shares this philosophy, embracing a passion for fresh and carefully crafted food as a defining trait.

SPEAKER_06 15:50

Aaron Ross Powell I mean, I think Lancaster as a whole, right? That's something that we're kind of known for. You know, people come so they can get homemade treats and uh things that we know where the ingredients have been sourced from. Uh I feel like that's like super important for our kids to know where their food's coming from, right? And I feel like collectively as a county, that's something that we uh are proud of. And that's a reason why people love to come to our county and to our city is to get to enjoy all these, you know, delicious things. But I I feel like overall there's just something when you look at a an ingredient tab, when you can recognize what's in the food you're eating, that is a good sign, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:33

Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 16:34

It's like when you look on a tab and or an ingredient and you're like, uh, wait a minute. I, you know, that's that's when it becomes really scary when you're like, I can't even pronounce those things.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

You know, a lot of syllables in some of those words. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 16:46

Absolutely. So, you know, we um we don't have like the longest shelf life out there in the world. I mean, our stroopies will stay great at for three months at room temperature, and then if you need them to last longer, they freeze really well. Um, but it's really important for us that what we're offering is fresh. And yeah, it's just there's something you can't really like beat when you like can go watch something be made and then you get to eat it fresh off the press. I mean, that's just like that's like truly a gift, right? Um and uh also then just to be able to feature our family's legacy of the you know, chocolates that they've been making for for decades. There's something really special to say to those that are coming into the sweet shop. Yeah, my mother-in-law started making this, making fudge when she was 15, and now she's in her 80s, and we still have a hard time keeping her out of the candy shop. You know, there's just something beautiful about that, those homemade gifts of food that are being offered, and I really feel like it's a part of our DNA. And then, you know, you can be creative. Like with the one of the things we're realizing with making your own ice cream is okay, so when the stroopies are being made, there's all these like leftover pieces. So so then you can include those things in your your homemade batches, your small batches of uh so we have a really great uh coffee caramel stroopy, a stroopy chai, which is literally made with our leftovers. With your leftovers from the stroopies. Yeah, absolutely. So you can you know, I also think that goes into definitely my um part of what makes me tick is that I don't like to see things wasted. And I feel like um in our county, I I mean I grew up in a uh a Mennonite family, and like that was kind of ingrained in, you know, like these things are like precious resources. We don't want to just like throw them out. We want to be good stewards of what we have. And so there's something really beautiful about being able to taste, take something that's super delicious that we don't necessarily have a good use for and find another way to uh incorporate it in. And when you're doing homemade from scratch things, you can you can be really creative with that.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

The Lancaster Sweet Shop lives by the motto, food is love, embracing the idea that food has the power to bring people together.

SPEAKER_06 18:54

Aaron Powell I feel like there's so many things that you know can divide us in this world, but food is definitely one of those things that brings us together. And uh, you know, there's no better place to connect over, you know, food. And I like to tell this story like really early on. Uh you know, typically at a workplace you kind of get out your lunch and you like, you know, eat whatever you brought. And I think that particular day I had brought like a really boring peanut butter and jelly sandwich or something. It was definitely boring. And uh the women were right away, you know, like, oh no, no, we're gonna share whatever we bring. And so they took my little sandwich and they cut it up into pieces and you know, put it out. And that's kind of become a a theme at at Stroopies where we all we share what we bring as far as the food. I to this day I still bring the most boring thing, which is not like too surprising.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

But I think the county's not known for the spice. I will say that.

SPEAKER_06 19:48

I mean, oh my goodness, the spices and the flavors and the dishes that that come to these, like these um you know, simple, simple meals. But but it's more of the picture of that, you know, what we have, we're sharing it, and uh it's respected and uh it's uh enjoyed, you know.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

It's true. Food brings people together. Even celebrities like Martha Stewart, who might stumble across a certain business while visiting Lancaster County. So I have to ask, because you have to ask about the Martha Stewart visit. Oh you did your research.

SPEAKER_10 20:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

Tell me tell me what tell me the story.

SPEAKER_10 20:28

Oh it's the my the most heartbreaking story of my life. I wasn't there. I was not there. Okay, so I work late all the time. You can ask anybody. And this day was the one day for whatever strange reason I was finished with work. So it was like two o'clock. And I was like, hey guys, I'm gonna head out uh for the day. I'm done. And apparently she came in and uh she got like a bunch of that, like a little bit of everything. She got a wedge salad, she got like a beef bite sandwich, she got a triple chocolate cupcake, they got a latte, they got uh some cookies. And she was telling that back at this time the sandwich table and stuff was out front because we hadn't we built a whole big back kitchen that's beautiful and love it now. But in the old days, as we were still growing, um, the deli table and all the presses were up front behind the cupcake counter, and you could see it. So she was talking about, oh, I love to watch people while they cook and was chatting up the the young girls that worked for us, and they had no idea who she was. They had no idea this was Martha Stewart. When I asked them about it, they said, Well, she seemed like she was out of town for sure. She didn't seem like she's from around here, and she was with her assistants and stuff. So she took a picture of a horse and buggy passing out front of our store and said, Just had a lovely visit at the cutest little bakery in downtown Eforta, Scratch Bakes, and tagged us. And a customer saw this called. Within 20 minutes and goes, Did you just serve Martha Stewart to the staff? And they go, What are you talking about? And they said, Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart just posted on her Instagram that she was shopped at your store. What did she buy? So then we started having all these phone calls of people blowing up the phone. Martha Stewart was there. Martha, did you get a picture? Did you get a picture? So a young girl on our staff uh that worked there at the time called and goes, Hey, you're never gonna believe this, but we just served Martha Stewart. I go, Wait, Martha Stewart? Martha Stewart? The Martha the Martha Stewart? And she goes, Yeah, I guess the one that's on that show was Snoop Dogg. Like she's one of the top culinary people in the country.

SPEAKER_02 22:47

Ever.

SPEAKER_10 22:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

Like forever.

SPEAKER_10 22:49

And you don't, you gotta understand. Like for my mom and I, I grew up with Martha Stewart Living Magazines. We watched the Martha Stewart show. My mom loved Martha Stewart and got Victoria magazine and all that stuff. And I grew up with Martha Stewart. And so my mind is like, I'm I'm just like, what are you what? What? So, but on the flip side of that, you know, I didn't get a picture or get to meet her or anything, but I was still so immensely flattered that she she didn't have to post about it. She didn't have to say it was good. She took a picture and put it up. So that's how we knew.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

You know, in a way.

SPEAKER_10 23:26

That was cool.

SPEAKER_02 23:27

Right. In a way, it's almost like had you been there and recognized her and been a fan.

SPEAKER_10 23:34

It would have diff been a different experience.

SPEAKER_02 23:36

Exactly. You got to actually experience her in a in a neutral objective way. Like she was able to experience Scratch Bakes in that way. And that's that has to just feel awesome.

SPEAKER_10 23:48

No, it it really was. And I kind of ref when I reflect on it, I think that now obviously I was disappointed. She was super upset.

SPEAKER_02 23:56

What would have been better, of course, is if you would have just showed up at the end. Yes. And she would have had the best of both worlds.

SPEAKER_10 24:02

I just kind of thought, you know, it it was fun for me because she did that on her own and it it was a plug for us, and it did. It definitely boosted our business. It really solidified us. I think that was probably honestly the turning of our business down there being taken 100% seriously then. Everyone was like, wow, okay. Like she posted that. And and I then had a lot of people come in later naturally wanting to talk about it. And they said, you know, just so you know, Martha Stewart does not uh endorse anything that she does not like. She is not that way. So she put it up, she liked it.

SPEAKER_04 24:40

Then after that, we had a woman come in and say, My brother said this place would never make it. And I told him he was wrong. And I am so glad that I was right and he was wrong. I I love when I'm right and he's wrong. And I said, No, they'll definitely make it. They have great cupcakes. I was like, there you go. We turned the corner.

SPEAKER_11 24:59

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

That's awesome. And you know, Martha Stewart and her entourage probably aren't used to being treated so authentically, meaning that the kids that work for you had no idea who they are, so she was just another customer.

SPEAKER_10 25:09

No, I think she liked that because she was talking to them and stuff, and they had no idea who she was. So I think she just had a nice she probably enjoyed that, honestly. Just got to swing in and get some lunch. She was on her way to QVC, so that they just called in and said, What do you sell there?

SPEAKER_08 25:27

If it's a quick grab, I would say Swedish. Chewy, delectable, many flavors, many shapes, lots of colors.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

The vintage candy shop. It's on King Street. Yes. And they have the old-fashioned uh gumdrops and the black ones, the licorice ones.

SPEAKER_05 25:45

Bistro Barbaret is like a slice of Paris right in downtown Lancaster that you can get some of the best desserts.

SPEAKER_12 25:55

There is Swedish, which is right on the corner. Bar none. And then Sugar Whipped is a bakery, and they also have super vegan-friendly options, so they're great.

SPEAKER_13 26:04

Nikki's custard in Mannheim Township, homemade custard with some with oat milk, some regular dairy. They have free lactade at the counter, so you are always prepared to enjoy whatever you would like to enjoy. They make all their own toppings, all their own sauces. Heavenly.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

Our conference rooms are perfect for meetings with your team or your clients. Our media studio can accommodate photography, audio, and video production. And our sixth floor venue has everything you need to throw an unforgettable private party or retreat. Book now at LancasterVenue.com and take your next event to the next level. Jenny and Laura have both navigated the highs and the lows of entrepreneurship with their businesses, tackling challenges, celebrating successes, and learning valuable lessons along the way. When we asked for their advice for new entrepreneurs, they shared some valuable insights from their journeys.

SPEAKER_06 27:06

I want to give good advice to young entrepreneurs. And I mean, when you have that entrepreneurial spirit, you know, I don't want to squelch it, I want to like support it. But it is also really, really hard work. And some of the ways that we grew and took what we had in our hands was to kind of stand on the shoulders like the candy business was really, really like so. When our friends first had the idea, they were like renting commercial kitchens and churches and they were stirring the caramel in hand. And I was just like, I wonder if we would have actually ever gotten the momentum that we needed without the candy shop. But that really was kind of a one-up for us. And so now that we're an established brand, when an on like actually this just recently happened where uh someone came to us with an idea that they needed, uh, they wanted to make gelato. And we have all these women that would like to work. And we were like, well, if we make ice cream, it's not that hard to make your gelato for you. If you want to like work at the branding and launching, that'll provide even more jobs for for the women that really want to work. And can you use some of our blood, sweat, and tears? And we can kind of be that covering just like the candy shop was for the case. Absolutely. And so like that's actually been what um I've been thinking more about lately. Uh like how we can how it can be a win-win. Um we can use kind of the covering of Stroopies and the sweet shop. If it, you know, if it fits in, I mean Gilato fit in. But could that be a way that we could grow and help others that have great ideas? So that's still kind of being tested, and uh, but it's been successfully launched. Um that's really exciting. And uh it's very, very fulfilling. And I feel like it's fulfilling for so many different layers and reasons. It's providing the meaningful employment, it's helping in a young entrepreneur that has a great idea. Anyway, I just I I think sometimes we get stuck and we're just not sure, but then there's something that happens and they're like, okay. And then maybe you get a little more unstuck, and then it maybe will open up um more opportunity. So the gelato company was uh a win, I would say.

SPEAKER_02 29:20

Aaron Ross Powell The journey to starting your own business can be long and challenging, but the reward at the end is always worth it, especially when you've got the support of your community. There's nothing quite like building something from the ground up and feeling the encouragement and backing of those around you.

SPEAKER_10 29:35

I would say it's gonna take a lot longer than you want it to. And when you are just about to give up, which will happen many times, don't. And if it really is time to throw in the towel, I think you will know that in your heart of hearts. But anytime I've ever gotten close to saying, I'm done, it's always been worth continuing. I think on that note, the most beautiful part of what we have done together, Jason and I, has been the human aspect of it. And I've crossed paths with a lot of incredible people. And not to get off the subject, but uh just a year ago, Jason and I lost our fifth child. She was completely stillborn on her birthday. So I was 39 and a half weeks pregnant. And she I went into labor naturally. She was born and she was already dead. She was gone. And those were the lowest, lowest points of my career just this past year. And I thought, I cannot go on. I just, you know, those those types of tragedies, they really rattle your life, you know.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

Absolutely, yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_10 30:53

And um, as an entrepreneur, you're gonna have those things. You're gonna have um tragedy will strike, you will lose people, um, things will go wrong, you might not be able to make the rent or something, you know, life will come at you. Um, especially if you're on the path of what you're supposed to be doing, you'll you'll have adversity, it'll it'll come. Um but that was probably the most just this past year was when I probably really contemplated doing soul searching. Do I do I want to keep dedicating this amount of my life to this? Is this what I want to be doing? And I feel like uh yeah, it was it's a yes. It was actually the thing that saved me too. It was having to come in to the bakery and having that responsibility there. At first I despised it because I just wanted to crawl under a rock and hide. And uh, but it it it was healing for me. And our customers were incredible. We had people from all over Lancaster County sending us flowers and pouring out love, and it was an incredible experience. And if you would have shown me these types of interactions whenever I was on Jeff Avenue baking a cake for somebody, you know, when I was 26 years old, I I would have never thought that we would get to where we are now. So anybody who um, you know, what's the the original CEO of Twitter said it, you know, it takes like 10 years to look like an overnight success or something like that. And it's so true. It's so true. It takes a lot of time and effort.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

It is, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 32:30

But yeah, I really thought is it worth it? And uh it totally is. I would just say don't give up. That that's probably my number one advice. Don't give up. And especially when you really, really think you're going to, that's the time like you really don't push through because there's so much goodness on the other side of that.

SPEAKER_02 32:47

That community that forms around. Yeah, that's a good answer, man. Yeah. Yeah. It's just a lot of things. Oh no, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. But what a great story where you were able to find in what you built the community to lift you up out of this dark time. Because you're right. I mean, I can only imagine going into a dark hole and not wanting to come out.

SPEAKER_10 33:12

So yeah, but we were met with a lot of love.

SPEAKER_02 33:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 33:15

It wasn't scary like I thought it was going to be because people were so kind.

SPEAKER_02 33:20

Sweet treats make the world go round. Whether it's a cold ice cream cone on the hottest day of summer, a slice of cake on your birthday, or a chocolate chip cookie after dinner, desserts have a way of bringing people together. There's something about sharing a box of donuts with coworkers on a Monday morning or surprising someone with their favorite candy that just feels right. Sweet treats add that extra touch of joy, turning even the simplest moments into little celebrations. A huge shout out to Laura, Jason, and Jenny for joining us at the So Good Media Studio. Thanks for sharing your stories of creating delicious treats, connecting with community, and spreading happiness through sweets. Scratchbakes currently has two locations within the Lancaster area, one in Ephreda and one in downtown Lancaster. Follow them on Instagram at Scratch Bakes Cafe, or better yet, just stop by one of their locations. The Leicester Sweet Shop is also on Instagram at Sweet Lancaster, or visit their shop on Duke Street in Lancaster City. Goodies, we love hearing from you. Let's reach into the goodie bag and hear what you have to say. So, Nick Dennis from the local Leicester Strongtowns group is going to be tailgating at Park City Mall on Black Friday to talk about parking requirements. Nick asks, will the mall parking lot be full on the busy shopping day of the year? You can join him and Strongtown's November 29th at the Bozkov's lot starting at 10 a.m. to find out what he's talking about. He encourages you to bring games, snacks, and come chill with some cool people.

SPEAKER_09 34:46

Keith from Millersville also submitted after episode two that, quote, Cactus Cafe has changed my life.

SPEAKER_02 34:54

I assume that is in reference to breakfast.

SPEAKER_09 34:56

It is. Yes. I've been to Cactus. He's right. It's pretty life-changing.

SPEAKER_02 35:00

Charlotte from Corryville chimed in to let us know that her husband Mike is celebrating his big 5-0 Thanksgiving week. Happy birthday to Mike.

SPEAKER_09 35:08

Happy birthday, Mike. Hope it's a great one. Want to throw your thoughts into the goodie bag? Let us know what you think of today's episode, or if you have any fun announcements or events you'd like to share with us on the show. We're all ears.

SPEAKER_02 35:21

Head over to SoGoodLancaster.com and submit your comments. Your thoughts and announcements could be featured on an upcoming episode of So Good Lancaster. That's it for today. Thanks so much for listening, and we will catch you next time. In the meantime, Stay Good Lancaster, stay good. So Good Lancaster is produced at So Good Media in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Our production staff is Ann Kirby, Georgia Hall, and Star Snyder. And I do a few things here and there as well. Find us online at SoGoodLancaster.com and follow us on all the socials. Have any comments, questions, or want to learn more about how So Good Media can help you with your podcast and media productions? Drop us a line at Hello at sogoodmedia.studio.