White Tree Bakery has officially opened doors in the Mount Vernon and Lisbon communities.
Mount Vernon native Jen Juhl has opened the bakery in her home, with her first official days the middle of this month.
“One of the things that needs to change now that I have an LLC license is that I can’t do delivery of my products, like I was in the past,” Juhl said. “People will have to pick them up from my home.”
For Juhl, though, spreading cheer through the holidays is how she got started with the soft launch of her bakery.
“I started with orders from family and friends for pies and other baked goods for Thanksgiving, and expanded to Christmas and holiday boxes,” Juhl said. “When that response was so large, I got to thinking this might be something I could pursue as a business model.”
She notes that her February Valentine’s Day boxes were such a big hit that it was her busiest month in business thus far.
Going forward people will be expected to pick up orders at her home or at the local farmers markets.
She has gotten involved at baking at an early age.
“My family has loved food, so cooking has always been something I’ve had great joy in taking part of,” Juhl said. “I was an assistant chef at a cupcake business in Iowa City for a couple years, but it wasn’t a business that was sustainable for me with the limited hours I was working there.”
Juhl currently works at the University of Iowa Hospital on the weekends to assist with billing.
When it comes to the baked goods she prefers to make, Juhl said she prefers items like pies or her holiday themed boxes of baked goods.
“I’ve dabbled a little with cakes as well, and small batches of cookies,” Juhl said.
She knows that as graduation season is coming up, people may be looking for a local baker to help with cakes and other desserts.
Juhl said she can turn around a small order, like a small batch of cookies or a small cake in a 48-hours, but when it comes to much larger orders, she prefers a week or more advance notice to work with a customer and make sure both she and the customer are on the same wavelength for the items that are being made.
She also has a few gluten-free desserts and recipes she can make.
“I have friends who have food allergies, and I want to be able to cater to everyone I can as a baker,” Juhl said. “There’s more steps and technical things you have to do with a gluten free recipe, but there are so many products available now that can allow you to cook something gluten free.”
She’s also looking to continue her holiday themed boxes. She’s got plans for her next holiday boxes already, seeing Valentine’s Day and Christmas boxes were such a hit.
“I’ve got two different styles of boxes I’m going to be offering for St. Patrick’s Day – There’s a chocolate lover’s box and there’s a pot of gold themed box,” Juhl said. “The only difference is that these will have to be picked up at my home as opposed to delivered to customers so I don’t break the laws that permit me to sell baked goods in Iowa.”
Orders for the Saint Patrick’s Day boxes will start Monday, Feb. 28, with deadline to order being Friday, March 11. Pickup for the holiday boxes can be Wednesday, March 16, or Thursday, March 17.
For Easter, she’s looking at bread or other items that would go well with an Easter brunch people could easily pick-up.
Juhl notes some of her favorite things to bake and cook are recipes with that add a savory taste.
“That’s one of the things I like, is adding something like sea salt on the top of some different desserts to bring out some of those different flavors,” Juhl said.
Juhl and her family now live in Mount Vernon, where she was born and raised. She and her husband Brandan lived in Iowa City for almost 13 years, but moved back to Mount Vernon in the middle of the pandemic.
Her children, Iggy, 3, and Obie, 5, both attend preschool at Mount Vernon Community Schools.
For Juhl, the hopes with this new bakery venture are it allows her to grow with this business.
“I worked at the University of Iowa Hospitals and clinics in billing clerk on the weekends, and that has been harder and harder to do,” Juhl said. “This bakery allows me to express things I love to do in creative fashion and bring joy to other people’s lives. For me, it being successful is just being able to support my family doing this.”
Her house is located at 217 1st Ave. N.W. in Mount Vernon. To place an order or for more information on the type of baked goods she offers, Juhl recommends emailing her at [email protected] or messaging her business page on Facebook (White Tree Bakery) or on Instagram.
“I routinely check all three of those sites for new orders or requests from customers,” Juhl said.
One of the Valentine’s Day boxes that White Tree Bakery offered.