things you cannot replicate
when mitchell barnett birthed a second child, her husband troy decided to finally take the job in rollins building the massive wind farm. the pay was good but there was a catch. he lived there five days a week and only came home on the weekends.
despite the money, the flow of life was exhausting. mitchell was raising a baby and a toddler mostly alone, and the weekends were too jam packed with catching up to provide any physical recovery. and troy was at risk of missing the moments of parenting that can’t be replicated. the first step. the hilarious misprounciations of a three year old. the well worn routines of a family living in relative harmony.
unsurprisingly, after a little reflection~ troy decided to quit the wind farm and get a post office job at home in riverton. it was a big pay cut but there was a plan. mitchell would start a bakery. luckily for the young couple, they’re citizens of wyoming, one of top two states in america for food freedom. so instead of having to spend 50K to get up to code with stainless steel counters, a three-bay sink and a commercial oven, mitchell could start small in her own kitchen.
after tinkering with methods and recipes, and choosing a name~ wyoming bread~ she approached steve doyle and the team at the fremont local market and asked for shelf space. they warned her that her bread, being all organic, and all locally sourced from wyoming, was a bit pricy. but she was ready to test the waters…
the bread flew off the shelf. people’d show up to the store when they thought mitchell would arrive so they could grab a loaf or two before it sold out. so she started baking more. cinnamon rolls. muffins. cookies. sourdough crackers. it all continued to sell, and to sell out. it had a taste unlike anything people had eaten in years. sourdough with organic flour raised by wyoming farmers, raspberry cream rolls baked with local fruit. jalapeno cheddar boules. this was not a product that could be replicated in a big box store. this was a true wyoming food.
the family’s life came into alignment. instead of playing catch up, found themselves ahead of things. with the sudden influx of cash from mitchell’s bakery, the kids could afford dance classes, soccer cleats and spontaneous camping trips. she now sells at another local market in nearby lander and feels the bakery can be expanded or contracted according to her family’s financial and temporal preference.
that’s the magic of food freedom~ of letting communities feed themselves. instead of soil destroying, small-town killing, chemical laden foods from wal-mart, the local economy thrives. the remarkable entrepreneurial spirit of america sprouts up. and this story is not unusual. at the fremont local market- which sits on main street of riverton, every single product is sold by a citizen of wyoming. there are currently 105 different vendors. people gaining financial and spiritual freedom like mitchell.
below the paywall is a scene with mitchell for our upcoming documentary the right to food.
thanks so much to mitchell and her family for opening up their life to us.
best thoughts,
graham
p.s. a huge thanks to our paying subscribers for making this work possible.
p.p.s. thanks to jasmin for contributing to the edit!
