Sometimes, we need to take the time to pause, to look backwards in order to grasp how far we’ve actually traveled. If there’s one thing 2020 has offered us, it’s the gift of a forced, collective pause.

Much has changed with Bisousweet over the years. The usual rhythm of bakery life that marks the passage of time has shifted. In the absence of these expected mile markers, I feel the urge to honor the past.

I started this business in my house in 2005 not because I had a dream to own a company, but because baking filled my soul. It made me happy. It connected me to people in a way that felt meaningful. I have always been a giver, and baking was the ultimate form of giving I knew. I started the company not because of me. I started it because people reached out to me and asked me to bake.

The stories always came first.

You made my daughter’s wedding cake…not sure you remember…guess what?!…she’s pregnant! It would mean so much if you could make something for her baby shower.

Those cookies for our son’s bar mitzvah…he’s now graduating high school.

My father loved your key lime pie. It was the one thing he requested before he passed away…we’re celebrating his life and it wouldn’t be the same without having your pie there.

I said yes. I said yes to each request. I said yes to each opportunity because I knew deep down that this was exactly what I was meant to do. I said yes so many times I finally started a business to make it easier for my customers.

Custom cakes and cookies eventually led to a call from Idylwilde Farm in 2009 looking for Passover desserts. My first official wholesale customer. That single request changed the direction of the company. Within months, I signed a lease and built out a tiny commercial kitchen in Stow. A couple of months after I started baking there, I hired my first employee. Everything was changing, including my language. From ‘me’ to ‘we’. From ‘my’ to ‘our’. That was 2010.

Much has happened in the past decade. We re-branded. We moved to a bigger facility in Shirley. We expanded our product line and then we got so busy we realized we had to streamline. The pies that used to signal the approach of Thanksgiving are now memories. While I miss that flurry of holiday baking activity, I am grateful that tomorrow morning, I will stand in my slippers in my kitchen and bake pies for my family.

I am grateful for those first customers who tracked me down and helped me find my way back into the kitchen.

I am grateful for the expanding list of stores who trust us and our products enough to make space on their shelves for Bisousweet.

I am beyond grateful for the amazing emails and calls we received throughout this year from customers encouraging us to keep going and helping us understand how much our products were providing comfort and connection during a long, difficult, scary year.

I am grateful for our suppliers who bent over backwards to make sure we had what we needed so we could keep baking.

To The B Team…I will forever be in awe of what we accomplished this year. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything each of you did to help keep us going.

A special shoutout to my Sales Director, Linda…6 years of sugar bliss and counting! Thank you for always having my back and for doing everything and more to keep Bisousweet chugging in the right direction.

To my family & friends…thank you for always being patient, supportive and understanding. I know I must make you crazy by how much I continue to say ‘yes’…please know in my heart, you always come first even if it doesn’t feel like it at times.

Wishing everyone a relaxing healthy holiday.

Be well –

xo