Jen Welty's Story

JEN WELTY'S STORY

Northern Harvest: Twenty Michigan Women in Food and Farming

https://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/northern-harvest

Many mornings at the Traverse City Farmers’ Market I’ve been on the line at the stand for 9 Bean Rows waiting for a plain croissant for me and chocolate ones for my French grandsons.  

When I interviewed Jen Welty in her restaurant a few years ago, her first food memory was of the baker in Richard Scarry’s book for children, a pig, as it happens, a pig who was a baker with a rolling pin.  Jen told me, “I loved that pig. I also loved another part of the book that was Halloween. For Halloween, the pig, the baker, got dressed up, but they all got candy.”

It was many years later that Jen and husband Nic started their own bakery and CSA, 9 Bean Rows, but in the interim she held many jobs as a baker, working those 3 a.m. hours, toting fifty pound sacks of flour, mastering amazing wood-fired ovens.

It was in 2008 after the last economic crash before this one, when the alternatives were to apply for unemployment or to launch out into the unknown, and that’s what they did, taking a huge risk. 

“In 2009 we hit the ground running selling at farmers’ market." 
They had a great oven they had taken over from Black Star, and Jen thought,  “We know we need to make money.  Why don’t I go back to baking?”

The rest is history.  In the current pandemic shutting down so many businesses, 9 Bean Rows is actively producing its baked goods and other fresh foods for takeout and also at different regional venues. And I, for one, can’t wait to get in line to pick up more of the amazing croissants.

To read more of Jen's story and the stories of 19 other amazing women, order Northern Harvest, published this week!! from Wayne State or from your favorite bookstore.

And for baked goods and fresh produce from the CSA,  you can email at bakery@9beanrows.com or phone 231-271-6658. Pick up and prepaid.