063 - Susan Weiner, Orange Dot Baking Company

wtju

Gluten-Free Work. Welcome to a conversation about bread, community, and how one small business owner is trying to tie those two things together. Susan Weiner of Orange Dot Baking Company, with her gluten-free Major Muffins, wants to not only provide a delicious bread to folks suffering from celiac disease but also hopes to provide job training for folks in our community who so desperately need it. http://edacious.co/063/ Despite the gluten-free backlash, there are millions of folks out there who can't eat bread but would like to. Susan fills that gap. And she truly does. This isn't cardboard folks. Major Muffins have the texture of bread, the flavor of bread. On first bite I was reminded of a really great seeded whole grain. If you hadn't told me it was gluten-free I never would've guessed. Great on their own or toasted. Serve with wedges of cheese. Make a sandwich. Anything you would use a seeded cracker for is a perfect vehicle. You can find Major Muffins at many retail outlets including Market Street Market and Rebecca's Natural Foods. Buy a sandwich at Bellair Market, or eat one of her delicious creations (try the Figgy Piggy!) at the Charlottesville City Market. There are ten grams of protein per muffin because it's made with high protein flours like oat flour, oat bran, quinoa, amaranth and other ancient grains. Orange Dot is named after the Orange Dot Report written by Ridge Schuyler and Great Stone Bakery of Ben and Jerry's fame, which has an open-hiring policy and who work to alleviate poverty in their own community. Susan envisions a similar company goal, one with a quadruple bottom line: social, environmental, financial, and nutritional. It's a way to wrap all of her passions together into one. Ultimate goal? To have an Orange Dot Bakery in every single major American city so she can impact folks who are gluten-free as well as those who need work, providing a source of job training for those folks on the first rung of the economic ladder. Enjoy the ambient sounds of me chewing almost every variety of Major Muffin...then go get some for yourself. Cheers!