Today is the big day!

So, for the first time since 1999, I will have a brick and mortar shop again. This one is going to be a bit more low key than the previous one, Inner Sanctum, which was an occult shop down on North Loop, one of the busiest areas of the north end of town.

 Sugar³ is the culmination of many, many years of wishing and wanting. I have tried different jobs, teaching in public school (A NIGHTMARE for Aspies!), working in the medical profession, a fiberglass manufacturing facility (Ikk. Hats off to my sister who made it 30 years in that hellhole.) and various other things. My very first job in high school was working at Mr. Gatti's slinging pizza. I had been taught to cook by my grandmother and mother from the time I was big enough to stand on a chair. I did a few things here and there after that, and returned to food, working at Karmelcorn for a couple of years. Every time I would leave the food industry, I would realize that I just was not happy doing anything else. Growing and selling vegetables was ok, but then the drought hit, and that totally tanked. So once again I was casting about, looking for something I liked to do and I could do to actually make a living.

 I had worked as a personal chef awhile back, and while I liked the work, I was never comfortable being in someone else's kitchen/home. The nanny state food laws don't permit cooking for others in your own home. A friend and I had visions of a 'speakeasy' restaurant, I would cook and he would serve. That never got off the ground as he moved to California, a bit far to commute to Austin.  Working in a full blown restaurant was out of the question this time, as age and disability have caught up with me. And I don't work well with others, so I needed something that I was going to be able to do with part time help from my wonderful partner.

 Texas bakers had finally had enough. Thanks to school and church bake sales being busted by local idiots, the Texas Baker's Bill came into being, you can read more about it here. So, it is now legal to have a small bakery in your home. Squee! This was what I had been waiting for. Like everyone else, I had been selling a cake here and there, but with the change in the cottage food laws, I was finally looking at something that I could do, and have wanted to for many years.

 So Sugar³ came into being. After years of a nebulous wanting of my own bakery, it has finally become a reality. The nanny state is still out there, hoping someone will become sick off a cottage bakery so they can shut the whole thing down, but we, the Cottage Food Producers, will continue the fight. We are hoping to expand to other products, but for right now, baked goods and preserves are pretty much all I need.