Freshies Bakery kneads to fill a need in DeWitt

Brandon and Kate Slotman don’t like to let anything go to waste, whether it’s a quality loaf of bread or their own valuable time.

One week after first discussing the idea of opening a bakery in early January, they had already locked down a 1,900-square-foot space in downtown DeWitt. Freshies Bakery opened just five months later, on May 9.

“We were looking at opening a franchise toward the end of last year, but we decided we didn’t really want to go that route. To be honest, the idea for a bakery just kind of popped into my head one day after that,” Kate Slotman said.

The couple, both 41, grew up on opposite sides of the state: Brandon hails from a small family farm near Holland, while Kate was raised in Lapeer. They met while attending Western Michigan University and got married shortly after.

They spent several years in Tennessee and Indiana before moving to DeWitt with their three children in 2018 to be closer to family.

“It was new territory for us, but we wanted to live in DeWitt because it’s a nice family town,” Slotman said.

While cooking had always been one of her favorite hobbies, she said she didn’t start honing her breadmaking skills until the pandemic, when she had more time to experiment.

“I had a friend who introduced me to it, but she lives in Tennessee, and I didn’t know anybody around here that was doing it. So, I learned a lot on my own,” she said.

Her interest in healthy living led her to focus on sourdough, which has become a staple at Freshies. The shop offers nine varieties of artisan sourdough, including chocolate espresso, cranberry walnut and jalapeno cheddar.

“We knew for sure we wanted to make sourdough because there are a lot of health benefits to it that we wanted to share. I also brought in things I was already making at home, like bagels and sandwich rolls,” she said.

Sweets like cinnamon rolls, chocolate croissants, donuts and biscotti round out the menu.

The shop sells some of these products to other nearby businesses.

“We supply our hamburger buns and sourdough sandwich bread to Looking Glass Brewing Co., and we send bagels to Blue Owl Coffee, which is the coffee we have in-store. It’s been nice to be able to work together with our neighbors to help and promote each other, and we’re looking forward to more of those partnerships,” Slotman said.

If you don’t find what you’re looking for in-store, Slotman suggests ordering from the website, which offers a “build-your-own bread” service.

“Say someone wants something like rye bread, which we don’t make every single day because you never know who’s going to come in to buy it, and we don’t want to throw anything away. If they wanted it, they could order it on our website and pick it up the next day,” she said.

Now that they’ve settled in, Slotman is looking forward to the road ahead.

“Overall, we’ve been really thankful for the support from our community so far,” she said. “People have been telling us we really needed something like this in DeWitt, and that’s been really encouraging for us.”