Immediately after husband’s loss of life, Brunswick woman’s baking goes from therapy to booming business

Kristie Freeman (still left) poses with her fiancé Zeb Dodge and daughter Hannah in their kitchen on July 7, 2022. John Terhune / The Periods Report

4-layer lemon raspberry cake. Chocolate peanut butter pie. Tiramisu.

Not extensive back, Midcoast citizens in search of a late-evening take care of might have been caught with a sweet bar from a vending equipment or probably some gas station ice cream. But around the earlier two yrs, law enforcement officers, college college students and other nocturnal sugar fiends have transformed Kristie’s Creations from a side hustle into a bustling 24/7 loved ones bakery on the normally tranquil Hennessey Avenue in Brunswick.

“We bake every working day, two shifts a day,” reported operator Kristie Freeman. “That’s all we do. We’ll go all night dependent on what we have for orders. Friday nights we normally do not go to bed.”

Pumpkin muffins. White chocolate blondies. Jumbo citrus twists.

Freeman generally beloved baking developing up. While other kids tuned in to Saturday early morning cartoons, she chosen PBS cooking demonstrates.

Orders for the rest of this week line a fridge in Kristie Freeman’s kitchen area on July 7, 2022. John Terhune / The Occasions History

Soon after a coronary heart attack killed Freeman’s partner Russell in 2017, baking grew to become more than a passion for the now one mother of a teenage daughter: it was an psychological launch.

“I considered my everyday living was in excess of,” she remembered. “But I had to get a career, do a little something to help myself and my daughter. I started out baking on the aspect. It became my treatment – just a rationale to go on and maintain transferring.”

Freeman generally shared her creations with her fellow nurses at Mid Coastline Clinic. She waved off their suggestions that she start a business but commenced distracting herself throughout restless nights by investigating and creating a industrial kitchen.

Then, the pandemic arrived, and Freeman found herself amid an ocean of laid-off People in america. Needing some way to make income, she made the decision to commit a lot more time on Kristie’s Creations, which to that stage experienced been a small facet job.

“We started out with a bake sale, just to explain to persons, ‘We’re here,’” Freeman reported. “The bake sale just by no means ended.”

A range of treats and drinks hold out to be purchased from the Kristie’s Creations bakery stand on July 7, 2022. John Terhune / The Periods Document

Dark Chocolate Cherry Scones. Ham and Cheddar Quiche. Meatloaf.

Zeb Dodge was not significantly of a baker, but he understood how to cook.

Dodge, the moment a childhood sweetheart of Freeman’s, reconnected with her in 2019. When he, much too, misplaced his job to the pandemic, he joined his now-fiancé in the kitchen for marathon baking periods that consistently extend right until 6 a.m.

“It’s our existence now,” he said.

Other than getting the guide on the bakery’s rabidly common convenience foodstuff dinners, which he aims to prepare dinner at the time-per-week, Dodge was accountable for the business’ most unique aspect: its unattended, 24-7 bakery stand, the place customers can pay back for an assortment of treats with Venmo, PayPal or, thanks to a locked drop box, cash or examine.

“I named Kristie and stated, ‘Why really do not we make a bakery stand alternatively of a farm stand?’” Dodge explained. “It variety of just went from there.”

Twenty to 30 clients visit the bakery stand each individual 7 days, which accounts for about fifty percent of Kristie’s Creation’s business enterprise, according to Freeman. Lots of late-night staff, which include taxi motorists and police officers, quit acquire for sweets, as do a expanding amount of school pupils.

“Word spreads quick through Bowdoin,” said Bowdoin School shuttle driver Angela Keating, who acquired about the bakery from her colleague Jennifer Jacobs. “Before you know it, I’m getting children there each evening.”

It is no secret why the learners flock to Kristie’s, Keating reported.

“The cupcakes are just divine,” she mentioned. “I want I would have in no way uncovered it because it is seriously hard to travel by.”

Kristie Freeman (still left) stands with her daughter Hannah and fiance Zeb Dodge subsequent to their 24/7 bakery stand on July 7, 2022. John Terhune / The Occasions Record

Million greenback bars. Frozen bananas. Cannoli.

Hannah Freeman, a college or university college student, cake decorator and occasional flavor-tester, reported she’s been joyful to see her mother’s passion mature into a Brunswick staple.

“Our aspiration increasing up was to have the bakery on the corner,” she reported. “Instead, we sort of just created it below.”

Nevertheless the small business has manufactured some new upgrades, which include two cameras to avert theft from the bakery stand’s coolers, Freeman reported she’s written content with Kristie’s Creations as it is. Right after experiencing own tragedy and qualified hardship, bringing some sweetness into the entire world is extra than really worth the late nights in the kitchen.

“I really like observing the little ones appear down on their bikes,” she mentioned. “I adore to be that neighborhood place grandmas stroll their children down to get a very little take care of. I expended 4 yrs just depressed and sad. I just want to make persons pleased.”

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