Check Out Annie DeCoteau’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Annie DeCoteau.

Thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
We have a large family and homemade, long-rise boules were something Annie always made to go along with dinner, give to family and friends, or gift as a thank you gesture. In 2011 and 2012, we owned a small, diversified farm in southern Vermont. Annie decided to try selling her boules to supplement farmers market sales and our customers embraced the idea. We were even told, “Forget the vegetables, start selling this bread”.

In the winter of 2012, we were not able to renegotiate the terms of our lease for the farm but decided to continue baking bread, adding other products like baguettes, bagels, focaccia, naan, and pretzels, and soon expanded into farmer’s markets and a local coffee shop. In the fall of 2014, we relocated back to Colorado (we had been here previously from 2005 to 2010) and in 2015 started selling our products at local farmers markets including Berthoud, Mead, Loveland, and Greeley along with local breweries and wine shops under Colorado Cottage Foods Act.

After our second summer of participating in markets and local shops, we found that we needed a larger space. We were fortunate to find a space in Berthoud as the options were very limited. Choosing Berthoud allowed us to juggle raising our 5 children while opening a small business near our home. We officially opened our brick-and-mortar store Rise Artisan Bread Bakery and Cafe in December 2016 with the help of our friends, children, and a couple of high school students. She ran the front of the house while Bob and I baked, and then Bob would go up front and help her while I managed prep for the following day.

It was a round-the-clock venture for the first couple of years. We decided to start small with our menu and focus on what we did well: bread and bagels and make a menu to highlight these, so breakfast and lunch sandwiches. We slowly added more pastries and specialty items like soup. We partnered with Redemption Road Coffee started with brewed coffees and expanded into offering a full coffee menu.

Today, we have become a destination bakery bringing in people from all over the front range who seek delicious, handcrafted artisan bread, New York-style bagels, and amazing pastries. Our menu is a selection of some of our favorite sandwich creations, telling the story of our 28-year relationship and a nod to some of the most important places in our journey.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In the beginning, we tried to be open 6 am-4 pm. This of course posed an issue with caring for our children because it would have us at the bakery from 3:30 am-7 pm. Doing this and raising five children is no small feat. Once we were able to hire a few employees, we could work opposite hours from one another and make it work.

It didn’t feel sustainable though. We look at COVID as a blessing. It was an opportunity for us to take a step back from our crazy schedules, reevaluate what was important to us, and dissect the bakery and see what was working and what wasn’t. In addition to that, we feel blessed to have been embraced by our wonderful community during this time and very thankful that we have Berthoud to call home.

Over that time, we were able to streamline our menu, cut back our hours, and remember why it is we do what we do. We are thankful for the challenge of COVID because, like the bakery rising from the ashes of the farm, we feel that we were able to rise once again.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I have been working in the food industry since I was 15, having the opportunity to see how it runs from different aspects like front of house, back of house, and management. Having five children some with food allergies means that at times we had to be creative with our budget, having to buy “premium” ingredients in the early 2000s and wanting to feed our kids organically.

This led me to research community food systems, how they work, what makes them work, how they don’t work, and even how they just don’t exist for some. While a lot of us think of a food desert as only urban, it can also be present in rural areas.

I worked on a project that would have a mobile farmers market access rural areas so folks could have access to farm fresh food, worked on recipes and budget tools for folks who believed farmers markets are just too expensive, worked with a local restaurant chef to glean ugly produce from farmers and pay them for it (rather than just feeding it to the pigs), I worked with an inner city farm that not only benefitted the youth but also the community, and a community garden for at-risk youth, teaching them gardening, business, and life skills.

This led me to my proudest accomplishment which was returning to school at the age of 37, with five kids and an operating bakery to learn more about nutrition, social justice, and community food systems. I proudly graduated in 2016 summa cum laude. Since opening our brick-and-mortar location I have been the chef at 8 farm-to-table dinners which is both a lot of work and a great source of pride. I think what sets me apart from others is my deep love and knowledge of community food systems, my deep roots in the food industry, and my scratch baking/cooking.

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I may date myself here but I started using recipes from Mother Earth News, which led the way to scratch cooking and baking as well as learning new techniques.

I adore and have always loved America’s Test Kitchen and it’s the very same process I use to develop a recipe. Since then the Cook’s Illustrated baking book has been a great resource for techniques and a base for some of our recipes.

Contact Info:

• Website: riseartisanbread.com
• Instagram: @risebreads
• Facebook: @risebreads

Image Credits
Rise Artisan Bread, AMA Divine Photography, and Prairie Star Media