Our Story Embraces Change
Wanting to grow our community, we finally bit the bullet and entered the Saturday and Tuesday Markets again focusing primarily on baked goods, but now slowly adding some savoury meals as well.
By the time we got the news that the landlord of our home of five years was wanting to take over the house again, we were already well into the process of opening our new venture, Ox Eats Grass!
We had no idea at the time what was ahead for us. We were suddenly launching an all vegan comfort food business and having to let go of the successful bakery we had been building for 3 years. We could not do both, and at the time it was too late to change direction once again. So we set our sights on what Ox could be and it has grown into such a wonderfully popular destination for so many; we have zero regrets.
But change comes for us all does it not? While Ox has been growing steadily, gaining new followers and regulars on the daily, internally we have been struggling to keep it afloat. Food costs are astronomical these days, both on the customer and the business. While we have seen our business triple in foot traffic this year, our costs are skyrocketing beyond what is feasible to continue without some kind of CHANGE….see, there’s that word again.
Since we first transformed a spare room in our garage into a thriving roadside bakery our business has been all about change. Even before the farmstand was ever built, we started as a pre-ordered frozen baked goods business only; delivering to islanders and even to Vancouver Island. We quickly outgrew that model and Mountain View Vegan Bakery Farmstand was born.
For three years we shared our love of baked goods with islanders and tourists alike; our favourite times were when car loads of folks would find us, open their doors and scream that they had found heaven. What we did not love was never seeing the faces of kiddos with wide-eyes scanning for their preferred treat; or chatting with other plant based folks about how hard it is to find good vegan food on the island.
Big, hard, strategic decisions had to be made and unfortunately in the end the decision was made for us to close. We have spent the past 7 years expressing our love of vegan food with Salt Spring and unfortunately the toll that working essentially 24/7 on our bodies and our personal lives, with no means of hiring full time employees to carry some of the weight of the work, we have finally reached the end of our journey.
This past weekend we spent a day in Victoria with my family celebrating four birthdays because we have not been able to attend any family events in almost a whole year. Our work/life balance has had a huge effect on Jamie’s kids lives as well and in the end, without family, what is the point of any of this. While we are heartbroken over the loss to the vegan community and to the island where we were only one of two plant based options for visitors, we are ready to move forward and are at peace with saying goodbye to this phase of our life.
If we had to do it all over again, we definitely would; but we may have gone about it a little differently in order to create a more sustainable business model for ourselves, alas hindsight is 20/20.
We want to thank EVERYONE who has supported us in small and big ways over the years. Some of you have been around since we first started selling frozen vegan treats. You have made this journey of ours worthwhile and joyful and while, for now, we are putting the tots to rest, we will one day again find ways to bring a little bit of plant based goodness into the world.
“People eat meat & think they’ll become as strong as an ox, forgetting that the Ox Eats Grass”