What started off as just baking to accommodate her family’s gluten allergies has now turned into something much bigger.
For 16-year-old Therese Bennett balancing school and baking for customers has become her daily routine.
“We normally bake 200 to 300 croissants before each market,” Bennett said.
Bennett owns the Little Flower Sourdough a vendor at the Abbeville Farmer's Market.
She said preparing her treats from sourdough can sometimes take up to two weeks, when prepping for a market.
“We do sourdough baguettes, sourdough croissants, jalapeño cheese bread all sorts of sourdough treats.”
On weekdays unlike most 16-year-olds she is up early kneading dough in the kitchen before class.
“I get up at 5 o’clock and start all my sourdoughs rising,” Bennett said.
“And then I’ll do school for a few hours and then check one the dough rising.
And typically, by about one I’m finished up with school work and could pretty much spend the rest of the day taking care of the sourdough stuff.”
But for Bennett, at just 12-years-old filling orders for customers was something she never expected.
“My mom gave one of my jalapeño sourdough breads to her chiropractor and the next visit she went to they liked it so much and were asking if we could sell it,” Bennett said. “And we were like wait what? And it planted the seed for thought.”
As for ingredients, Bennett said she tries to keep it as organic and local as possible.
"We use local ingredients,” Bennett said. “So we use our eggs from our chickens and we use pecans when we have them in season, and we get local raw honey cause we want to use as many local ingredients as possible, to make it make it taste the way the Acadian’s breads taste.”
One of Bennett's favorite parts about baking is the customers connecting it to memories from their childhood.
“Because I’m home schooled, I have the time to make sourdough bread, and our customers are always telling us about their memories of their grandmother in her kitchen making sourdough bread,” Bennett said.
“And I’m really excited that help them relive that nostalgia through selling them sourdough.”
As for what she hopes is in the future of Little Flower Sourdough…
“I’m hoping to continue making sourdough for my family and to continue being able to sell it,” Bennett said.
“My sisters are stepping up to help and helping more as they get older. They’ll be able to help more with the business and we’ll just keep doing that.”
Starting March 2nd Bennett’s goods will be at Delcambre Seafood and Farmer’s Market.
