6 minute read
A UNIQUE COMBINATION: PORK PRODUCER AND PASTRY CHEF
By Bob Fitch
Like most young women who grew up on a farm, Emily Van Regenmorter is no stranger to hard work. Her parents, Chad and Jody Van Regenmorter, operate a farrow-tofinish hog operation east of Inwood. Emily started doing hog chores in high school and … “I just never left. I’ve got a steady income, plus I have the chance to grow my own business at the same time. Dad and Mom are always willing to give me a little time off when I need it.”
When she’s not caring for the pigs, she’s grown her hobby of baking into a small business as a pastry chef. Cakers Kitchen By Emily sells upscale baked goods with a goal of “making people feel good through food.”
Pork Producer
Emily is the fourth generation of the Van Regenmorter family to farm in Lyon County and the third generation to raise hogs. Her grandfather, Pete Van Regenmorter, started producing pork in the 1970s. In the past one-anda-half years, Chad, with Emily as his hired hand, has been transitioning a portion of their traditional commercial herd over to purebred Berkshires. The flavor-heavy taste of Berkshire meat brings a price premium. Van Regenmorters are part of the Berkwood Farms coalition of family farmers whose Berks are harvested at Pine Ridge Farms in Des Moines.
Emily said raising purebred hogs for this specialized market involves a lot more paperwork, but she has no complaints.
Experimenting In The Kitchen
Emily’s journey into the baking world began at 11 years old when it was discovered she cannot eat most baked goods. She was diagnosed with celiac disease which means her body cannot digest gluten from wheat, barley, rye or oats. “I was lucky enough to not have severe symptoms. I just had a lot of migraines and malnourishment. Your body can’t the get nutrients out of it and it stunts your whole digestive system.”
Even 10 years ago, baked goods made without traditional flour sources “tasted like cardboard,” she said. Not wanting to abandon bread and cake and cookies, she began experimenting with different recipes. “I began playing with my mom’s recipes with various substitutions. I decided that it was something I really liked to do and found it to be a lot of fun.”
Baked goods using alternatives to traditional flour products typically get very dense and are frequently grainy, she said. That’s because substitutes such as potato flour, potato starch and different types of rice flour absorb liquid more compared to regular flour. “So there’s a lot of experimenting because every flour acts differently from another one.”
Becoming A Pastry Chef
The more time she spent baking, the more interested she became in it as a potential career path. While still working fulltime on the farm, she enrolled in a year-long diploma program in the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. The training covers the essentials of a career in baking and pastry, from techniques for creating amazing breads and cakes to foodservice business know-how. The program combines flexible online classes with a hands-on baking and pastry externship experience, supervised by experienced instructors.
She enrolled a few months before the Covid lockdowns hit. However, since it was a virtual class, Covid didn’t delay her learning. The virtual classroom included reading, lectures and demonstrations, research and quizzes. She had 24/7 access to hundreds of technique videos.
An online baking school seems counterintuitive. “Everybody says that – and it is a little different. You have to take a lot of pictures of your work in progress. Every step along the way, you took pictures. For each assignment, I provided 10-12 photos. The first picture was always one of every ingredient weighed out by itself in a little dish. Just through these pictures, the chefs can tell if it's right or not. The final picture was usually the end product plated up to look professional. There was a document I filled out to document the flavor profile, the taste, the smell and textures.”
Most of Emily’s work is filling custom orders for local customers. The orders come steadily month-to-month, although there’s not necessarily consistency in the types of orders she receives. One year, she’ll bake for three to five high school graduations and the next year, there will be one or none. She bakes for three to five weddings each summer plus has furnished baked goods for family reunions held in the area.
Her specialties include French macarons and cheesecakes. Her parents’ favorite are her butter cake cookies.
“I’ve always offered items made from traditional flour products as well as gluten free. There just isn’t enough demand in the area to do only gluten free. People who have celiac disease are nervous if they know I have a shared kitchen, because some can have bad reactions from just trace amounts of gluten. But, as someone who has celiac disease, I can truthfully say I know how to clean the kitchen to protect the gluten free products.”
Life Changes On The Way
Emily is not sure if she’ll still be feeding hogs and baking in her mom’s kitchen a year from now. She will be getting married next spring to Brett Van Keulen, a native of Marshall, Minnesota, who is going into his final year at North Dakota State University. She met him while visiting a friend who attended Southwest Minnesota State University.
Brett will graduate next year with a degree in mechanical engineering. She’s hoping they’ll be able to live close to Inwood so she can continue to be involved at her parents’ farm. If need be, though, she can pack up her custom baking business and move it wherever she and her new husband land. And a farm kid’s worth ethic is valued wherever she goes. “We have a lot of options, but it’s all up to God’s plan,” she said.
Would she rather be baking or doing hog chores? “It depends on the day. Baking doesn't always go well and other days it doesn’t go well in the barn.”
To learn more, find Cakers Kitchen By Emily on Facebook and order at cakers-kitchen-by-emily.square.site
