Masear grows about six varieties of mushrooms. 

Every June it seems like there are more and more opportunities to observe Pride Month, but one very simple way to honor your LGBTQ+ neighbors this time of year (and all year) is to support queer-owned businesses.

In the East County, Sandy and Estacada communities, you likely shop with these businesses all the time, enjoying their fresh baked goods and homegrown goods.

Located in East County and vending at both the Mount Hood Farmers Market in Sandy and the Original Gresham Farmers Market, Amy Black with Flourishing Festivities likes to make cakes and cupcakes accessible for as many people as possible.

Black may be the only baker in the area who offers exclusively gluten-free and dairy-free, grain-free, paleo cakes, cupcakes and muffins.

Black herself, and all of her four children, have food sensitivities, so it’s important for her that they and others have options for sweet treats.

Black learned to bake from her mother and learned to decorate cakes from her father when she was a child, and then had to relearn a new kind of baking when she went gluten-free in 2016 and then dairy-free in 2018.

Her kitchen has been fully gluten- and dairy-free since. Her specialty bakes first went public via her blog, the namesake of her business, in January 2020.

“I’d been a stay-at-home mom for years and knew my marriage was ending,” Black said. “This was before there were a lot of good blogs telling (people with food allergies, sensitivities) what to do.”

The blog highlighted the events Black was throwing and what she baked.

In spring of 2020, in need of additional income, she decided to take the skills she’d honed baking for her family and friends and spread the love into the community.

Her business was founded then in April 2020 and while it wasn’t sustaining her financially in the beginning, her baked goods now account for 60%-70% of her income. When not baking cakes and cupcakes, Black also works as a personal chef, certified health coach and caterer (and also, of course, a single mom).

“My business is for people like me who had no other options,” Black said. “I know what it feels like to go somewhere and not be able to eat anything.”

Besides being an allergy friendly baker, Black also identifies as Cameroonian and queer. Black was born and raised in West Africa by missionary parents and moved to the U.S. when she was 18. Then at 20 she married and at 21 she moved to the Philippines with her now ex-husband to carry on the missionary work.

She no longer is connected to the church she was raised in. She finds joy in baking, her family and her chosen family in the queer community.

“Being queer doesn’t impact my ability (to bake) cakes,” she said.

Black added that people have been very supportive of her business and her business increases every day.

“The business has steadily been going up,” Black said. She’s actually working on pitching her baked goods to local grocers, and she already has wholesale contracts with Bake on the Run, Masala Lab PDX, Poa Café and Akadi PDX.

Other than wholesale and markets, she does take custom orders and she also caters events.

Her menu of cakes includes several unique flavors including a chai spice cake, a ginger peanut butter cake and a chocolate hibiscus cake, alongside well-known favorites like chocolate on chocolate, chocolate strawberry and carrot cake, and seasonal flavors like pumpkin spice latte, eggnog and more.

Black uses all natural flavors in her cakes and utilizes fruit and/or flowers to lend color rather than food coloring.

To place an order or find more information about Flourishing Festivities, visit flourishingwithamy.com.

Wholesome bakes on the Hood

Specializing in the doughier side of baking, Susie Blue at Mt. Hood Baking Company offers a variety of breads, pastries and sandwiches (made with in-house-made bread) in her new shop in Welches.

Blue has more than 40 years of experience in the restaurant industry and a passion for baking bread that she found unexpectedly while pursuing a career in music.

Blue was a singer/songwriter for about 30 years and worked in restaurants to make rent.

“I never made any money in music, so I was always in restaurants,” Blue said. “I just fell in love. I’ve always loved to bake and been into doughs. I love putting the bread in the oven and seeing how its reacting and waiting for it to do its thing. There’s just something super satisfying to be about bread – eating it and baking it.”

Blue and her wife Jessie Hawkins, who works as a teacher, opened Mt. Hood Baking Company on May 6 at 24525 E. Welches Road, Welches, and the community appear to love Blue’s bread as much as she loves baking it.

“We’ve sold out every day we’ve been open,” Blue said. “It’s been awesome. We didn’t know what to expect. People have been so complementary on the mountain with friendly, cool vibes. We’ve been lucky.”

Mt. Hood Baking Company offers a selection of sourdoughs, baguettes, morning buns, scones, savory and sweet brioches, cookies, bread pudding, crisps and more. They also make sandwiches with their own bread and vegetables from their own garden, and Blue also makes some of her own cheeses, including mozzarella and ricotta.

“Being able to use all that stuff is pretty great,” Blue explained. “Everything is really sustainable and non-GMO.”

They do have a few gluten-free sweet treats, but the only gluten-free bread is not made on site and is used for sandwiches. Blue sources her grains for her breads from Shepherd’s Grain and Camas Country Mill.

Those who’d like to try some of Blue’s carb- and love-filled creations should definitely get there early on the days their opened. Though Blue is baking more than 100 loaves of bread a week, besides pastries, she is the only baker at the moment and “making as much bread as I possibly can,” and still selling out quickly.

The bakery is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. More information about the bakery is available online at mthoodbakingcompany.com.

From spore to store

Also no stranger to a homegrown business is John Masear with Empire of Dirt Mushrooms. Their farm in Estacada features six varieties of mushrooms, which they sell at both the Mount Hood Farmers Market and the Original Gresham Farmers Market.

They also recently got their mushrooms picked up by Grocery Outlet in Oregon City.

Before going into business to grow fungi, Masear worked in tech in downtown Portland.

“It was a nice job, but I didn’t want to work in a cubicle,” Masear said. “I can’t imagine sitting in a cubicle doing physics my whole life. I was also experiencing poor mental health and having panic attacks, so I quit and started doing this.”

Masear moved to the farm in Estacada in the summer of 2019, and now they grow lion’s mane, morel, chanterelle, oyster and shiitake mushrooms. They also forage some varieties to make tinctures.

“I like all the space,” Masear said. “I had trouble living downtown. I have ADHD, and I tend to like to be all over doing multiple things and I like living where that’s a good thing.”

Masear found their passion for fungi when they moved to Oregon from Illinois. Their best friend was a forager and taught them the trade. While their friend mainly saw foraging as a hobby, Masear saw the potential for something more: integrating more mushrooms into their diet for their health benefits and also sharing this knew knowledge with others by opening a business.

Over the past four years of growing and selling mushrooms, Masear has become an expert on what flavors the mushrooms can lend, how to cook them and the health benefits.

“Lion’s mane helps with mental health and memory, mood and sleep,” Masear explained. Oyster mushrooms, which Masear said have more of an umami, chicken taste, have been reported to promote heart and immune system health, and the vibrant pink oyster mushrooms they also grow have similar health benefits but a nuttier, pork-like flavor.

Alongside his mushrooms, Masear also makes and sells digital art and photography. While he vends at multiple markets, he said he’s also looking at more ways to be involved in the community.

For more information about Empire of Dirt Mushrooms, visit empireofdirtmushrooms.com.