Clients Spotlight
Hart Mtn Bakery
Five years ago, DeEtta Vincent left her job as Lake County’s finance director and moved to Plush, Oregon where she turned her love of baking into a business. Vincent enjoyed her homemade artisan bread and biscotti and thought that others might enjoy them too. To help grow her business, DeEtta participated in many programs through Lake County Development Corporation, including their American Food Fight evaluation where Vincent’s biscotti ranked as the highest rated product evaluated. From there, DeEtta took her product to OSU’s Food Innovation Center where she received assistance with marketing and merchandising. Vincent describes her experience with the Food Innovation Center as “in depth…a valuable experience”. Her hobby turned start-up business is now a full time job. Vincent bakes breads, breadsticks, pies, biscotti, granola, cakes, cookies, muffins, scones and more in her full service bakery named after the mountain near her town, Hart Mtn Bakery. DeEtta identifies one of her reasons for success as the lack of choices for baked goods in her rural marketplace. DeEtta describes Lake County Development and its partner, CORE (Connecting Oregon for Rural Entrepreneurship), as “key allies for rural entrepreneurs, addressing barriers we face”. Although Vincent had ample business experience, she found starting a rural business unique and challenging. Because of her experience, Vincent strongly believes in the importance of rural economic development through programs such as Lake County Development Corporation and hopes that their “initiative to help develop rural entrepreneurship will continue strengthening access to local markets as well as expanding access to markets outside of local communities” for those in rural areas.
website: www.ziadeetta.com
