Salty & Baked is Lewisburg’s newest women-owned baking operation! With a focus on the importance of community and providing affordable snacks to the Susquehanna Valley area, the company provides delivery services of fresh soft pretzels, truffles, and cookies. Want to hear more? We were able to talk with co-owners, Gretchen Croteau and Emily Heuer!
1. Introduce yourself / tell us how the company got started!
We are Gretchen Croteau and Emily Heuer, former neighbors and now co-owners of Salty & Baked. We started our business for a couple of reasons, one of the more obvious reasons was to have outlet for all of the baking that we were doing on our own, and the other was wanting to create a sense of community around simple and delicious treats so that customers would be able to show someone how much you care about them or to simply treat yourself! We decided to first focus on soft pretzels (we are in Pennsylvania, after all), but then quickly decided to expand into offering over-sized cookies and chocolate truffles. Our first meeting happened in February 2016 following a serendipitous exchange on Facebook, of all places, and we began selling in earnest in October 2016. We’ve been very busy ever since! Emily does a bit more of the baking and I do a bit more of the business but, really, we both do everything. So many people and organizations in our community have helped bring this company to fruition, one being the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) located downtown who has been crucial to our success. Our families and friends have provided unending moral support, have been central in getting the word out about our company, and have been enthusiastic taste testers as we worked to perfect our recipes!
2. What are your main products now?
We sell hand-crafted soft pretzels (salty or cinnamon/sugar), over-sized snickerdoodle and chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate truffles. We create everything ourselves and spent months perfecting our recipes. Our products are perfect for parties, gifts, or when you want a homemade snack (we can sell our pretzels frozen so you can heat them when you want them!). We hope to carve out some time to expand our menu in the coming months!
3. Where do you see your business growing over the next couple of years?
Since we are only able to deliver directly to our customers right now, two of our big future goals are obtaining a storefront and attempting to ship our products to locations outside the Susquehanna Valley region. We’ve begun to partner with local businesses (Campus Theatre sells all of our products, Fero Vineyards will have our truffles for sale on February 11th, and we hope to announce more affiliations soon). We brought on a recent Bucknell graduate as an intern who has been utilizing some of the skills she learned in the classroom by helping us with marketing, as well as learning some of the baking ropes. We would love to continue providing opportunities for Bucknell students/grads.
4. Do you have any discounts/ offers coming up?
Our truffle boxes are on sale for Valentine’s Day and we are constantly brainstorming new offers to provide our customers!
5. Fun question! Three foods you could never live without:
(Gretchen): cheese, peanut butter, hummus; (Emily): Haribo gummy bears, pickles, chicken parm
I was fortunate enough to join the creative duo for a taste testing and q&a a few months ago! Trust me, the sweet and savory treats are even more delicious than they look. Check the new company out on Facebook and learn more by exploring their website (link provided below!) We won’t judge you if you place an order immediately after reading this.
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