Getting off to a fast, tasty start

Fredonia night owls may have noticed the lights on late at night at 225 Highland Dr.

No worries, that’s just Miriam Lambright  burning the midnight oil to create baked goods for the next day’s bread and doughnut lovers.

Lambright opened Miriam’s Bakery on July 24 and so far business has been good, she said.

“I can’t complain about that,” she said as the bell on the store’s front door rang each time a customer went in or out on a recent morning, each carrying an assortment of breads, rolls, fritters, doughnuts or other baked goods. “So far, so good.”

Her baked goods are advertised as “Amish made,” even though she isn’t Amish. Not anymore, that is.

Lambright, 28, grew up in an Amish community in Waupaca County but left in 2012 when she was 22.

“Too many questions, and no answers,” she said. “I felt there was more to life than living Amish.”

Now she’s no longer welcome.

“I’m no longer accepted,” she said. “They shunned me out.”

She’s one of eight children. Six of her siblings still live in the Amish community but her oldest brother lives near Wausau and also has left.

“He’s very excited” about her bakery, she said.

“They (her parents) talk to me if I go to them, but otherwise they don’t talk to me,” she said. “They know about the business. But they don’t really say much.” 

But her mother’s baking is one thing from her Amish upbringing that has stuck with her.

“My mom taught me how to bake growing up,” she said. “She was known for her baking. I make everything from scratch. Everything is measured by the cup. Nothing is out of a box.

“My mom mixed ingredients in a big mixing bowl,” she said, pointing to a large metal bowl atop a refrigerator. “She grew up making 13 loaves at a time.”

Some of her traditional Amish specialties include fry pies, custard pies, ring doughnuts and cinnamon rolls.

“I grew up with the ring doughnuts,” she said. “Occasionally my mom would make long johns. Those were real treats.”

Her customers’ favorites? “Doughnuts,” she said quickly, laughing.

Lambright, who has never owned a business, currently has four employees and is looking to hire more, she said.

Her goals for her new business?

“Just keep growing. Keep it simple. I hope to eventually do deliveries. Just keep moving forward,” she said.

Lambright lives in Belgium but likes the opportunity presented in Fredonia.

“Fredonia is a great location. There’s nothing else around but has easy access,” she said. “Fredonia is kind of in the middle of nothing else. You’re surrounded by small towns but Fredonia really has nothing.”

That sounds good to local leaders interested in economic development.

“Miriam’s Bakery is a nice addition to our community,” said Village Trustee T.J. Meyers-Jansky, who heads up the village’s Economic Development Committee.

Meyers-Jansky said plans are to do more to celebrate the opening of new businesses like Lambright’s.