Sourdough Fest Unites Plant-Based Breakfast Delicacies
It doesn’t seem feasible to make breakfast sandwiches and doughnuts without animal products. How can you enjoy a bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwich without its fillings, all of which derive from animals? How do you make doughnuts without eggs or milk? Wait a second…how is this plant-based breakfast meal so delicious?! Two local women-owned businesses teamed up to answer those questions.
Peaceful Provisions, a vegan doughnut shop on Main Street in Beacon, NY, welcomed Dam Good English Muffins — a wholesale bakery based in Peekskill, NY, that specializes in sourdough English muffins — to its store to sell vegan breakfast sandwiches. Together, they hosted a Sourdough Fest on Saturday, October 2nd, highlighted by a new sourdough doughnut made with Dam Good’s English Muffin starter.
By the time the store opens at 8:00 in the morning, a line of at least 15 people has already formed. “Do you know why there’s a line here?,” asks a passer-by, prompting someone in line to giddily explain that it’s “just for donuts!” The popularity of the establishment stretches beyond the small town of Beacon.
Brain Ramirez, a resident of Poughkeepsie, NY, makes the 30-minute drive almost every weekend. “This is the only place that actually has vegan doughnuts that I think actually taste like doughnuts,” Ramirez said. He found out about Peaceful Provisions through Instagram and has since made it a part of his Saturday-morning routine, sometimes bringing his friends, who are not vegan, to enjoy the plant-based doughnuts with him.
Although Ramirez is deep in the line, it takes him just 15 minutes to get to the counter. The line moves quickly outside and even quicker inside the store, where he orders a hazelnut chocolate doughnut and a strawberry fritter.
The Dam Good team is set up in front of the window for customers to order their sandwich, which offers bacon, sausage patties, egg patties and cheese, all of which are plant-based products. As customers turn around, they face the display case and front counter of the Peaceful Provisions store, where they can order doughnuts and/or a drink. The menu features different teas and iced or hot coffee.
Peaceful Provisions is owned by twin sisters Brittany and Justine Soto, who spent the whole Sourdough Fest behind the scenes making batches of doughnuts. They opened their brick-and-mortar store in May of 2021 after being pop-up vendor at farmers markets and operating in kitchens shared with other businesses.
“Unlike many donut chains that use premade dough mixes or premade tubs of icings, glazes or jams, we make everything from scratch,” wrote Justine in an email. “The dough for our doughnuts undergo a few proofing processes before being fried. One process is a 24–48 hour cold ferment that enhances flavor development.”
The crunch from working in a pandemic has forced the shop to operate in a tiny window: Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 8:00 a.m. to the afternoon. The shop lists 1:00 as its official closing time but includes that they may also close for the day right when they sell out, which can happen as early as noon.
“Since opening in April we’ve been working seven-days and over 70 hours a week in order to be open to the public for the three days we are open,” Justine Soto said via email. “It’s been a great struggle for most businesses to find reliable workers.”
“We’re only now, after five months of being open with a barebones kitchen crew of three, starting to have qualified candidates interested in joining our team,” wrote Soto. “It’s been a great struggle for most businesses to find reliable workers.” The excruciating work pays off in the form of a community that’s smitten by their treats.
Ross and Denise Weale prove that a successful vegan food business is not restrictive just to sweets. The couple met at Johnson and Wales University, where they studied culinary arts. They co-founded Dam Good in 2017, naming it in honor of the Croton Dam, a nature park they live just a few minutes away from. The name also serves as a double entendre, promoting their mission to making high-quality English muffins.
At the Sourdough Fest, Ross handled the griddle while Olivia, Ross and Denise’s daughter and Dam Good’s operations manager, rings up customers. She studied business marketing at the University of Vermont and uses her knowledge to perform a variety of tasks for her parents’ company — applying for grants, handling customer service, planning events (like this one) and more.
Dam Good’s line of products include four types of English muffins: multigrain, original white, cinnamon swirl and whole wheat, which is the only non-vegan flavor since it contains honey. Soon, Olivia says, they’ll substitute it for agave, which will make it officially vegan. “We weren’t going into [the business] to make vegan English muffins. But they are vegan, so we are able to cater to that market as a result,” Olivia said.
Denise, who acts as Dam Good’s CEO, said the inspiration for launching the company came from an English muffin recipe shared with her by a friend. “It kinda just happened; it wasn’t a plan of mine,” she said about launching the company. What started as a family affair has grown into a nine-person operation.
The Sotos and the Weales each grew their businesses within their families from the ground up, developing a respectable following and a partnership together. Their mission of providing delicious plant-based foods can be strived for separately. But together, they can unite to provide a full breakfast meal free of animal products.
