Bakery News

Dear Friends, both old and new, Nearly four centuries ago, the Moravian bishop and educator John Amos Comenius proposed a rather audacious idea: that the whole of life is a school. We do not simply attend school during childhood, he argued. Rather, infancy, youth, adulthood, and old age are themselves schools, each with its own lessons to learn and its own lessons to teach. We begin life as students, become teachers almost without noticing, and, if we are fortunate, finish our days discovering that there is still so much left to learn. The old Moravians believed him. They built schools...

Dear Friends, both old and new, Growing up in a family business, you're surrounded by stories: stories about how the company started and how things used to be; stories about tough decisions, unavoidable disasters, and unlikely successes; and, since it is a family business, stories about bickering and loyalty, about love and stubbornness, about who was right and, maybe more pointedly, who was wrong. Stories are memories set to meaning, however roughly, and the storyteller uses them to pass down purpose, identity, perspective, and humor. Stories shape how we remember, how we understand, and how we belong. I could always...

Dear Friends—both old and new, At noon on Sunday, June 9, 2024, my family gathered at our homeplace in Clemmons, NC. We posed together for photographs, shared a simple meal, and scattered my grandmother’s ashes in her flower garden, as was her request. Present for the ceremony were her husband, her four children and their spouses, her seven grandchildren and their spouses, and her four great-grandchildren. Present, too, was the homeplace. Since 1842, when Jonathan Fischel, my great-great-great-grandfather, hewed its first timbers, the house has watched as family members were born and raised, married and labored, aged and passed on....

Dear Friends, My name is Jedidiah (Jed) Templin. I am Mrs. Hanes’ oldest grandchild. My entire life has revolved around the cookie business. My mom, Mona, ran the business for 40 years. From the very beginning, I have been a part of the business. I was the first official “Cookie taster.” When I was around 7 years of age I was waiting on customers and putting together Moravian Stars for people. At 8 years of age, I began doing the radio commercials that my mom wrote for me. I must have sounded really cute because people still come into the...

Dear Friends, It is the year 2022 and I am 90 years old! Oh my goodness! How did that happen? I have seen so many changes. Can you imagine growing up with no indoor plumbing? No air conditioning? No telephone? I mentioned in last year’s letter that I am in the process of writing a book about my life. I have kept a diary for over 65 years, so I had a lot of information to use for inspiration. Daughter Mona was going to be my editor, but when the book got to be over 500 pages, she found it...