Fair Trade Coffee and Chocolate Tasting, Saturday, October 8th!

Join us this Saturday, October 8th for a Chocolate and Coffee tasting.  It will be held from 9:00-12:00.  We will have a wide variety of chocolate from Ten Thousand Villages and coffee from Sweet Fields.  Divine Chocolate has new flavors out that we want to share with you.  We will brew a light, medium, dark and extra dark roast of coffee and you can decide what is your favorite.  Learn about the countries where the coffee and chocolate come from and find out more information on Fair Trade and what it means for you and for the workers across the world.

Ten Thousand Villages will be having a one day sale of 20% off and all chocolate treats at Sweet Fields will be 10% off.

See you there!

It's been way too long!

My goodness a lot has happened since our last update. As you can guess we have opened and thus most of our time is spent at the store running the shop and things like the Internet get neglected.  But here we are, open and loving every minute of it!

We have been open for just under two months now and have been having fun learning the people of the town, trying out new recipes on people (like bacon chocolate cupcakes!) and learning the art of making lattes and cappuccinos.  It is now October and we are reassessing our hours slightly to better serve you and have a bit of time for ourselves as well.  So our hours now are Monday 7:00-3:00, Tuesday through Thursday is 7:00-5:00, Friday is 7:00-4:00 and then 6:30-9:30 in the evening and Saturday 8:00-2:00.  We will still be closed on Sunday.

If you haven't stopped by yet we'd love to see you.  If you have we hope you come again... and again... and again.

We have a grand opening date set!

We are happy to announce we have chosen a Grand Opening Celebration date.  Mark your calendars for Saturday, August 13th at 9:00am.  Specials will abound all day.  Come check out the space, say hello, drink some coffee, eat a pastry and enjoy the grand opening of Sweet Fields!

We want to give a big shout out thank you, to United Prairie Bank, the Mountain Lake Economic Development Authority and the Southwest Initiative Foundation for funding our new adventure.  We couldn't have done it without their help.

Each day we get more and more accomplished.  Rachel has been looking at putting together coffee orders, wholesale ingredient orders as well as choosing the remaining equipment for the space.  We will be proud to serve Fair Trade organic coffee from Level Ground, a wonderful company.  Check out their website at www.levelground.com  Our flavored coffees will come from the small woman owned company of Chicago Coffee Roastery.  You can find their goods at www.chicagocoffee.com 

Updated Pictures!

We have been hearing that people would love to see some updated pictures of the place.  Ask and ye shall receive.  Here are just a few.  We are waiting on just a few things until final opening.  We are working on getting our final financing so we are able to buy our last few pieces of equipment and once that happens then the inspector said she'll come.  We have been officially approved by the state application inspector, so we just the final review and walk through.  We really will be open soon!

Let the Training Montage Begin!!! We need some peppy 80's music...

You know, it really isn't as easy as you would think to make fancy coffee drinks!? Luckily we have had some great help in that department recently, Laurie Hendstadt has been exceedingly patient while taking us through our arduous training regimen; Two double shot lattes a night!! Don't worry though, our milk steaming will be perfected and everything will taste fantastically well, thanks to the hard work before. Luckily Laurie is right next door to us with her friend Jessie Mae who does beautiful work in flowers and candy; two very sweet things for Sweet Fields fans! She and Rachel will be working together on a wedding soon, so check her out if you're in the area and need some flowers to go with your cake! Yesterday; scrubbed floors on our hands and knees, painted, and today we built a table! Everything is coming along smoothly and we look forward to seeing you soon!!!

It's Alive! Alive!! Well, almost...

We have been very busy these past few days, tiling, painting, and generally putting on the finishing touches to bring you the greatest experience possible in coffee and baked good deliciousness! A few of the highlights; Brent Hanson, plumber extraordinaire, got our water all in order and the chrome shines like the sun in the new lights thanks to Rachel's discerning eye and the hard work of Laker Electric. Kurt Fast was true to his last name as he finished our trim around the ceiling. Almost all of the equipment (especially the heavy stuff), is in place thanks to our friends at Nickel Construction, and of course the indispensable help of the Bucklins. A special shout out to Melia and Katie, you lovely ladies are the best! We have heard the cries of the people, and we will be open at least one night a week, Friday initially, and maybe more in the future, if you, the people, want it. We will also be available for groups of over 8, for functions and special occasions. If you have anything else we should be thinking about let us know, we're not the psychics we once were, so leave us a comment, email, facebook post, whatever works for you. See you in a few!!!

One Step at a Time? Let's just jump on in!

      We are making tremendous progress, and getting close to realizing the dream, soon Sweet Fields will be open for good times all around! A big thanks to our friends at Laker Electric for the early morning visit, our back room is almost complete, just putting on some finishing touches, you know; lights, ceiling, those kinds of things. Until then, maybe this can satisfy that sweet tooth craving by how sweet it is to be loved.

      Here we have Rachel and Brian with the official mascot of Sweet Fields; The Q (that's the dog). Sadly, he won't be allowed in the space after this point, but the people will be welcomed Monday through Friday 9a.m. to 5p.m. and then on Friday nights from 5 p.m. to 10p.m. Be sure to let us know if you have an event or a request for a certain night, we aim to please!
      In the time between Rachel can't help herself, she's gotta bake. She did some great work for a baby shower that was all about children's books that the parents loved. Recapturing a bit of youth for themselves perhaps? Absolutely, but how could you not with cakes like these!

It's almost time for the grand opening

Hi Everyone,  things have been going extremely well lately. We have been painting and sheet-rocking like mad people and we even got a great new place to live in town. A big shout out goes to our friends at Country Pride Co-Op http://www.countryprideservices.com/default.aspx, thanks for the warm welcome. As for the space, here are some pictures, it's really coming together.

Thanks to our gracious hosts, the wonderful Care and Share and Ten Thousand Villages in Mountain Lake.
http://mountainlake.tenthousandvillages.com/php/stores.festivals/store.homepage.php We hope to be open in the next few weeks, maybe even in time for Pow Wow http://www.mountainlakemn.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7B452C10B9-02B5-491A-9F29-43C3977DCACC%7D Stay tuned and be sure to take time to smell the roses!

We have been busy!

We apologize for not having posted recently.  Life has been busy.  We are in the process of packing up our stuff to make the move to Mountain Lake this weekend.  On top of that Rachel has been working her last week at her job and that have been in the process of moving as well.  And then there's Sweet Fields.  We have our plumber, carpenter and electrician in the space this week!  On top of that we are in the process of getting all of our permits and all of the paper work that goes with that. Hopefully those in Mountain Lake has been watching the progress.  We are moving right along. 
  So as of Sunday we will be residents of Mountain Lake and we are looking forward to it!  You can find us there most days probably in the new space working hard to get it open ASAP.  Drop in and say hi.  We'd love to meet you. 
New Pictures will be posted very soon!

Putting the Sweet in Sweet Fields

We recently got a great question from one of our readers; Why the name Sweet Fields? As Rachel and I were driving through the outskirts of town on our way to church one Sunday morning, we were trying to think of the perfect way to express where we were and what we wanted to do. Rachel had just recently graduated from culinary school in the baking and pastry program, and had heard that the town was in need of a provider of cakes for special occasions. You know, weddings, birthdays, graduations, baby showers, that kind of thing, and I could provide the video record if people wanted it. Well, funny enough, the answer was right there. I looked around and saw the waving grains that stretched as far as the eye could see and the bounty that they provided; that was what we wanted to bring to people. Sweet Fields was born! Here are a few samples of her work, enjoy.

The Great Work begins!

      So for those of you just tuning in, Sweet Fields is the new taste sensation sweeping its way into Mountain Lake, MN. We are going to be located on the corner of 10th Street and 3rd Avenue in the scenic downtown square. We started some work on the physical space; nothing structural yet, we are awaiting out permits like good law abiding citizens!

Before

During this time we have begun to bring all the parts together for bringing the best possible quality to our new neighbors, you!  Let us know if we can make anything especially for you.

Sweet Love/Power Tools

Q approves Arlenes Work

Lindy does too!

She bakes and thinks deep thoughts!

Our Mascot, The Querc

What can we make for you?

As we continue on our journey towards the American Dream in the idyllic country town of Mountain Lake, we will bring you our trials, tribulations and triumphs, so stay tuned!

Welcome to the Beginning of an Era!

Have you ever wanted to get in on the ground level of something big? Well this is your chance! From a rising star in the Minnesota culinary scene, Rachel Hoskins, comes the greatest taste sensations around, Sweetfields! Nestled in beautiful Mountain Lake, Minnesota; the offerings are plenty and varied, but the best part about all of this? Your voice will be heard; been longing for those shoo-fly pies mom used to make? Let us know! This blog will be a great contact point to see the creation and have your input heard. See? You can have your cake and eat it to @ Sweetfields! Stay Tuned for more