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In the kitchen and in life, I tend to gravitate towards the sweeter side of things. So it was with great pleasure that I perused the Cookie Lady Treats website, picking out recipe after recipe that I was determined to replicate in my own kitchen. Laura Weinstein of Cookie Lady Treats is the kind of woman who inspires you to follow your passions – because that’s exactly what she did when she founded Cookie Lady Treats. She followed a career trajectory that I can only dream of, starting a baking business using locally sourced ingredients, and creating delicious masterpieces. I asked Laura a myriad of questions about her interest in the Boston Local Food Festival (BLFF), her participation in this year’s festival, and how she makes such outrageous (and unique!) cookies.
Laura was initially attracted to BLFF for a myriad of reasons. “This organization strives to promote local businesses by emphasizing the benefits they have on the community as well as the health benefits of locally produced, all natural food. They also promote networking with and utilizing other local businesses which is vital for the continued success of local food vendors.”
Laura herself sources many of her ingredients locally, under the belief that local small businesses are vital for the economy, that logistically they are a lot easier to work with, more personable, and often times tout a higher standard of quality for their products. While she acknowledges that it’s virtually impossible to source all ingredients locally – either for price or quality reasons – she does her best to utilize local vendors whenever she can. Some of the local vendors she uses include Butter Mountain Farm, King Arthur, Cabot, and Siegel Eggs.
The combination of locally sourced ingredients, a creative mind, and select high-quality ingredients make Laura a real standout in the baking arena. She has some incredibly inventive cookie flavors – like Blueberries + Cream and Fluffernutter Dream – and says she’ll gladly work with each and every customer to get them the product they desire, tweaked for their specific tastes.
In addition to being a BLFF participant, Laura is heavily involved in her hometown Maynard Farmer’s Market, as well as various other farmers markets in the local area. She is even an active member on the board for the Maynard Business Alliance.
When I asked Laura what she’s most looking forward to about attending this year’s festival, she said “meeting [vendors] and sampling products from other local vendors who may be able to utilize my products and/or vendors whose products I may be able to utilize.” Sounds like a pretty sweet idea to me!
This post was written by Taryn Collins of {Sweetly} Serendipity, go check her out!
