Several times a day visitors, stick their heads into the soon-to-be-opened "Black Granary: The Bakery," at the end of Main Street in Big Sandy to ask if there are any pastries to buy or when the shop will finally open. The simple answer is "soon." Mary Merrill hopes to start serving customers with pastries and coffee beginning with a soft opening on May 5th. Mary will be waiting to officially open at a later date once the lease has been completed. " I will close for family things. I have kids in sports, so I'll miss some of their things, but there will be times I will close to go to a track meet."

Mary's plan is to open a bakery that serves coffee, which will be a little different from a traditional coffee shop or deli. "At its core, it's going to be a bakery, so we're not going to try to do a thousand things. We're not going to do lunches to start with. We're just going to do the bakery, and as we get our feet under us, we'll offer some limited breakfast selections." Lunches will be down the road a bit.

The bakery will be serving a wide variety of her popular baked goods: "We'll have cakes, cupcakes, scones, pastries, breads, and I'll do fresh breads a couple days a week. I'll have a rotating day I bake. So if somebody wants to get a loaf of whole grain bread every week, they will know that I have it on Wednesday by 2 pm."

Hand made, high quality baked goods are a huge part of what the Black Granary Bakery will emphasize. "I'm doing what I love. This is what I love to do. Hand-rolling croissants is tedious and physically exhausting actually, but I really enjoy doing it. Everything is hand made, hand rolled, hand laminated, everything is different sizes. It is very artisanal. It's a very big part of what I do." This includes using as much locally made and grown material as possible. "I am using grain grown in the Golden Triangle, milled out of Fort Benton. For stuff that has oatmeal in it, we grown organic gluten-free oats. So, I have some of our own oats. I am going to ratchet my way up. I'd like to use Montana dairy products, etc." She has also been using local meat and vegetables in her baking whenever the opportunity arises.

The bakery will be serving coffee and encouraging customers to sit, eat, and enjoy. "I will have coffee. My coffee selection will be a little more limited because I am really particular about my coffee. I want it to be something that I would want to drink. I will have some flavor options, but it's not going to be a huge variety," Mary explained. "I'm not going to have your Starbucks-esque line up of variety. I want to be a bakery at heart. So, I am going to do a lot of fresh breads, pastries, and custom cakes and all of that."

For Mary, the journey to the decision to open a bakery in Big Sandy has been a long and winding one. "The baking aspect has been years in the making. It has just been in the works so long. I bake because I love baking. It's really what I am passionate about. At the end of the day you really have to find a way to do what you are passionate about." She has been taking orders for custom baked goods for years and as word has spread, demand has grown. "But kinda going from my custom orders, which has evolved over the years as more and more people wanted to order different things. This space became something that seemed like it would be available, so I knew I wanted to get my custom order stuff out of my own home. Because it is chaotic with four kids... Realizing that this space was maybe available, led us to speaking with the owners and trying to figure something out there. It obviously seems to have worked itself towards where we are now."

As Mary moved her baking business into the shop, community interest in a local bakery became clear. "I realized the need from the feedback I've gotten from the community since I started just doing custom orders. I didn't give any actual thought to opening as a bakery or walk in coffee shop kind of place. Just the feedback I have gotten from the community is that there is a desperate need for this space open with fresh baked items. Something different. I think the community needs it. I am excited to be able to offer what I to people on a bigger scale."

The process of preparing, planning, and opening a bakery has been daunting, with more and more tasks to accomplish before she can open for business. "It has been busy. In fact this week, I have had to stymy off any orders so that I can work on the shop. I've had to paint and do a bunch of maintenance on the coolers. Stuff that needs to happen in preparation for opening. Stuff that, if I don't stop taking orders, I can't get to. My goal is to paint the entire interior. Then it's just a matter of setting up shop. My husband is building a window bar as we speak and a few little things we are going to change or add to before we start."

The whole endeavor will be a family business. Mary plans on her family being a part of the Bakery. "My youngest is super enthusiastic, but she's pretty enthusiastic about everything. She's got this whole plan. She's going to help sell stuff, and she says she's working on her math skills so she can help ring up orders. She's practicing writing them down. I have a menu that she made because it is pretty much the cutest thing ever. The cake she drew on that is going to be my special custom cake. I'm going to replicate it and offer it. It was just so fun and her enthusiasm for it... It's fun to have the kids involved, and they'll definitely be helping a lot. My kids will be a visible part of this. It's going to be a very family oriented business.