About Us

October House Bakery, which got its name because the idea was born in October, came about when sisters Karen Brown and Sherry Elmore decided to dream up an enterprise they could work on together.

“We both were at the point where our children were older and we wanted to do something different,” Brown says. “The idea of a specialty food had been nagging at me for years, because we’ve always enjoyed baking. and I had often seen things in commercial bakeries and thought to myself, ‘I could make something even better.’ So when we started trying to narrow down ideas, I pulled out this recipe I’d had for about 20 years and said to Sherry, ‘Why don’t we try these oatmeal cookies?’”

Working out of Brown’s kitchen, they prepared their first delivery after Rob Elmore, Sherry’s ex-husband and owner of R&R Barbecue, agreed to offer some checkout counter space for their wrapped, homemade cookies. Customers snapped up the 24-cookie trial batch in a day. Smelling success, they got down to the daily business of baking as many cookies as they could, realizing their production was limited by the capacity of Brown’s oven.

“At first, we could only bake 12 cookies at a time – six on a pan, two pans at a time,” Brown explains. “But that’s only six cookies when you use two and put cream in the middle.” It wasn’t long before they were faced with a big order and a decision: How serious were they about this? After working all day to fill a request for 90-plus cookies, the sisters decided to go ahead with the next step. They bought a commercial convection oven, a 30-quart mixer and a large baking rack.

“And then we looked at each other and said, ‘What have we done?’” Elmore recalls. “Actually, we still feel like that some days, because we’re still very new business owners. But every time we start to feel overwhelmed, someone will come along and tell us these cookies are the best thing they’ve ever put in their mouth. That makes it all worthwhile.” Getting restaurants and stores to carry the cookies is as easy as unwrapping one and offering a taste. “We just take samples,” Brown says. “Almost everybody who tastes them wants to carry them.” 

Doing everything from baking and wrapping to making sales calls and distributing has been a challenge, Brown says. But they’ve grown the business gradually and conservatively and now have better control, thanks to their commercial equipment and lots of help from family members, including their mother, Pat Jennings, who is a regular at the bakery.

Two years ago, when the business had clearly outgrown Brown’s house, they rented a narrow storefront on Depot Street in Rockwell, did a few renovations to suit their needs and painted the space a cheerful yellow. While there’s certainly no extra square footage, the price is right and there’s ample room for a smooth operation.

Satisfied October House fans are eager to help spread the word, but the sisters are careful to take their success one step at a time. “Everybody threatens to send our cookies to Oprah,” Elmore says. “And yes, we would absolutely love it if Oprah wanted to feature our cookies someday, but we don’t think we’re ready for that just yet.”

“Those dreams are what keep us going,” Brown adds, “but we don’t even really know exactly where we want to end up. We had no idea it would get to this point, so we’re being very careful to savor it.”

They’ve thought about branching out with other food items, but so far, oatmeal cookies are keeping them plenty busy – they already bake more than 4,500 cookies a week (half that number in “finished” product once they’re filled with cream). While they bake oatmeal pecan and oatmeal chocolate chip in addition to the traditional oatmeal cookies, that’s as far as they’re going for now.

“We decided to do one thing and do it right,” Elmore says. “This is all great, but we still want to have a life, too.”


*** We wish to thank Rowan Business Magazine (http://www.rowanbusiness.com/) and Jan Boone for giving us permission to use their article about October House Bakery. ***