Pie Heaven Bakery Cafe

Owner, master pie baker - Anita Hyde As a kid, my grandmothers kitchen in her shack-like house was my happy place. She created food from her garden and seemed to never use a measuring cup. No wonder that as a young woman, I loved baking. I could easily bake myself happy. That came to an end when the need for "a real job" landed me in a career that lastest over 20 years in commercial insurance. It paid well - but the hours took me out of the kitchen. Finally, God blessed me with a corporate layoff which allowed me a couple of years to find my oven again. The lay-off was a peculiar answer to prayers I'd been praying. You see, I had a very unusual encounter a few years back. Some would call it a vision. I was taken to Heaven and shown a vast banquet for children. There were tables of food and children as far as you could see. An angel told me that all these had died of starvation. Then I was told "YOU! Feed the children and remember Schindler!" So, what do you do with that? Well, I started sending money to missionaries who I knew were aggressively pulling children out of horrid poverty and caring for them, like Heidi Baker. ( Google her....She's like Mother Theresa on steroids.) I knew that I had been asked to make a bigger impact however, so I prayed lots, asking for a business that would open me up to more money, because it takes a lot of money to feed children. It seems that God used my appetite to answer that prayer. I started craving a place to go where I could meet friends for coffee and pie but found no such place exists in my area. I saw this as a need I should fill and began the quest. I then started noticing ingredients labels of grocery store pies. YECH! Hydrogenated oil in everything! That stuff is impossible for the human body to process you know? I came up with a recipe for scratch-made organic pumpkin pie with coconut oil crust. It was out of this world...And realized a big problem. I can't eat all the pie I want to bake. I'd be as big as an elephant! Solution: support my baking habit by selling the pies. And so, my cottage industry "Mrs Hyde's Heavenly Pies" began.. It went well - so well that it grew beyond capacity for my kitchen. After my husband encouraged me to go for it, I started looking for a shop and created Pie Heaven Cafe, LLC. So here I am, owner of a business that will satisfy my craving for pie, quiche, pot pies, pie all day, every day...And truly, more importantly - multiply into such a booming business that I will be like Schindler, a man who saved lives through his business. When I get to Heaven, I hope to see that room full of kids... And know that many of them did NOT die of starvation because of the fruits of Pie Heaven. Of course, this is no one woman show. I am so blessed to have an amazing Mom who is along for the ride and helps me in so many ways. And I am also amazed at my dear friend Linda who I call my God-sent working partner because she is far more than a manager. She comes up with stuff I never think of.