At first glance, it appears to be a humble shed tucked into the corner of the First Congregational Church parking lot in Falmouth. But behind its door lies a sweet secret: a treasure trove of homemade baked goods. On display are Bourbon Chocolate Chip Cookies, Cosmic Brownies, Funfetti White Chocolate Bars, Banana Walnut Cranberry Loaves, and bags of granola.
Behind the treats at the Bourbon & Butter Sugar Shed is local baker Tara Sullivan, who bakes everything from scratch in her home kitchen. With a nostalgic twist, the shed operates entirely on the honor system, where customers pay the posted price with cash or via Venmo on their phone.
For someone who does zero advertising, Sullivan says her success is almost entirely due to a group of a few hundred followers who lovingly call themselves “Shed Heads.” Otherwise, the shed is “really kind of a secret,” Sullivan said.
Bourbon & Butter is entirely run and managed by Sullivan and her daughter, Sierra, who recently graduated from college and now helps with the baking.
Sullivan was born and raised on Cape Cod where she learned her love for baking from her grandmother. “I tried to escape,” said Sullivan. However, “It’s a vortex – but it’s a good vortex.”
When Sierra was in kindergarten, Sullivan got her first commercial baking job at Pies à la Mode in Teaticket. She held that job for about eight years before switching careers to become a personal assistant and nanny. Like many others during the pandemic, she got back into baking. After becoming burnt out at her job, she moved on and took a position at a coffee shop. Time after time, people would tell her to sell her cookies.
Her friend Carrie Richter, who owns Peachtree Circle Farm, advised her to obtain a residential kitchen license. “So, I did,” said Sullivan. She began posting her baked goods on her personal Facebook page. People kept buying them. Then, those people would tell their friends. Soon, she established an official online presence.
She encountered a problem when it rained, which required a hands-off pickup. In December 2022, she thought that if she got a garden shed, she could put it in her front yard for pickups. Then, she would put extra baked goods in and post them on local community groups. About a month later, she had about 15 people in her driveway at 10 am, and that’s when she knew she had to move the shed. A friend connected her with the church, and she was permitted to install a larger shed in the parking lot starting in June 2023.
The business grew so much that she now works at it full-time. “It’s all out of one little oven in my house,” said Sullivan. “It took a long time to get the flow of it – figure out efficiency.”
She organizes her week by task – one day is cookie dough day, and the other is brownie day. On a typical day, Sullivan develops new recipes, manages inventory, handles social media, writes a weekly newsletter, and performs all packaging and labeling tasks. At the same time, her daughter takes on about half of the baking.
In the summer, she sells twice as much product as in the off-season.
Sullivan also uses local ingredients wherever she can, such as in-season produce from Peachtree Circle Farm, local cranberries from a nearby bog, and eggs sourced directly from her cousin. When asked how she develops her recipes, she said, “Just whimsy. I love it. It might seem like I have a plan, but I don’t.” She aims to create unique recipes and often tests her ideas to see how they go. “I hide things in there, which people think is fun.”
But it’s a high bar she has set for herself. Her customers always ask, “What’s next?” “It’s hard to keep up with them,” said Sullivan. “There’s a reason people don’t do this.”
Sullivan structured the business around her work style so that she wouldn’t get bored or too stressed out and quit. Two years later, it’s still working. Keeping her going is a framed letter from her mother-in-law, Betsy, which she wrote the Christmas before she passed away. It says, “Get the cookie factory going.” She keeps it up as a reminder because it was hard to start and keep going. She jokes, “I’m kind of a quitter.”
On a side note, one of the things she says she’s “quit” is running an ice cream truck which she did for two summers. Her father bought it and gave it to her. She always had popsicles on the side for kids who didn’t have any money. It’s similar to her current business model, a pay-what-you-can approach in which she asks other customers to help cover the costs of those who can’t.
Sullivan said, “I try to make people happy.”
Bourbon & Butter Sugar Shed
In the parking lot of the First Congregational Church
68 Main Street, Falmouth
bourbonbutterbakingco.com
