Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Gilewicz
Hi Stephanie, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
after being told i would not receive any maternity leave when pregnant with our daughter, we decided to start selling our homemade greek yogurt at the downtown dallas farmers market in august 2018. within 6 months, central market approached us to get our delicious, nutrient dense, probiotic rich yogurt on their shelves. we quickly found a space to produce in and debuted our yogurt at their taste of texas event in may 2019. that same year we developed our coconut milk based vegan yogurt. we wanted it to have the same thick texture as our greek yogurt, and after many tries, we felt it was truly unlike any other vegan yogurt on the market. as many other small businesses, we had our struggles through covid and are grateful to have made it through, along with welcoming our son. we introduced our vegan yogurt to central markets’ shelves in 2023. in addition to those placements, we have always enjoyed stocking the shelves of smaller grocers in the dfw area, along with some wholesale accounts who make parfaits, bowls and smoothies for they customers. we are excited to say we are currently at our max capacity and are diligently looking for room to grow. we are seeking capital, working on new label designs, searching for the right facilities to co-pack and trying to stay ahead of the growing demand for our delicious yogurts! since day 1, we have cooked, flavored, packed and shipped all of our yogurts! as we say, it is milk, patience and a lotta love!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
we have had our share of struggles, especially during covid when making rent payments on a large production space was difficult. we eventually had to leave that space and find something smaller in an environment where our landlords were understanding of the struggles so many were facing. we have been really happy in the kitchen we are in now, and have been here since February 2022. probably our biggest challenge is we have been self funded to this point. through the struggles and all, we have managed to support ourselves with this business, but in order to grow significantly, we need outside support. this is a daunting task in itself as we have full faith in our business, but asking someone to take a chance on us is scary! it has also been really tough to find the right facilities to take us on. while we are a small business with great growth potential, co-packers have to go through their own processes to determine if it is worth their time. in texas it seems a grade A facility willing to accept a small business is nearly impossible to find. for that reason, we are working more seriously on growing the vegan yogurt line which we feel can really make a difference in this market.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Milk & Patience?
Milk & Patience was born initially as a means to supplement income while making something we truly cared about. i had no maternity leave planned through my restaurant management position, so this was meant to hold us over until I had our daughter and could get back to work. what we didn’t plan for was the yogurt being such a success at the market, not to mention we really enjoyed the camaraderie between all the small businesses! at first i was the pregnant lady hoisting a tent and selling yogurt, months later i was the new mom with my infant at the market with me while she ate yogurt as young as 3 months old. my husband kept his chef job for months while we entertained this crazy idea, he would rush from work to let me feed the baby and take over the yogurt stand, or he took Emi back with him to the restaurant where she slept in a boppy while chefs all around had to quietly work. if you’ve ever been in the back of a restaurant kitchen, you would know this is truly an impossible feat! but the deal was, you wake the baby, you’re in charge of the baby until she falls asleep again! we are known for our thick, luscious yogurt, both the greek and the vegan. the textures are truly remarkable, setting us apart from the competition out there that prefers a higher yield while sacrificing thickness and texture. everything is hand made, we cook, flavor, fill, pack and ship ourselves. we make most of our purees, only purchasing what we cannot produce ourselves. we are especially proud of the coconut based vegan, which is also plant based, as we feel this market is still growing and most other vegan yogurts are runny and not spoonable like ours. we also incorporate fun flavors in the vegan like lychee, yuzu and peach ginger, in addition to more approachable flavors like vanilla, mango and raspberry.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
customers may not realize the time it takes to make truly delicious yogurt, my husband starts his day 3 x a week at 2:30 am. in order to cook the 400 gallons of whole milk and 150 gallons of coconut milk a week, you’ve got to start early. milk and patience is just that, a lot of milk and a lot of patience, there is no speeding it up, it becomes yogurt when it becomes yogurt! the greek yogurt takes roughly 4-5 hours to ferment, then it strains for 12-16 hours, then it gets flavored and packed. the vegan yogurt cooks for 12-16 hours before it can then be cooled and flavored! during this waiting time, we are making purees, making boxes, and labeling each and every container top and bottom ourselves! january 2025 we shipped over 11,000 cups, that’s over 22,000 labels hand stickered! so if you ever buy a container and notice the top label is slightly askew from the center, cut us just a little slack please!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.milkandpatience.com
- Instagram: milkandpatience
Image Credits
Thanks to Emi and Hud for being so damn photogenic and for loving yogurt! If you guys didn’t like yogurt, we would have given this up years ago!
