Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Sowell.
Hi Amanda, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I am the heart (and hands!) behind The Flour District: I am a stay-at-home mom, proud baker, and co-owner of The Flour District along with my husband, Shelby. We specialize in sourdough products but are slowly expanding into so much more. We have a 4-year-old little boy and 2-year-old triplet girls — they are our main driving force in everything we do! (Yes, I stay busy. No, I don’t know how I do it! Haha!)
I graduated from Tarleton State University in 2019 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and a minor in Accounting. The idea for The Flour District came in 2023 — I’ve always had a passion for cooking and baking. Even though I went into business instead of culinary school, my husband encouraged me to follow my dream. He said, ‘You don’t have to go to school to start your own bakery — just use what you know and teach yourself the rest.’ From that moment, The Flour District was born! Everything I make is made with love and passion. Food is my love language. I’ve always cooked for the people I love most — and now I get to share that same love with so many families through our products. I try really hard to make sure my dedication, creativity, and heart shine through in every single loaf and treat I bake.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Lord, no. I can’t count how many times I’ve asked myself if I should keep going. What did I get myself into!? I had so many thoughts run through my head: “I’m exhausted, I’m frustrated, my body hurts, we didn’t sell anything at the market because it was too cold, I’d rather be spending time with my family, etc,.” I definitely have experienced burn out a couple of times.
This business pretty much runs with just me, my husband, and some of our family and friends when they have the time. (Shout out to those that have helped us along the way!) We have some local friends but our family lives in West Texas where they have their own lives to live, so it’s not always easy to get them here.
Shelby is the backbone of our business as well as our executive dishwasher and IT guy. This business wouldn’t run as smooth as it does without him! However, he also works a full time, very busy job that often requires travel. You add together a full time dad, a full time mom, and a full time business… it’s a lot.
It is a lot of time, a lot of stress, but also a lot of fun. This business is truly a labor of love. The days are long, the nights are even longer. It’s hard on the body and sometimes the mind. This craft takes time. You can’t rush the process! The art is in your process and technique and you have to learn to quickly adapt and shift when challenges arise. You have to identify the problem and the solution very quickly. Can you fix it or do you need to start over? Do I have enough active starter available to start over? Do I have time to make more? Etc.
In addition to just the common day to day issues that may arise with this finicky passion, I’m not only responsible for the bakes, but I’m also responsible for packaging, labeling, and making sure items are correctly divided to stock our the 3 store front locations that hold our products and our other events/farmer’s markets. In some cases, I even manage the online inventory for these stores in addition to our own personal ingredient and packaging inventory. Did I mention it’s a lot? We are hoping to hire a little more help this year to help us with the work load!
There is also the financial side of things. Times are hard right now, especially for small businesses. My husband works very hard at managing our finances to try to get us back in the black. We are only two years old as a business, so we are still pretty new and working on paying off those initial debts, but we are slowly chipping away at it!
Yes, this business is a lot, but it is also so rewarding. We are teaching our kids about hard work, discipline, adapting to problems, finding solutions, and so much more.
As hard as it can be sometimes, I absolutely love what I do. I know that sounds a little crazy, but I truly do love it. I love the creativity it gives me. I love how much this business has allowed us to become a part of our community. We get to meet so many amazing people, we get to network with so many amazing local businesses, and we also get to help our community through donating baked goods and other items to local organizations.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
The Flour District is a cottage bakery located in Springtown, Texas. We also have our products in three different store front locations: Market 76082, Wise Roots Farm to Market, and Prep and Crave Co.. We specialize in sourdough breads, both artisan (multiple flavors) and sandwich style, and other sourdough baked goods made with our very own pasture raised/free range chicken eggs.
We have began to branch out a little more in terms of our pantry staples such as pancake mixes, brownie mix, muffin mixes, and cornbread mix. We also offer our very own olive oil spice blend, vanilla bean paste (also offered in chocolate flavor), infused olive oils and vinegars, pecan praline syrup (working on a blueberry syrup), homemade jams/jellies and fruit butters, compound butters, dehydrated sourdough starter and sourdough kits, bread bows, aprons, and coming soon…our market canvas bags! We also offered holiday items this year such as simmer pots and hot chocolate mix.
One of the best parts of this job is the creative freedom, so I’m always trying to think of new sourdough based baked goods to sell, but here are things I’ve made so far: cinnamon rolls, pizza crusts, focaccia, cookies, muffins, danishes, hand pies, scones, bagels, english muffins, quick breads (coffee cake, banana bread, pumpkin bread, peach cobbler), granola, and I recently made tortillas and waffles! You never know what I just might make in the sourdough lab! I’m thinking pop tarts and other cracker snacks like goldfish.
Holiday rotational baked good items are always changing, but the holiday menus almost always consists of dinner rolls and holiday pies, cakes, etc,.
With all of that being said, I’m also learning that sourdough is not the end all, be all of bread and baked goods. I’d love to continue to offer more varieties of things that don’t include a sourdough base but I will still keep the specialty that started it all for me.
In addition to the three different store fronts, you can currently find us a the Springtown Farmer’s Market, Gather and Grow Farmer’s Market in Bridgeport, Granbury Farmer’s Market, and pretty much and local event we can squeeze into our schedule!
What sets us apart?
We try our hardest to use fresh ingredients and also use other local businesses when sourcing ingredients. For example, we use freeze dried fruit in our pancake and muffin mixes. We have transitioned from store bought freeze dried items and found a local business to support instead! This is cost efficient for us as and it also allows us to support other local small businesses! It’s a win-win!
We also take the time to score our signature wheat stalk into every single sourdough loaf. The only exception is sometimes we will use a stencil to leave a unique design around the holidays, like a Christmas tree, pumpkin, heart, four leaf clover, etc,.
In regards to other local businesses, we are currently collaborating with others to offer specialty items and hosting local events or fundraisers.
Pricing:
- Our baked goods range from $4-$14 with some holiday items going up to $30
- Our pantry staples range from $4-$14 as well.
- Our kitchen tools such as bread bows, aprons, and kits range from $15-$50.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://theflourdistrict.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/theflourdistricttx
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/theflourdistrict
- Other: https://tiktok.com/@theflourdistrict
