Introducing 3-click online ordering: Schedule your next treat directly from the website!

November 28th, 2009

We are happy to announce online ordering from Sweet Pea Bakery! Place your orders for local pick-up or delivery directly from our full cake and dessert menus at www.sweetpeabakery.net in only 3 clicks. It’s true.  Unlike phone ordering this function, powered by Schedulicity, is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Order your next Sweet Pea treat from the comfort of your computer; no hassle, no credit card, no voice mail.

Why Schedulicity?

Our website has become the main interface for our customers to access our menus, as well as pictures and information about our products and services. We find that most people who pick up the phone to call us are either looking at the website during our conversation, or have visited recently to aid their ordering.

It seems like a natural extension of that interaction that some of these customers would prefer to save the phone call and order directly from that menu. But, to date we have been unsatisfied with Point of Sale options available to us. It turns out Carrie’s desserts, made to order by request, don’t work that well with Amazon-style order systems, based on depleting a pre-built stock of inventory.

Enter Schedulicity, a Bozeman-based online scheduling service that has gotten national attention by making life easier for service providers (such as stylists and massage therapists) and their clients. Their approach lets us divide up our work day into specific services based on our menu items, and allow customers to schedule our “services” directly from our own online menus. You can automatically add your dessert “reservation” to your calendar, and get e-mail reminders about your pick-up

How does it work?
Great question. Schedulicity makes the process easy as 1, 2, 3. You can literally go from viewing our menus to a booked order in 3 clicks, all without leaving our site.

Step 1: Find your favorite dessert and click Order Now

Step 1: Find your favorite dessert and click "Order Now"

Step 1) Visit the Cake or Dessert pages on sweetpeabakery.net. See an image of any item by hovering your mouse over it’s name. When you find your favorite, choose the right size to serve your crowd and click “Order Now”.

Step 2: Choose a date & time from the calendar

Step 2: Choose a date & time from the calendar

Step 2) A calendar view will load in place of the menu. Click on the date you want to order your dessert, then choose the time from options listed below the calendar. Pick the time that represents the earliest you  might pick-up the order.

Step 3: Confirm your order

Step 3: Confirm your order

Step 3) A confirmation page will load, specifying the dessert you have chosen, and your preferred pick-up time. Make corrections if necessary, or click the green “Book It Now” button to complete your order.

If you are logged into an existing Schedulicity account, that’s all you have to do until it’s time to pick up your dessert! Otherwise you will be prompted to log in, or create a Schedulicity account, which is free, easy, and can also be done without leaving our site. Once you use the service, we think it will become your preferred method for booking all kinds of appointments.

Of course if you have questions, or need to relay more details about your order, we will be available, as always by calling (406) 586-8200. Online ordering is just another way of making our customer service more responsive and flexible, giving you options that fit the way you plan and shop.

We will be adding items and services as we get the hang of things, and we would love your feedback. We’re Sweet Pea Bakery, at your service. Let us know how we can work for you.

Local food: now more than ever. A baker’s view on Monsanto in Montana

September 25th, 2009

If you follow local news, you’ve heard that Monsanto recently purchased WestBred of Bozeman with the intent of furthering their pursuit of GMO (aka RoundUp Ready) wheat right in our back yard. As bakers who buy, use and consume lots of local flour this is an issue of great interest to us. We can’t think of anything more important within a community than being free to feed ourselves food of our choosing.

Our letter to the editor on the subject was published in the Sunday Chronicle and, since it’s not available online, we are re-posting it here in order to further the conversation in broader circles. Let us know what you think, and also be sure to read the Farmers’ Blog from the Bozeman Food Co-op for a producer’s point of view. It’s important we’re all well informed, and that we keep talking about challenges to a safe food supply.

Here’s the letter:

After reading Monsanto has come to Bozeman to build us better wheat, we wonder what is wrong with the wheat simply grown here. Why, when we have locally-produced GMO-free grains, would we “upgrade” to a strain that requires gene-splicing to tolerate a heavy pesticide bath?
We are not scientists or farmers; we can’t speak to the benefits or pitfalls of GMO wheat. As bakers engaged in the purchase and use of local agricultural products it is clear that big business is hindering the ability of Montanans to feed ourselves.
The struggles of producers to compete against feedlot beef and subsidized corn syrup are well known. A recent article detailed the consolidation of the dairy industry fueling the loss of 126 local producers since 1994. Recently we lost access to local cooking oil after Montola of Culbertson was bankrupted by a corporate parent more interested in profiting from biofuels than in our food security.

In contrast, witness the purchase of the Sacajawea Inn by the owners of Wheat Montana. They have found success with a a business model that doesn’t require any funny stuff: providing quality foods at fair prices. As successful local businesses often do, they have invested in the community that supports them.

The new Sacajawea will return jobs to Three Forks. It gives small businesses an outlet for products and services absent for two years. If we book two events there this season, those sales will cover our flour budget for a year, completing one cycle of a positive feedback loop in the economic health of our community. We are confident in drawing a literal connection between buying local flour and the outcomes described above, because the two endpoints are just 30 miles apart.

So, Monsanto, welcome to town. We hope your intentions are good. But given the choice, we will support local options which have clearly demonstrated they share our interests.

Seth and Carrie Ward, owners
Sweet Pea Bakery

Compromise no more: The Sweet Pea Bakery “special diets” menu

September 21st, 2009

Everyone loves cake, but if you are following a gluten-free, sugar-free or vegan diet in Montana, your relationship with cake might be better described as love/hate. You love the idea, but you hate the compromises you make to enjoy cake and desserts. You use synthetic sweeteners, order pre-made items from other places or worse, you fudge on your diet and hope for the best.

Now with the release of the official Sweet Pea Bakery special diets menu, those days are over. At our customers’ request we’ve compiled a list of special diets desserts we’ve been perfecting “under the radar” and made them available to anyone who requests. Unlike other desserts for special diets menus, ours are guaranteed no-compromise. That means no fake ingredients, no bad aftertastes, and no apologizing to your “standard diet” guests. In fact, unless you tell them, they probably won’t even know the difference.

We’ve included a variety of treats for each category, including celiac, diabetic and vegan diets. We’ll be adding more as recipes pass the no-compromise test, so stay tuned. Since we’ll only be baking these treats to order, some are not available in the 4″ size, and they all require at least 72 hours notice. But we promise they are all worth the wait!

Click here for a PDF version of the Sweet Pea Bakery special diets menu. We’ll be integrating it into the website as soon as we can! Happy eating.