From medical school to baking sourdough bread- Evie’s Artisan Micro-Bakery opens in Greene County

Evie selling her variety of fresh baked items at the Dodson Creek Farm Supply Community Market & Animal Swap. Image Credit Evette Robinson.

A Baker's Dream: Evie's Artisan Micro-Bakery Opens In Limestone

Taking a leap of faith, Evette “Evie” Robinson packed up her small family and left a rural Florida neighborhood to search for a new home.

The mountains seemed to have called her and the whispering wind and song of the rivers invited her to settle in the breathtaking and scenic lands of Eastern Tennessee.

Cradled by the beautiful Appalachian Mountains, Evie is now at home in Limestone, where she lovingly tends the land on her acreage, growing her own food, and raising lively animals.

Her fixer-upper property has blessed her with many opportunities to learn how to hand-build and fix a spectrum of things. She has even built herself a micro-bakery, wooden raised beds, a mini-green house and more.

Evie in her micro-bakery. Image Credit- Evette Robinson.

The folks in Tennessee have been incredibly generous, supportive, and encouraging to this single mom who juggles raising a teen, homesteading, working a corporate job, and running a small business.

Her micro-bakery business is taking off.

“Baking bread is a bit like science,” Evie stated, walking me through her sourdough bread making process. “It’s three ingredients: flour, water, and salt.

Over the course of two hours, what looks like a shaggy playdough turns into a smooth dough that becomes an amazing bread. It’s simple and satisfying and the transformation is phenomenal.”

Evie’s formative years were spent growing up in Charleston, South Carolina, surrounded by her large clan and Gullah Geechee heritage.

Her musical family trained her from a young age to sing, play piano, guitar, and a multitude of instruments. Her favorite childhood memory was visiting her maternal grandfather’s farm where he grew a lot of his own food.

Family gatherings were a special time, Evie reminisced, “Aunt Katie was the best cook and baker of anyone, she never measured anything, and her food always came out perfect.” Evie didn’t realize at the time how much her childhood memories of farming and baking would impact her life.

Evie makes a variety of sourdough breads, muffins, and cookies. Her classic sourdough loaf is adorned with intricate leaf patterns on a wonderful chewy crust, and the inside has a soft spongy texture that has both a sweet and tangy flavor.

Her favorite bread to make is her goat cheese, tomato, onion, sourdough focaccia that is as savory, flavorful, and delicious as it looks. She sells a variety of other baked goods like lemon blueberry muffins, brown butter cookies, and even offers gluten free options.

Evie putting the finishing touches on her sandwich bread. Image Credit- Evette Robinson.

Her sourdough bread is offered in a range of flavors like classic, cinnamon raisin, and chocolate chip. Growing things and baking bread comes easy to Evie, a gift of ancestral knowledge passed down through her family traditions. She feels very close to her Aunt Katie when working with bread dough, and the natural ebb and flow of kneading reminds her of the melodies and harmonizing patterns of her musical roots.

As a young girl Evie enjoyed being a part of her family’s singing group called The Robinson Sisters, a trio that would be the opening act for the church male choir directed by her father.

Her Christian family taught her the importance of serving the community and the sisters would sing acapella for church programs, nursing homes, and convalescent homes.

While her father worked a day job, her mom stayed home and when Evie and her siblings were not in public school, her mom homeschooled them and developed their love of learning and books. She excelled at her studies and grew up with the expectation from her maternal grandmother that she would one day become a doctor, lawyer, or engineer.

In college, Evie joined the gospel choir, glee club, and an acapella all female group. She enjoyed singing but was inspired to become a songwriter. It was then she started to seriously pursue a career in the music industry, and had the unique opportunity to meet active successful songwriters.

She soon became disheartened by the music industry, however, as the music label’s contracts and unhealthy work environment didn’t sit well with her personal values and beliefs.

Evie getting her dough ready. Image Credit- Evette Robinson.

“Someone once said to me,” she said, “that if God has given you these gifts to express to the world absolutely free, then why does the music industry make you sign contracts to sign away your livelihood just to share your gifts?”

Evie had an epiphany that if she didn’t go into the music industry 100% independent, she wouldn’t be comfortable doing it at all. Being exposed to a spiritually corrupt place that owns your master recordings, owns you as a person, and encourages destructive behaviors had assured her that this was not the path she wanted to take.

Her next step was to attend medical school, which seemed like a natural progression in her life.

She was always a good student and good at science, but during her first year in the medical program she found herself gravitating towards alternative healing modalities. She saw more relevance in massage therapy and chiropractic care than using drugs to mask symptoms.

Feeling jaded by conventional medicine curriculum, Evie decided to leave medical school and once again pursue another path. She ended up completing her master’s degree in public health and worked as a healthcare consultant for clients who lead hospitals, academic medical centers, and hospital networks.

A self-professed travel junkie, Evie was able to travel to many places like the Middle East, Caribbean, Europe, and around the U.S. due to her employment.

At the pinnacle of her career, she found herself expecting a child — and knew that her path needed to change once again. Motherhood pulled Evie back to her earliest roots and called her to scale back and work more locally.

Evie delivering her delicious homemade bread. Image Credit- Evette Robinson.

She accepted a job that offered corporate housing and childcare and this opportunity immersed her into the epicenter of California food culture.

She started to focus on eating real food and traversing the local farmer’s markets relearning the importance of farm-to-table values that her grandfather instilled in her long ago.

Being surrounded by the West coast food culture and its culinary creativity and appreciation for fresh, locally sourced ingredients inspired Evie to want to start growing her own food.

A job opening in Florida was just the opportunity she was looking for and Evie purchased a quarter acre property where she planted out a garden and started raising chickens. She made connections with other small-scale growers and tried eating new things like duck and quail eggs and drinking raw milk.

She did a lot on that quarter acre and grew a wide assortment of plants like bananas, figs, papaya, Jamaican Cherry, herbs, tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, sweet potatoes, and okra. This experience would prepare Evie for her new life in Tennessee.

Now making her home in Tennessee, Evie finds baking and gardening very relaxing. These old-time skills she has acquired continue to help her push through the ups and downs of everyday life. Not having family nearby has been a real challenge for Evie and her teenage son, one of the many cons new homesteaders can empathize with. She often finds solace in reading her bible and praying every day and wishes that she could share her successes and struggles, tragedies and triumphs with her family in person.

Evie working with her dough. Image Credit- Evette Robinson.

Tennessee is a name that comes from the Cherokee and Creek word Tansqui, Tanase, or Tanasi, and is known as the “Meeting Place” a fitting description for this ancient land. An older form of the word comes from Tana-tsee-dgee, a Yuchi word meaning “brothers water place” or “where the waters meet” and explains Tennessee’s charming nature and innate attraction to wandering souls. Like Evie, fate has brought a medley of newcomers to the Volunteer State, and they are paving their own way in the land of hills and hollers.

When I asked Evie to share some words of wisdom to other people interested in starting a small business, this is what she shared, “Start small, don’t be afraid to lean on family, friends, or strangers to give you feedback. With YouTube make sure you enjoy the process. Learn how to film and edit and try to establish a rhythm of doing it on a small scale. Don’t compare yourself to other successful people because it took time and experience to get there, and it usually takes 10 years to become an overnight success.”

Evie’s journey in Tennessee has been one filled with hard work, determination, inspiration, and healing.

If you are interested in ordering from Evie’s Artisan Bakery, she has drop-off delivery in Jonesborough, Johnson City, Greeneville and Rogersville.

You can also find her at the Dodson Creek Farm Supply Community Market & Animal Swap, the Greeneville Farmers Market and Crafty Creations.

She can also be contacted at eviesartisanbakery@gmail.com and checkout her website Evie's Acres (eviesacres.com) and follow her social media accounts Evie’s Artisan Bakery | Evette Robinson (@eviesartisanbakery) • Instagram photos and videos, Facebook Evie (@eviesacres) | TikTok and like and subscribe to her channel on (27) Evie's Acres - YouTube

Link to Full Article Here: A Baker's Dream: Evie's Artisan Micro-Bakery Opens In Limestone | ACCENT | greenevillesun.com

Cori Leialoha Achi is the owner of Southern Kokua LLC. From Hawaii, she now resides on a rural homestead in Hawkins County, Tennessee. She is a community organizer, birthkeeper and herbalist, who has a passion for storytelling, folklore and primitive skills.

Evie's Buttery Sandwich Bread

Here is a bread recipe that Evie shared:

The following bread recipe contains yeast and “is the standard sandwich bread I started preparing after my son was born 14-plus years ago,” Evie says.

“I have never used a stand mixer (though I’m sure that will change soon as my bakery grows) so this recipe requires very few supplies. The instructions below are for two loaves, but can be halved to make a single loaf of bread,” she adds.