Kari Bingham wants the Upstate to know that healthy, fresh bread made with local ingredients isn’t just for the upper crust.
“It’s important that we put the right things in our bodies. I want people to have an opportunity to enjoy something as fresh as you can get,” she explains. “I use flour from Lindley Mills that is milled in North Carolina as I order it. I get butter, milk and buttermilk from Happy Cow Creamery.”
Before landing in the Upstate eight years ago, Bingham worked in kitchens and management positions at restaurants and stores in seven states.
Today, she is happily baking in her Pelzer home and selling breads and baked goods at farmers markets and retail stores under her brand, Vintage Crust Baking.
“Bread is a simple food with simple ingredients. Knowing the different techniques that go into it … it’s an art form … and there’s pleasure and excitement in seeing the smile on someone’s face after they bite into it. I’m constantly pushing myself to try something new,” says Bingham.
Recently, Bingham is selling her bread, darts, cinnamon rolls and several new items — including s’mores boxes and peppermint marshmallows — at the Frosty Farmer Winter Market inside McAlister Square from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. afternoon every Saturday through April.
The market — managed and founded by Shontel Babb, known for her Aunt Tel’s Sweet Potato Pies — will feature up to 100 vendors selling winter produce, fresh eggs, pasture-raised meats, fresh pasta, jams and other products, including processed items such as soaps and candles.
With a children’s playhouse and ample parking for adults, Bingham says she’s excited about the opportunity to become a vendor. This is the market’s second year and its first year at McAlister Square, 225 S. Pleasantburg Drive in Greenville.
Bingham won’t be there every week; Babb is the next seller.
“She doesn’t want too many people competing with each other,” Bingham says. Babb has “put a lot of faith in that. I’m excited because no one else is doing something this big and at this time of year.”
Vintage Crust products are also available at Revival Butchery, Happy Cow Creamery, Begley’s Butcher Block and Simpsonville Farmers Market (in season).
Bingham makes deliveries three days a week, each trip with more than 150 packages of freshly made breads – wheat, cinnamon, sourdough, Italian and ciabatta – dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, pepperoni and garlic rolls.
“With bread you have endless possibilities. I’ve learned that it’s hard to please everyone. So I have to please myself first. I don’t do it if I don’t eat it,” she says.
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Bingham prefers delicious baked goods. But when Stephanie Smith started helping out this fall, she brought with her recipes for homemade marshmallows, graham crackers and shortbread — all made with natural ingredients.
“I don’t leave out sweets. As a kid, I always loved a good cinnamon roll. So, I challenged myself to make the best cinnamon roll, and I think mine is one of the best,” says Bingham.
Ambition and hard work come naturally to Bingham, who converted her mudroom into a baking space; takes care of her 1-year-old son with the help of her husband and mother; and devises strategies for converting vacant commercial buildings on their property into a suitable bakery and retail space for themselves and other vendors.
Her husband, Brandon Moore, is the reason she’s in Greenville. “I told myself I would never move to another state for a boy,” she says wistfully. “He got a job in Greenville. He had only ever lived in Ohio. I was supportive because I had lived in seven states.”
Moore went to work for manufacturer Draexelmeier Automotive in Duncan and then GE Renewable Energy in Greenville. Meanwhile, Bingham moved from Trader Joe’s in Ohio to the Trader Joe’s store on Woodruff Road.
During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, their priorities changed.
Moore encouraged his wife to pursue baking full-time; the couple sold the house they had just finished remodeling on Greenville’s Eastside and bought 38 acres in Pelzer with a house, two barns and vacant commercial space. Moore helps a contractor build custom treehouses while the couple ponders their future careers and decides how to renovate commercial buildings now that the cost of construction has doubled.
“That’s why we don’t have a brick-and-mortar bakery like we planned,” says Bingham. (Her website, vintagecrustbakingco.com, is not up to date. But she posts new farmers market dates on the website and Instagram.)
Bingham welcomes the challenge. After all, her first job in the hospitality industry was at age 10 — at a Friday night fish fry in her hometown in Michigan. “The energy and the rhythm started the spiral for me,” she says.
When she turned 16, she went to work at Applebee’s. Although she says she didn’t enjoy her initial position as a hostess, she eventually got into the kitchen. She stayed with the chain for six years, through a transfer to Arizona where she earned a bachelor of arts degree.
Then came Claim Jumper, a California-based restaurant group with a scratch-made menu. Although she was turned down for a position in the kitchen, she found her way to the job she wanted, was promoted to management, opened three stores in Illinois and accepted a transfer to Milwaukee.
Even with a top job and a high salary, Bingham says he decided to slow down the spiral and the late-night lifestyle. She went home, enrolled in culinary school and started at Trader Joe’s making $10 an hour. When he finished school, the store sent him to Ohio, where he met Moore …
… and went down to Pelzer, baking in her bedroom.
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“I feel so good about making bread, after spending so much time and energy working for other people. I love doing what I do,” says Bingham.
“We need to rethink how we are feeding and supporting local communities. This is my goal. I have become good friends with many others who are trying to help us evolve in a positive way.
“I want people to have fresh bread.”
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