Charissa Stradling and Holly Harrison are the Durango Farmers Market’s Camp Town Ladies, but rather than singing – as per the song “Camptown Races” – they bake pastries and make tea, respectively.
“We love to camp and eat and drink tea,” Harrison said.
Stradling said she was a baker for years and met Harrison when they both worked at Oscar’s Cafe.
“Just this last winter, we’re like, ‘Oh, we want to do this,’” Stradling said. “I’m like, ‘I miss baking,’ and she’s like, ‘I can make tea.’”
Harrison said she curates tea blends for herself anyway and thought it would be a fun alternative to serving food, noting that they both currently work two restaurant jobs each in addition to teaching yoga at the Sweaty Buddha.
“We wanted to do kind of like our own thing, our own craft,” she said.
Stradling said she usually bakes four different kinds of scones, as well as turnovers and cookies. One of the standouts, though, is her Dirt Bombs, which she likens to old-fashioned doughnuts.
“Everybody’s like what is that?” she said. “And they love it.”
Harrison, meanwhile, brings a varieties of tea blends, such as Purple Fields, a lavender iced tea; her dirty chai, made with yerba matte and grounds from 81301 Coffee; a minty matte; and Tulsi Rose, a caffeine-free chai. She said she also curates blends for people when they stop by and want something specific.
Harrison said that bringing teas and pastries to the Durango Farmers Market is step one of achieving her and Stradling’s dream. They hope to get their products into cafes and coffee shops and, eventually, their own spot.
“I would love to open up just a tea cafe – so it doesn’t have coffee in it, but it has tea lattes and boba and matchas,” Harrison said. “And pastries would pair perfectly with that when you want a snack.”
She said that she and Stradling are cottage food certified and making their products at their homes in Durango. But after their success this season, they hope to upgrade kitchens next season, which would enable them to sell in more locations.
“It’s one of our four side hustles,” Harrison said. “Everything’s a side hustle.”
ngonzales@durangoherald.com
