Talking about sweets can bring such sweetness to a person’s day—well, my day at least. Throughout our interview, Amy Edwards and I shared many smiles and laughs discussing her business, Amy E’s Bakery. For the last four years, Amy has provided the Co-op with truffles, and last year she began supplying the store with organic almond toffee and organic peanut brittle. The truffles can be found in the refrigerated case next to the barista bar, and the toffee and peanut brittle near the store’s check-out lanes.

Amy started her business in Moscow about six years ago. At that time, she would wake up each morning thinking, “What can I bake today?” and would flip through cookbooks and say, “Ooh, ooh, I’m gonna try this.” Since she loved baking desserts and feeding people, she decided to explore her passion and began developing her business. Initially, she made wedding and dessert cakes, but found difficulty in breaking even so she switched over to biscotti and candy. Recently, she legally changed the name from Amy’s Cakes to Amy E’s Bakery to better represent her operation.

 One cold Saturday morning, I sat down with Bud Tomlinson, owner of Sage Baking Company, to learn about his local business. His bakery supplies artisan bread to the Co-op, and has done so for the last five years. His products compliment the breads baked by the Co-op. You can find Sage’s hard crust, soft-centered selections across from the Hot Bar and Deli.

The Sage Baking Company, located in Uniontown, is mainly a wholesale business supplying bread and pastries to local businesses in Moscow, Pullman, Lewiston and Clarkston. Bud started the business about 10 years ago. During that time, the business has undergone many transformations, from a small operation in Clarkston to having multiple stores and back again to a single bakery and store. Bud is content with the current size of his operation and his market area. The brick building in which the bakery is housed provides ample space for Bud and his 10 employees, both half-time and full-time, to complete all of the mixing, forming and baking of the products that so many people adore. Sage’s most desired goods are scones, cookies and their eight-grain bread.

The other day while I was pushing my gas powered lawn mower around (and around) my large lawn I contemplated my local diet. In light of the blaring noise, and puff of smoke emitting from the mower, my actions seem pretty futile. Especially for someone like me who eats something like an 80 percent local diet year round, the net gain in reduced imports is fairly insignificant.

So as I continued circling my machine towards my ultimate goal—a strangely satisfying shortly mown expanse that I consider my yard, I asked myself why I had taken the Local Challenge. Was it hope? Did I think I could change the world through my actions? Was it sacrifice? Was I giving up eating imported foods as some sort of offering—paying for my own or others' carbon spewing transgressions? Was I just following a national fad—locavorism is reaching a fever pitch in some circles across the country. What was motivating me anyway?

The summer heat continues to press against our skin. There is a loud, electric bug noise coming from the leafy maple tree in our front yard that sounds like angry singing against the mellow strumming of my husband's guitar song. Our kids have been crouched for long minutes, as only kids can crouch, gathering grass, berries and twigs for the bug habitats they made out of recycled plastic jugs. I am slouched in a daze from the heat, but my senses come alive after my first bite of a perfect summer tomato. It is seasoned with a dash of salt, freshly ground pepper, fresh basil and drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It is the taste of summer.