Apple/ginger/raspberry pie is River’s favorite, but then there’s apple, blueberry or pumpkin pies when each is in season around Putney. Then there’s chocolate cream pies and decorated cakes parents order for kids’ birthdays or for any kind of celebration. “And we get delirious around here at Thanksgiving and Christmas.” And who is we? River and her mother Katie Rice. They are both bakers (Katie is also a supervisor) for the owners of The Putney General Store – Mike and Kim Cosco right there in the center of town.
River was born in 1999 at Keene Hospital but grew up first in Newfane and then Putney; she’s 25. She graduated from Brattleboro Union High School in 2018 and took a job as a clerk at the General Store. “My Mom had been a baker there for a few years.
In 2018, River was working for the managers of the store, Lisa Papazian and Betsy McIsaac, who were officers of the Putney Historical Society, the organization that owned the business and building after twenty-five years of ownership by the Fairchild family. After two horrific fires, one in 2008, the other in 2009 that destroyed this historic General Store twice, it was rebuilt by the Historical Society. It ran the store as a business for a couple years while putting this oldest general store in Vermont - with a 228 year history - on the market.
Mike and Kim Cosco saw the ad in their eighth year of running West Village Provisions, a general store since 1883, in the town of Boxford, MA. Mike’s cooking there earned (more than once) the award for “the best place for lunch on The North Shore of Boston” in competition with 23 other cities and towns. The Coscos sold their business, bought The Putney General Store business, not the building, and moved to Putney in 2019.
At the time, River’s mother Katie Rice, a local woman, was already in place as head baker there (a role her daughter now plays) when the Coscos bought the business. Even before graduating from BUHS in 2018, daughter/part-time baker River was baking part-time with her mother at the store. In fact, she was following in the footsteps of River’s grandmother who had baked for years at The Vermont Country Store in Rockingham.
While at BUHS, she found herself interested in art. She has merged that interest with her baking. The public can call the store to order a special decorated cake for anyone in the family. She talks with the customer about the interests of the birthday person and then decorates their special cake with pictures that relate to that person’s life: their dog or cat, their special interests in hiking or baseball, whatever will appeal to the child or adult.
“I was 20 when I started baking full time. We get delirious around here at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Holiday orders pour in on Facebook or phone calls or customers coming into the store. We make special apple pies for Thanksgiving dinners or blueberry or pumpkin pies when they’re ripe or Christmas celebrations.…. Sometimes in busy periods our two-door freezer is just filled with pie crusts so all I have to do is put in the special fillings from locally sourced fruits whenever possible and BAKE. I also bake cheese Danishes, bear claws, brownies, turnovers, scones, muffins, sweet breads, almond croissants, Rice Crispie snacks, cookies, cake, pies, cupcakes of all kinds……
“All through the year we’re baking all kinds of cakes and pies and decorated sheet cakes for celebrations or events. I have to say my favorite of all is my apple-raspberry ginger pie – I love that. And all this in a small kitchen one level down from the hustle and bustle of the first floor. My kitchen is outfitted with a Surefire Convection oven, a two-door stand-up freezer, a wide stainless-steel sink and prep surface, a big and small mixer all jammed into what used to be a delivery room.
“I love working with my Mom. She’s in the kitchen more now than in the past, and we still do a lot of baking together. We put a lot of love into what we do, and we’re both perfectionists, but I never let that slow me down.
“We’re also close to our delivery drivers, like Bob from Associated Grocers and Jess from Performance Foods when they show up with deliveries for us. We give them coffee and have a chat with lots of laughs. AND I love that I recognize and can chat with so many of the customers who come into the store. It’s like working at home in a way.
“I live right in town so it’s short drive to work. I work baker’s hours - from 5:30 in the morning until 1:30. I like those hours. I don’t mind getting up that early because I then get to have the whole afternoon free. Koda, my dog, and I go for walks along Sand Hill Road, up to Putney Mountain, to all sorts of local places. Tomorrow I’m taking a few days off with friends to go camping, fishing, hiking in Pittsburg, New Hampshire on the Canadian border. I’m not taking Koda. He doesn’t do well in a tent.
“And with other free-time, I dabble in different art mediums: drawing, collage, sculptures, little masks for fluffy white vultures with black heads I make. Or I come up with ideas for decorating sheet cakes people have asked me to make: for a motorcyclist or an eight-year old who loves the video game ‘Minecraft” or a kid’s cartoon ‘Paw Patrol” or designs for holiday cookies like Easter bunnies. I love merging my love of art with my skills as a baker. But I DON’T do wedding cakes…. Too much pressure.”
This is one of a series of some 30 profiles of working people from southern Vermont and adjacent New Hampshire that I wrote and then published in the Brattleboro Reformer newspaper every Friday from Jan 1 - May 30. Do the same with your local newspaper.