Bread & Butter
Practical Magic For this entrepreneurial pair, plantbased baking and astrology readings are a match made in heaven.
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BY ELLE WIGNALL
fter bidding adieu to their Eastern Iowa bed and breakfast in 2020, partners Marti Payseur and Ash Bruxvoort are carrying its spirit forward in a new downtown Des Moines bakery/retail space. Payseur—the owner, recipe developer and baker for Thistle’s Summit—and Bruxvoort— an ancestral astrologist, earth intuitive and herbalist—have spent the past two years serving their respective clientele in Des Moines via custom orders and Zoom calls, farmers markets and online classes. But they’ve always wanted a safe and accessible space to share—not only with each other but with the queer community and beyond. Located at 340 SW 5th St, Unit 122, previously home to a sustainable home goods store called The Collective, Thistle’s Summit had a successful soft opening the last weekend in July. Ash Gravity Astrology, Bruxvoort’s arm of the business, offers consultations by appointment only, and retail hours are Thursday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Little Village spoke with Payseur and Bruxvoort about what’s to come. Questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity. Q: How did Thistle’s Summit start? Take us back to the beginning.
Marti: Ash and I after some wine one night were on Zillow, as one does … and we were like, “Well we could run a bed and breakfast!” We got on Zillow and found a house in Mount Vernon, Iowa, and totally fell in love with it. We opened in July of 2019 and then shut our doors March 2020 with the full intention to reopen. And then COVID raged on, and I started cooking full-time totally illegally out of my kitchen, and I have no shame in that—I think we all have to do what we have to do. And you know, Martha Stewart also started that way, which is my favorite fact. How did you wind up back in Des Moines?
M: Our delivery vehicle was actually totaled in Mount Vernon, and we were like, OK, this feels like kind of an omen. And then Ash’s health kind of fell apart. We decided we had resources and people here that cared about our business, and I needed a kitchen. 24 August 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LVDSM5
Owners Ash Bruxvoort and Marti Payseur open Thistle’s Summit storefront this month. Britt Fowler / Little Village
Q: How will the new space integrate both the Thistle’s Summit bakery and Ash Gravity Astrology?
Ash: The space is a live-work unit, but rather than living there we’re going to use the upstairs loft as my space for my business. So I have an office there where I’m going to be able to meet with clients for astrology readings and hypnotherapy sessions. I also plan to teach classes there as well about astrology and plant medicine and plant communication. I kind of think of it as like practical magic/kitchen witch space. We’re trying to cater to somebody who is trying to explore the witchy world, maybe for the first
time, and wants to learn how they can do that in practical ways around their home with really simple things to make life more magical, which I feel like we all need right now. Q: Marti, you weren’t always a vegan baker. Why did you begin baking vegan and gluten-free?
M: Well, it was so my partner still loves me! When Ash was having some health issues, something we decided to do to mitigate some of the symptoms was to remove egg and to go gluten-free. And by the time you take out eggs in baking, you’re pretty much at a vegan product
