FROM MY KITCHEN

Cooking with Barb Vallieu

Story by Sara Hilton | Photos by Nanci Heiney

Friday is Scone Day. While on the surface, Scone Day might sound like a day of baking and eating, (which, in part, it is) for Barb Vallieu, the creator of Scone Day, it is actually a day of contagious kindness.

Barb moved to Tecumseh a little less than two years ago. During her first year, she made gestures to get to know her neighbors. Last January, she invited a few for brunch in her home. “They didn’t actually know each other very well either,” she said. “It was fun to have a chance to be with each other. To me, neighbors are important.” During her first year, she found her neighbors to be kind, offering her advice about how the city operates and even an important notice of the overwhelming number of trick or treaters to expect.

However, just a little over a year after moving to Tecumseh, everything changed. “I was just getting acquainted with the community, and then the pandemic started,” she said. Yet faced with restrictions and fears and shutdowns, Barb was still Barb, and she still believed that neighbors were important. A friend had given her a recipe for scones. “To eat a scone seems less guilty than eating a cookie,” she laughed. So Barb set out to perfect the scone. She tweaked the recipe and tried adding different chips and extras until she felt that she had perfected her very own cinnamon scone recipe. Yet there was a problem. “I’ve always enjoyed baking,” she said. “But when you bake it, someone needs to eat it.” Barb needed scone eaters.

So Friday became Scone Day. Every Friday, Barb bakes two batches of scones, and she shares them with her neighbors. “It’s just been a day of friendly kindness,” she said. “I see their positive reaction. It’s a diversion to everything that’s going on. I just want to be a positive energy in the neighborhood.”

While Barb didn’t create Scone Day to get anything in return, since its inception, a few of her neighbors have brought her food or helped out in her yard. For Barb, Scone Day is not about people helping her. She simply feels joy when she sees her neighbors interacting in neighborly ways with one another. “I’m so grateful for my neighbors,” she said. “I truly want to be a good neighbor. What I’ve found in life is that this type of thing is typically contagious. You just start one on one, and there is a contagion of kindness. That is what we need in the world.” The world needs Scone Day. n

Ready for cold days ahead. Candles, cozy favorites and pretty little things!

Shop & support your local small businesses this holiday season! Bohmey Beauty has stocking stuffers, pre-made gift boxes, clean beauty gift sets, clothing, accessories, gift cards & more!

Visit our storefront in Downtown Adrian, or shop online 24/7 at bohmeybeauty.com

Formerly known as Nature’s Beauty Box

517.295.5455 128 N. Main St., Adrian bohmeybeauty.com M-W 11-6, Th & F 11-7, Sat 10-6  

Breads • Cookies • sCones • Croissants • muffins • dinner rolls

STAY TOASTY.

2020

TOP BAKERY

teCumsehBakery.Com | 115 s. evans st., ste 200, teCumseh | W-sa 7am-12pm | 517.301.4664