June 17, 2025

You can find the flakiest of croissants and pastries most familiar to fans of “The Great British Baking Show” at a roadside stand.

And also, at a Thursday farmers market.

Meikamp Brothers Bakery & Co. opened this spring on a card table set up along Slip Up Creek Road near the Mapleton Golf Club, placing fresh-baked pastries like palmiers and doughssants out for people who just happened to be driving by.

Drivers soon turned into customers, and the bakery moved on to curated pastry box preorders. Now, with the seasonal opening of the Lake Lorraine Farmers Market, the family bakery offers treats in Sioux Falls itself.

Who are the Meikamp Brothers? They are 7-year-old Ryver, 5-year-old Miles and 18-month-old Ollie, the sons of Lucas and Savannah Meikamp.

Sound a little young to be pulling sheet pans out of an oven? Well, they are. But starting a bakery is definitely due to Ryver.

This spring, the Meikamps’ oldest had a specific gift in mind for his parents’ wedding anniversary but learning how long it would take him to save his allowance was a cold dash of budgetary water.

That’s when he proposed opening a bakery stand to make money.

It was prompted by Savannah Meikamp’s job. She supervises the marketing and media for a pastry manufacturer in northwest Iowa who serves wholesale buyers, private labels, retail, coffee-shop chains, caterers, bakeries, restaurants, hotels and fundraising programs — think Pastry Puffins and Butter Hearts.

“My kids have had their pastries for years,” Meikamp said. “They don’t sell directly to the public. Even though we have been around these amazing pastries for years, most people in town have never had a chance to taste them.”

Ryver circled the items he thought would be most popular, based on his own years of enthusiastic sampling, and with the company’s approval, the first order was placed. The family bakery tagline: baked with brotherly love.

The bakery stand moved from the card table to a tent too susceptible to wind to an official bake stand, built and painted this month. Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays through Sundays, the pastries offered rotate from chocolate croissants, raspberry twists and filled kouign-amanns to palmiers, apple Danishes and unique seasonal items.

“People are always surprised by how good they are, they comment they can taste the real butter, and it tastes exactly like the pastries they had in cafes in Europe,” Meikamp said.

Customers with a specific craving can place orders to be picked up at the stand or at the Lake Lorraine Farmers Market, which runs from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursdays in the Dave & Buster’s parking lot.

Meikamp chooses the rotating menu but already is learning her customers’ preferences. That includes the combination doughnut/croissant, known as cronuts or doughssants.

“People in town are in love with those,” Meikamp said. “The No. 1 seller is the strawberry pop tart. It’s formally known as a strawberry hand pie, and you can’t go and get it from a store. I see all the adults order it, and it makes them feel like kids, but they’re gourmet and made with real strawberries.”

The family bakery fits perfectly into the Meikamps’ lives. Meikamp doesn’t have to stay up late at night, nor does she have to fill her kitchen with mixing bowls and industrial-sized refrigerators.

“Some people may feel we’re cheating, but we’re not pretending to be home bakers, that’s not the point,” Meikamp said. “We’re bringing some great pastries to Sioux Falls, whether we’re rolling out the dough ourselves. We know we’re bringing good, clean ingredients, made with no dyes or additives. I know the people I’m selling from, and we’re all so immersed in it.”

Her employer has been in business for more than 30 years. It ships pastries, pie dough and bulk pastry dough across the country and now internationally. Fundraisers also are an important part of their sales.

Meikamp Brothers is very much a family business, providing something Meikamp can do at home with her sons and enjoy doing it. They plan to continue the stand in the winter, shoveling clear the driveway in front of the stand. People will want the pastries for dinner parties and gifts, she said.

“These aren’t a gas-station turnover,” she said. “These are made with real butter, baked fresh this morning. That’s hard to come by. I expect the bulk of the wintertime to be pre-orders.”

Sometimes, Meikamp needs to stop her co-owners from eating all the inventory. They’re eager to hand out business cards, unless they’ve received their “salary” and can already purchase the toy they’ve been wanting. Half of what the boys earn goes to savings, half is spending money.

Ryver, she said, has been impressed by the work and effort it takes to build a business.

Sometimes, the stand has not sold out, and Ryver has been disappointed.

“I tell him, Ryver, this is what sets up apart — others quit, we don’t,” Meikamp said. “Even when it’s difficult, we don’t give up. That’s what makes the business successful. Next week, it could be totally different. We’re infusing little life lessons along the way.”

What hasn’t happened yet is the anniversary gift that sparked this whole venture.

“We never saw the light of day for that gift,” Meikamp said, laughing.