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a small farm in the community of St. John
near Schulenburg, Texas, Clarence and
Evelynn Besetsny raised six children—as
well as cows, chickens, and pigs—and
started a now famous business in the small
kitchen of their home. Evelyns’s
Czechoslovakian heritage and Clarence’s
German roots provided the perfect nucleus
of delicious pastries and a driving work
ethic that prospered into what is now
the Kountry Bakery. With Czech pastry
and kolache recipes passed on to Evelynn
from her mother, and experience cooking
with her mother and for Clarence and the
kids, Evelynn began baking and selling
her pastries to friends, relatives and
neighbors. With four daughters and two
sons as helpers, Clarence and Evelynn
soon realized that could build a business
that would support the family for years
to come.
The baked goods were made from scratch
by hand and the whole family had a part
in the process. The kids would milk the
cows and use the milk to make cream, butter,
cheese, cream cheese and cottage cheese,
and all were made by hand. Their chickens
happily provided farm fresh eggs, because
you can’t have pastries without
eggs. In exchange, Evelynn would give
the chickens tasty morsels of day old
pastries. These fresh ingredients were
used to make the highest quality pastries
and kolaches with an absolutely distinct
flavor. Clarence and the boys would make
pork sausage by hand for home made sausage
rolls, better known as “pigs in
the blanket”, and are considered
to be as good a “pig” to be
found anywhere. Their determination, hard
work and uncompromising quality led to
the creation of Kountry Bakery.
In the year 1979, they decided to open
their first bakery on Highway 77 in Schulenburg,
Texas. With careful planning and patience,
the bakery has become a Central Texas
tradition, serving customers locally and
from all parts of the state. In 1985,
a second bakery was opened in Hallettsville,
Texas. Both are thriving, social gathering
places for the local communities, where
friends and neighbors can find each other
on any given day.
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