About us

IN 2011, WHEN...

 

we planted an orchard with 36 little trees, we had the hope of one day making jam (perhaps liquor) out of the fruit in our own little bakery, creating special cookies and other delicacies. So the dream had been there for a while, with ideas changing over the years, but we still needed time to make a decision…. we didn’t know exactly how we should get started, and when. Not now, maybe later….someday....

And then suddenly we had THE idea, which we kept talking about in increasingly actual terms and we got excited - one thing led to another and suddenly the impossible seemed actually very possible.

So we got started - in hindsight, totally recklessly and rashly, but it was better this way because overthinking it would have stopped us from doing anything. We found our little workshop 5 minutes from our home, Miki created the website, we started developing and photographing our products, and we were looking for and testing the best ingredients. Then at the end of 2015 - beginning of 2016 we launched Mendula, the basic concept of which was baking and delivering cakes - and, in the long run, creating and selling boxed sweet and salted cookies.

After a while we realized that products free from certain ingredients were in the highest demand, making us shift in that direction. In the end, with a few diversions, but always following demand, we replaced our entire selection of products and dried fruit and nuts took command in our little bakery! One product led to another - we kept developing products, brainstorming ideas and discovering the variety of great food from the same basic ingredients.

We have never given up on our main principle though: nothing goes into our products that we wouldn’t give to our own kids. When we were experimenting with peanut butter, we didn’t have any second thoughts about leaving palm oil out of it, even though it would have made it cheaper. We surely didn’t want to put a lot of sugar in it, either. We wanted to create peanut butter that was actually made FROM peanuts and not from a sugary cream or palm oil. We wanted to create something DIFFERENT, something BETTER than what you can buy in a store. The same basic principle guided us with our other products. It’s possible, almost certain even, that there are products out there which are cheaper, but there aren’t any which are of better quality.

Give them a try! 

 

 

For me, baking turned from a hobby into a passion...

I always knew that I must have something to do with baking at a professional level, I had ambitions to do more than just home-baking. Ever since I was an adolescent, I couldn’t wait for weekends when I had the chance to practice by baking various cakes for my family. When I became a mom, I read up on nutrients and I realized that if I wanted to give the best to my family, sugary cakes with white flour would have to be reserved for special occasions, and for everyday snacks I would have to find healthier alternatives. Children love sweets, and if it was up to them, they wouldn’t wait 3-4 hours between two snacks like us adults. I had to find a solution to make sure that they stay healthy - which is what matters most.
 
The rest is history… Just as the selection of the old Mendula cakes shifted to healthier versions, I made more and more experiments with nuts and dried fruit, and slowly our current product line was born to the greatest delight of our kids. They eat Mendula peanut butter for breakfast, too, and they also love our raw bars. Win-win!

 

 

 

 

 

Miklós plants trees, and he is our creativity engine...

 

Although experimenting in the kitchen is not his idea of having fun, he likes creating tangible and edible products. He is the heart of this enterprise (with all its benefits and drawbacks). He built our workshop from scratch. He organizes, negotiates, makes calculations (he’s the economist after all), he develops our website, he is keen to taste new products and he always has an honest (sometimes painfully honest) opinion. He’s been taking care of our orchard ever since we planted the trees, reading all the available literature on how to prune trees (he’s like that: if he is interested in something, then he buys all the books about the subject, watches videos of it, studies it, experiments with it and practices it). We got a really nice yield this year! 

His other passion is fermenting. Our pantry is stocked full with fermented cabbage, apple vinegar, kimchi and other fermented dairy products. He can sound a little scary when he talks enthusiastically about meat fermented underground …I have to pay close attention before they become products in our shop!