Red Wagon Plants in Hinesburg will reopen for the season on April 10 with a new pastry chef in charge of its 2-year-old on-site bake shop. Amanda Wildermuth, who earned a James Beard Award semifinalist nod for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker in 2023, will leave Burlington’s Honey Road and Grey Jay after eight years to take over the nursery’s bakery.
Lovers of plants and pastry will get their first taste of the chef’s sweet and savory baked goods at Red Wagon’s open house on March 29. The bake shop will expand days and hours this year, Wildermuth said, and offer off-season events and holiday preorders.
Red Wagon owner Julie Rubaud opened the seasonal bake shop in 2024 in a new building on the nursery property at 2408 Shelburne Falls Road. When the original baking team of Carey Nershi and Amy Vogler decided to move on at the end of last season, Rubaud sought a replacement.
Wildermuth, 37, lives in Hinesburg, loves to garden and picks up her CSA share from Starksboro’s Footprint Farm at the nursery, she said: “I’m at Red Wagon all the time.” When Rubaud mentioned her search for new bakers, Wildermuth said, “Well, I’m a person who bakes!”
The pastry chef earned a degree from the now-shuttered New England Culinary Institute. She worked at Hen of the Wood and the now-closed Monarch & the Milkweed, both in Burlington, before joining Honey Road in 2018.
Wildermuth said she’s excited to continue baking with locally sourced seasonal fruit and to add herbs grown at Red Wagon. She will not make doughnuts there, at least to start, she said, focusing instead on items such as cardamom buns, chocolate babka and individual honey semolina cakes with blueberries.
Honey Road and Grey Jay chef and co-owner Cara Chigazola Tobin said she is seeking a new lead baker for Grey Jay. At Honey Road, pastry team members will continue making desserts, such as the popular tahini sundae.
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