St. Albans native Beth Minor and her partner, Doug Hood, scheduled the April 22 opening of Trailside Baking to coincide with the city’s popular Vermont Maple Festival, which takes place April 24 to 26. The couple built the 700-square-foot bakery and retail store themselves beside their new St. Albans home at 144 Sheldon Road. It will offer freshly baked pan loaves, sourdough breads, focaccia and pastries, all made from grain grown within 100 miles of the bakery.
Minor, 37, has been a pastry chef and baker for 18 years. Her deep résumé includes stints at the Shelburne Farms Inn and an apprenticeship with the late, legendary Gérard Rubaud in Westford. While baking full time at Shelburne’s O Bread Bakery, Minor also worked and shadowed at several Vermont bakeries and restaurants including Burlington’s August First, Middlesex’s Red Hen Baking, and Waterworks Food + Drink and Misery Loves Company, both in Winooski.
“I just couldn’t get enough,” Minor said, noting that she always tried to understand the reasons for every step or method. “You never stop watching and learning.”
Hood, 44, has a mechanical and brewing background and most recently worked at 14th Star Brewing in St. Albans.
Trailside Baking grew out of a business called the Baker Beth that Minor ran from 2024 to 2025, when the couple lived in Lowell. They built a wood-fired oven and sold baked goods at farmers markets and farmstands. Her hometown’s Northwest Farmers Market was the strongest outlet for their wares, Minor said, and St. Albans proved a relatively affordable place to buy a home.
Trailside’s new oven is gas-powered, but Minor still uses flour from farmers such as Charlotte’s Nitty Gritty Grain and Waterford’s N.E.K. Grains. In addition to yeasted loaves, such as honey-oat and marble rye, Trailside will bake sourdough breads and pastries ranging from biscuits to croissants. Opening week will bring maple-roasted asparagus galettes and maple Danishes. Expect to see housemade marshmallows, trail mixes, granola and a small cooler of local ingredients, too.
Learn more at trailsidebakingcompany.com.
Corrected April 8, 2026: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described Beth Minor’s time at Middlesex’s Red Hen Baking.
This article appears in April 8 • 2026.
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