Farmers' Market favorites saying so long to the Square (2024)

The counterclockwise conveyor belt of grazers at the Dane County Farmers’ Market slows down on North Pinckney Street, where hordes of parishioners of the church of pastry seek communion at the gloved hands of bakery tent workers.

Give us this day our daily sconut.

A marvel of patisserie, the sconut is doughnut and scone hybrid, just as the name suggests. Many claim to have invented the sconut. And while the treat’s origin is unclear, Chris and Lori Robson of Chris and Lori’s Bakehouse can take credit for the sconut’s die-hard local fanbase. For the past 28 years, the husband and wife team have handed out baked goods beneath their tent on Capitol Square. But like their ingredients, Chris and Lori’s Bakehouse has a shelf life, and come November, their career at the Farmers’ Market will expire.

“We’re lucky, so lucky, to have been doing something we love all these years,” Chris said. “We’re ready to retire. It’s a lot of work, and we’re ready to ease back and relax a little bit.”

Apart from involvement in the 2025 West Side farmers market, the pair will bev effectively retired with the closure of their booth on the Square. Until then, they’re soaking up every bit of those final counterclockwise orbits of sconut fans.

A few years ago, the couple partnered with two other bakers, with plans of business continuing beyond Chris and Lori’s retirement. But that fell through. And though there’s been interest in Chris and Lori’s prized recipes, nothing is set in scone.

They hit their stride on the Square

Each Saturday begins by 6:30 a.m., the pair joined by other staff in laying out the goods in their tent. They carefully unpack their stock, 3,000 to 4,000 scones in 20 varieties and about 350 packs of cookies that look like cows and flowers. They offer one sconut flavor at a time for the sake of their own sanity: Earlier this month it was chocolate chip, and it's pumpkin chocolate chip for the rest of the season. Still, the bakers like to switch things up once in a while. After some recent remarks from a certain presidential candidate, the pair introduced coconut tree cookies.

“We had to learn to take a cue from the customers on what they wanted and just trial and error,” Lori said. “That’s how we really developed the following we have — trying different things and seeing what sticks.”

Younger sconut devotees may not recall Chris and Lori’s brick and mortar storefront, a little cafe on Highway V whence they churned out breakfasts and lunches on top of the desserts for which they’ve achieved local fame from 1995 to 1997. The building now houses the Deforest Family Restaurant.

“We were in our mid-20s and so we were kind of young and, I don’t know, adventurous — at least, I was,” Lori said. “As the years went on, the Farmers’ Market is what we really started enjoying and could see a better future doing.”

Their fans are devoted

It’s an overcast morning in mid-August. Babies in strollers ham-handedly grip their cow cookies while their parents sip strong cold brews, scoping out the long walk back to their cars.

With her red “Chris and Lori’s Bakehouse” tote bag dangling from her arm, Pamela Aldrich could pass for an employee of the market stand. She’s known Chris and Lori long enough.

Aldrich weaves through the crowd clutching a handful of cash, which she gives to Chris. She greets the bakers with a familiar smile, and Chris doesn’t ask what Aldrich wants, just happily fills the bag with chocolate chip scones. With a wink he informs her he’s thrown in a few extra. The two dozen-plus scones will tide her over till next time: She only comes to the market every three or four weeks.

“If I eat half a scone a day, it’ll take me quite a while. And then if I get really hungry, I can have a whole one,” Aldrich said, familiar calculations after years of rationing out her scone stock. As the Robsons inch closer to their final Downtown market, Aldrich wasn’t sure what she had appreciated more: Their passion for patisserie or their care for their customers.

“What do I love about this place? Those two people right there,” Aldrich said, pointing to Chris and Lori while adjusting the now-full pastry bag on her shoulder. “They just always treated me so kindly.”

Aldrich was by herself at the stand this particular Saturday, but it isn’t always that way: Her daughter and granddaughter are also frequent flyers at the bakehouse.

Sarah Heatwome has her own Chris and Lori’s goodies, two rhubarb oat scones. The sweetness of the baked goods is cut with a little sadness at the impending closure.

“I knew this was their last year, and so I wanted to make sure I got some scones,” Heatwome said. “Living in Lodi, I only make it to the Farmers’ Market like once a year. It’s always a treat.”

‘I’ll go anywhere’

Once the day’s customers have cleared, the Robsons take whatever odds and ends didn’t fly from the market shelves to Poynette, where they offer a “Pay What You Can” sale from a Mill Street parking lot, which they factor into their baking each week.

Production begins early in the week: Ingredients are sourced, washed and chopped, glazes and frostings are mixed, and cookies are cut. Chris and two other workers are in charge of cookie cutting, while Lori takes on frosting. Thursday and Friday are long baking days, and Friday nights are for final touches.

The days and late nights of preheating, separate gluten-free batches, ingredient experiments are winding down. Ever present, though, is the love, Chris and Lori’s lasting legacy, in the hearts of the many customers who stood in line for their frankenpastries. That includes Aldrich, who was heartened to hear about Chris and Lori’s upcoming 2025 West Side market run.

“Well, if I have to go to the West Side, I will,” Aldrich said. “I mean, I’ll go anywhere. I’ll even go to where they live.”

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the number of scone flavors offered by Chris and Lori's Bakehouse, as well as their most recently offered flavor of sconut. The Bakehouse offers 20 varieties of scones and only one flavor of sconut at a time. Pumpkin chocolate chip is the sconut flavor for the rest of the season.