Dear Readers,

After many years in Arizona, I moved to Christiansburg, Virginia to be close to my son Frank and his family. I now live there with my daughter Clare. I have fond memories of all the people who frequented our bakeries, The Ovens of Patagonia, Monika’s Home Bakery, and The Grasslands. Tom and I baked on and off in Southern Arizona from 1978 until Tom passed away in 2014, with only a few years off in the late 80’s to travel to Canada and Santa Fe. It’s hard to believe that Tom passed 10 years ago. I still miss him. My life since then has been filled with new adventures and blessings, including many travels to see all my beautiful children. Before the pandemic, I enjoyed many summers in France and a reunion with cousins in Germany who I hadn’t seen since I had left Germany, post-war, in 1953. Now, I’m enjoying the countryside of Virginia and being taken care of so beautifully by my children Clare and Frank.

This website remains as a small acknowledgment of the time we spent with you all. Feel free to peruse the pages and reminisce. I hope you all know how meaningful your time at our bakery was to us all. We hope we inspired you to be creative, joyful and curious in the richness that food brings to our lives.

As promised, our fall baking workshops are here. You can find all the details here. Be in touch and let us know when you’ll be joining in!

Monika’s book of favorite recipes, desert reflections and hand drawings is now available. $20 plus $3.50 postage. Place your order today so that you and your loved ones can enjoy these recipes for the holidays.

Here you’ll be able to better understand how the Southwest inspires my culinary art. You can experience what I’m making, and how I can inspire you to live a healthy, more integrated, life of your own!