February 25, 2001
Sweet treats -- Tiffin native bakes them sugar-free
By Carol Bogart
Staff Writer
As scientists report progress in clinical trials of oral insulin, local diabetics have something else to look forward to besides the possibility of getting out from under injected insulin.
Cindy's Goodie Shop in Fremont is the brainchild of Mohawk High School graduate Cindy Hale.
In 1980, her parents bought Country Kitchen restaurant in Fremont. Cindy did the baking and candy molding. The restaurant was sold after they died in 1988 and 1989.
Cindy used her skills to open a bake shop three years ago. In June, she moved to her present location, 423 Tiffin St.
She said, "I first started (taking baked goods) to flea markets and going to outside events working out of my home. And then I went retail."
When she was going to flea markets, she said people would tell her, "I can't eat this. I'm a diabetic."
Hale's grandmother was diabetic so she knew how hard it was for her to give up sweets. She made up her mind to produce great-tasting baked goods &emdash; free of sugar.
Today, she's mastered sugar-free pies, cream puffs (her favorite), candy, 15 different kinds of cookies, and birthday cakes. Her customers couldn't be happier.
Renee Gobel had to cut back on sugar after gastric bypass-type surgery. She found out about Hale through her mother who bought the sugar free baked goods for Gobel's diabetic father.
Gobel liked Hale's product so much that now, she buys "anything she'll make me. I love everything she's made. I haven't had anything I haven't liked. It's wonderful."
Her dad, she says, is delighted by Hale's success as well. Gobel said, "He lights up every time we come in with one of her pies."
Christina Seibert buys big boxes of cookies for clients at Fremont's School of Hope. She drives bus for the school and has been buying from Hale for about a month. "We have a lot of diabetics or who can't have a lot of sugar because of their medication and stuff. It's easy just to get all of them diabetic (cookies) and it's not hurting those that aren't. And they love it. They love the taste of it."
Seibert eats the baked goods, too. She says, "I've bought it and I've taken it to friends in Findlay. They ate it without knowing it was diabetic. And even after I told them -- even some of my (clients') parents -- are just amazed. They can't believe that it's diabetic chocolate because they can't tell the difference by the taste."
Hale said, "When you see people come in, they love it. I have quite a few of my customers passing out business cards to doctors' offices. (The doctors) are (sending their patients) down (to her shop)."
She also supplies various truckers with specialized orders they give her over the phone. "At Christmas-time," she said, "I make gingerbread houses. They've gone as far as North and South Dakota."
Hale, 47, would someday like to have a shop built to resemble a gingerbread house but, at present, has no plans to expand into mass production.
Most rewarding, she says, "Is seeing the smile on people's faces and knowing I'm producing a very good product and people come back."
Interested in ordering sugarfree bakes goods?
Cindy's Goodie Shop accepts phone orders.
Call (419) 355-8367.