Megan Navarro
Hays County bakeries prep for busy holiday season
By Megan Navarro - Nov. 19, 2025
HAYS COUNTY — As people were gearing up for the hustle and bustle of the holiday season with decorating their homes, keeping traditions alive and finding the perfect gift for someone, bakeries big and small saw an influx of customers this holiday season.
One of those being Tootie Pie Co. The shop — originally known as Tootie’s Pie Shop — started in 1985 when Ruby “Tootie” Feagan was baking and selling pies from her home in Medina, before opening a storefront in the small Texas town. She quickly refined her recipes and became known for her six-pound original apple pies, selling those by the hundreds and winning blue ribbons at county fairs.
When she wanted to expand, Feagan secured investors and they built a larger bakery in Boerne, right outside of San Antonio. While she retired several years ago, the original Tootie’s, now 95, her legacy lives on.
Ten years ago, now-CEO Brian Gile started investing and, eventually, bought the company. When he was looking for an even bigger space in Boerne to expand, he was out of luck. He ended up finding Dripping Springs to be the best location for a second store and bakery to open in 2019.
“I was living in Dallas at the time and they had a store up there near my house. I started going in there, really liked it and I called down to Boerne and started investing,” he said. “It was a nice progression. I really enjoyed the industry.”
The path to investing also started when Gile talked to Scott Calvert — who owned The Cake Plate in Austin — at a trade show, who was also looking for a bigger bakery. They combined the companies to build the Tootie Pie facility off US 290 in Dripping Springs, allowing them to do more than just pie, but also cakes, cookies, brownies and more, for wholesale and retail.
While Tootie Pie opened its Dripping Springs location in 2019, a year later, it was shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, due to it being considered an essential business because it produced food not only for the bakery, but also for restaurants, golf clubs, etc., Gile explained, it was allowed to reopen in mid-2020.
There are a variety of items for customers to choose from when they are either going in-store or buying online — an option where shipping all over the U.S. is available. This includes several pie flavors, including apple crumb, buttermilk chess, cherry, chicken pot, chocolate pecan, coconut supreme, heavenly chocolate, huge apple, key lime, pecan, pumpkin, sweet potato crumb, triple berry and whiskey pecan.
“We developed some new recipes for flavors that Tootie didn't have, like our whiskey pecan. We created that a few years ago and it's now become our third top seller. But all the originals, the huge apple, the pumpkin, the pecan, heavenly chocolate [and] buttermilk, those are all Tootie recipes, including the crust, which we're pretty proud of,” the CEO stated. “That's kind of what we built our business on was the crust and we've never changed the recipe because she got famous for that.”
There are other options, like cutie cakes, or individually sized cakes, emPIEnadas, cakes, cheesecakes and cookies. There is also a gluten-free line and, in January, Gile said that they will be launching a no-sugar added line of pies.
On the wholesale side, they produce more than 100,000 products for various companies. How they do this, Gile said, is by selling the items to big distributors, like Sysco or BDK, who then sell them to restaurants, cafeterias and businesses.
It’s all-hands-on-deck during the busy season, with two to three people in the bakery up front helping customers, answering phone calls and emails. Then, there are about eight or nine people in shipping, who are fulfilling orders, and 10-15 people baking.
“It's a big undertaking, but the team is very, very good at keeping everything moving along. We'll drive a UPS truck up the night before and they just drop the trailer and we fill that up,” Gile said. “They bring another one, we fill that up. It's just kind of a constant baking, packing [and] shipping kind of cycle for several weeks.”
The work does not stop with larger companies, as home-based Ginger Roots Bakery is also preparing for the season.
Lauren Fullerton, of Kyle, started her business in November of last year because she loves sourdough and she knew that she wanted to share her passion with her neighbors and friends. Then, the interest escalated, more people were asking for it, so she opened a bakery from the inside of her home to balance with her lifestyle as a mom of three kids.
While sourdough is the main item on her menu, she also makes a lot of homestyle cookies — such as chocolate chip and pumpkin coffee cake — scones and pies, which are a new item this year because of the cottage law that now allows refrigerated items.
“My cookies will change from fall flavors to more Christmas-y flavors. So, my signature cookie is my gingerdoodle cookie, which is a cookie I came up with [and] kind of inspired the name of the bakery. It's kind of a crossover between a gingersnap and a snickerdoodle and it’s really, really good,” she said. “That's one that will be kind of highlighted this season and I'm really excited to get that back up there because I took it out in the spring … Then, the pies, of course, I do a pumpkin pie, like a pretty classic pumpkin pie, and then, I do a bourbon apple caramel pie, which was really popular for my friends.”
What she also likes to do at the beginning of every season is hold a small gathering within her community of neighbors and others close to her to do a taste test. She brings out her new flavors and the ones she wants modified to get feedback she trusts.
Also, in preparation, she looks at what she is capable of doing in her home kitchen, as she only has one oven, compared to a commercial bakery that could have multiple. Last year, around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, she had upwards of 30-40 orders per week.
Previously, her ordering process allowed for people to choose any day of the week to place an order for the upcoming week and Fullerton would cut-off 48 hours before. However, now, with a new platform she is using, she sets the pickup date, which is Fridays, and it's available for viewing for the next two weeks — that is also cut off a little less than 48 hours before pick-up.
She takes holidays into consideration, too, when it comes to ordering, ensuring that pick-ups won’t fall on the actual holiday, but the item will still stay fresh.
“I don't do pickups on the actual holiday. So, for Thanksgiving last year, for rolls and such, I did pickups until the day before, so the day before Thanksgiving, and then, same with Christmas, but for Christmas Eve, so it was like two days before Christmas Eve or the day before Christmas Eve,” she explained. “I don't do pickups the day of strictly because I've got kids and they're my priority … I try to push it as close to the holiday as possible, so that it's as fresh as possible.”
Learn more about Tootie Pie at www.tootiepieco.com and Ginger Roots Bakery at bit.ly/4pczvq9.
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City of Buda offers more sensory-friendly spaces
By Megan Navarro - Jan. 8, 2025
BUDA — Knowing that it would be difficult to participate in city-held events because her son has Level 3 autism, Tania van Bree offered the city of Buda feedback on how to implement more sensory-friendly initiatives.
“He needs the most support for that kind of diagnosis — he is also non-speaking — and large crowds, lots of sound and lots of visually-exciting things sometimes cause him to get really distressed and give him a lot of anxiety, especially if it's new,” van Bree explained. “When there's lots of events happening, we want to still participate and do things as a family, but a lot of times, those awesome family events that we could maybe take my daughter to, we've always had to pick and choose between do we just take my daughter and split up our family or is this something that we're gonna just bail out of entirely because it would be too difficult and too distressing for him.”
On the city’s 2023 social media post about the annual Holiday Lights event, van Bree asked if they have ever thought about hosting a sensory-friendly night or something similar. As her son, Willem, loves hiking, van Bree said that they go to Stagecoach Park — where the event is held — very frequently, so “it's a really good opportunity for him to be in a familiar place with just a little extra pizzazz and the holiday spirit and everything.”
She shared that city of Buda officials agreed to meet with van Bree through a Zoom call to get a preliminary idea of what they could do to benefit the community; they also allowed her to go with them on a golf cart and check out the changes they made, while also allowing her to give any additional suggestions.
“I really felt like I was part of their team. I can't speak for every person with a disability or with special needs in our community, but I'm pretty familiar with the things that a lot of people need and a lot of children and families might need,” she said.
One of those changes that have been made is offering what has been deemed as “calming tents” at the Buda Holiday Lights, where individuals and children can take some time from the lights, sounds and crowds — inside of these spaces are earmuffs, toys, soft blankets and more. Another, which has made a big difference for several people, according to van Bree, is not being required to take the shuttle bus on the sensory-friendly night.
“By eliminating the transfer with the shuttle, our kids don't have to stand and wait, which they usually have trouble with. The sensory overload of the loud noises from the bus, the smells from the exhaust, all of that kind of contribute to a sensory overload experience,” she said. “Being able to be parked very close by, you're familiar with the vehicle and walking directly into the events is really important.”
The initiatives do not stop there, as the Buda Public Library has more recently started offering a calming space during open hours in which that specific room is not being used for another program.
“Anytime outside of those hours, we have a calming space where there's a collection of materials that help pretty much anyone that needs the space. It's designed to kind of accommodate a lot of different needs, from a toddler who is upset and having a tantrum to someone with autism who might see sensory toys and sensory stimuli. We have a lot of different accessories. We also have books and materials that caregivers can go through to kind of help stimulate their child,” said Caitlin Foley, assistant director for the library. “It's not a one size fits all for everyone. We try to include a lot of differences so that a bunch of people with different needs go into that space and find something that will help [them] get through whatever they're needing.”
Foley added that the library has also been adding a 30-minute sensory-friendly time ahead of events for those members of the community who may need it. During that time, there is no music with reduced crowds, trying to market to families who might need a sensory-friendly time, Foley explained.
The library staff have been trying to look at each event, talking with the community and seeing what they need and how to implement that the best way possible.
Similar to the other city-wide initiatives, those at the BPL stemmed from community feedback through a variety of ways, including surveys during the five-year library long-range plan.
Now, the city has expanded to offer sensory-friendly accommodations to other events, such as Budafest and Boo-da Halloween.
“We're here to serve everybody, not just some, and [we want] to make sure that our families — all members of our community — have an opportunity to come and engage. That may not look the same for everybody,” assistant city manager Lindsey Baker said. “As we talk to some more families in our community, we learn how to do better everyday and so, we really think that that's important and we value that. We value our community members and we value their ability to come and engage and participate in our activities.”
As a mother of a child who has autism, van Bree shared that sometimes, it can feel isolating and the “special needs community” benefits from these kinds of opportunities to come out and be a part of events and activities with everybody else.
“They are here and they are part of our community. It should be their right to be included everywhere. Just the same way that somebody with a wheelchair might need a ramp and be entitled to a ramp to get to where they need to go,” van Bree said. “This is something that makes it accessible to provide them their civil rights.”
To learn more about BPL events and programs, visit www.budalibrary.org.
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