Photo by Chris Lassiter
It’s a taste of Texas just like Mama used to make.
Otis Hawkins and Coushatta Hawkins moved from Houston, TX, to Staunton to support their daughter, American Shakespeare Center actor Constance Swain. When the ASC actor suggested that the Hawkins family’s baked goods deserve a bigger audience than the family holiday parties, Coushatta’s Creations was birthed.
The husband-and-wife sweet treat stand made its debut this year at the STAUNTON FARMERS’ MARKET. “It’s a bakery where we make recipes that we’ve made for our family for years,” Coushatta said. “Our daughter encouraged us to apply for the STAUNTON FARMERS’ MARKET, and share our baked goods with everyone else.” Otis grew up watching his mother make things. Although he was just an 8-year-old kid being the helper, he was soaking up all the information on how to make German Chocolate Cake and other baked goods. “She wasn’t really teaching me the recipes, but I was learning the recipes,” Otis said. “I would always watch her. She would tell me, ‘Crack these eggs,’ or ‘Taste this.’ Even now when I cook, I think about the things she said as far as stirring this way, or ‘It needs to look like this when you’re cooking it.’”
Photo by Chris Lassiter
In Coushatta’s home, her mother loved making things that the kids loved to eat. “She (my mom) cooked to please us,” Coushatta said. “If there was something she made – and we wouldn’t eat it – she’d go back and re-do it, and do it until we’d eat it. On the holidays, I’d cook with my mom. Christmas and Thanksgiving were huge for us. We may cook for two days until 1 or 2 O’Clock in the morning.” That birthed something in Coushatta. “I’ve not necessarily shared it with people, but baking for people is something that’s been on my heart for a really, really long time,” she said. “It’s been like a God-dream. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for an extremely long time. I just didn’t have a place to do it.”
Enter the STAUNTON FARMERS’ MARKET. The community’s embrace of their products has been overwhelming. “I started to feel this really deep sense of obligation to the people of Staunton,” Coushatta said. “I feel like I really I have to step up and give everybody my best.” The items for sale at the STAUNTON FARMERS’ MARKET include multiple flavors of cake pops, lemon blueberry cookies and Texas Pralines. Now, attendees of THE FARMERS’ MARKET can get a taste of Texas in the Shenandoah Valley’s Queen City. “I think a lot of people like to try stuff that’s not accessible to them,” Otis said. “It’s a real need here.”
Photos by Chris Lassiter
The Hawkins aren’t sure what will happen next when the STAUNTON FARMER’S MARKET wraps up for the year, but the husband-and-wife team will leave the oven on with an eye open for other opportunities. “If opportunities present themselves,” Otis said, “we’ll definitely take a look at them.” Coushatta agrees. “We don’t want to put the cart before the horse,” she said. “We’re the new kids on the block. We have a lot of growing to do and learning to do.”
Photo by Chris Lassiter
Story and photos by Chris Lassiter. Chris Lassiter is the director of engagement and inclusion at the Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge. He highlights businesses for the Staunton Black Business Collective.
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