BELMONT—The garden space is still fallow on a dreary March day at  77 Halls Corner Road in Belmont, but a bright, hand-painted wooden cupboard at the end of the driveway beckons neighbors to stop and take a peek inside.

Mossflower Cottage Bakery is the home-baking business of Whitney Brown, 37, a wife and mother of two boys, 10 and 14, whom she schools at home.

Like many home-based entrepreneurs, she looked into expanding her business with a licensed kitchen, but discovered that her residential septic tank was too small. Working through the obstacles, she had several options: She could move all her products to a commercial kitchen, or she ciould dig up the lawn and remove her garden to make room for a bigger septic system. Or, she could give up her dream. 

The commercial kitchen option was a long shot. The nearest one is in Damariscotta, and as a baker, she'd have to be up all night and travel too far. With gas prices and food costs rising daily, this was not viable. As for spending thousands more on a septic system her family didn't have the money for, this was also not cost-effective.

Then, one day, a post from her Facebook page signaled an epiphany.

"Things have been hard for everyone for a while now," she wrote. "I want to do more than just complain, I want to make a change."

Brown announced she was done worrying and feeling despondent over life's obstacles. She was going to make her lifelong vision happen anyway by selling her products at a little driveway stand with no prices on the menu.

Currently, the Mossflower Cottage Bakery stand is only open on the weekends at 10 a.m., until the items are gone. Since she made her announcement on Facebook three weeks ago, the stand has been cleared out of goods almost within the first two hours of opening.

"Mostly it has been a good response," she said of the new business model. "Some people questioned why I was doing this, and others reacted as though they were offended. It's my house, my family, and this is a choice we made together."

"Since I was a teenager, I've always dreamed of opening a unique café, but it wasn't really attainable," she continued. "I didn't come from money, and in the back of my mind, it was like, 'When is this ever going to happen?'"

Growing up in Maine, Brown got her start working in the food industry right after high school at French and Brawn, in Camden; Bell the Cat, in Belfast; and the Only Doughnut, in Belfast.

"I was experimenting with vegan flavors and other flavors no one had been doing, like chocolate and bacon at the time," she said. "The reactions I got from people made my heart fill up."

"I just aim for simplicity," she said. "I cook for my kids. We make all of our condiments and breads, and doing that just makes me happy."

Her specialty is sourdough breads, cupcakes, scones, cookies, muffins, and cakes.

"I also garden, knit sweaters, and plan to offer fresh garden vegetables and cut flowers at the stand, as well as a media library."

Her little stand also offers homemade muffin kits and laundry soap.

Her background explains to anyone who is confused why she has chosen to give her products away, rather than sell them.

"I worked at Sweetser with kids and families, and there, I learned about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs," she said. "Knowing that the bottom level of need is food, shelter, clothing, and water, and looking around our community, you can clearly see that people's basic needs are not being met. I can't control housing or clothes, but I can try to help with food."

Her motto is to give back wherever she can.

"When I was working in restaurants, if I saw someone panhandling outside, I'd just give that person my employee meal," she said. "That's just who I am."

"When I first started putting items in the stand, I always told people 'These are my suggested prices. If you're having a hard time, we can work something out. I'm so happy to barter and give my stuff away at a discount.' I want to share what I love to do with people."

One of the most frequent questions, she's been asked of the free stand is,

"What if people take advantage?"

After all, it still costs Brown money and her time to create everything. What is she getting back from this?

"I'm not a spiritual person, but if you're taking advantage of a free stand, that's between you and whoever you answer to," she stated. "And if that's where you are in life and you need it that badly, I'm happy to give it to you."

She added that her policy allows people to limit themselves to one item from the cupboard in fairness to others. If someone wishes to have more, contact her a week ahead of time, so she can accommodate the request. 

Brown said she believes most people want to pay it forward. She has received eggs from neighbors, books, and even art to add to her free media library at the bottom of the stand.

"I always need soil, so if people want to bring me a yard of topsoil, take a loaf of bread," she said.

"We're going to build a bigger stand, and when my garden is full, there will be fresh vegetables and cut flowers, because who doesn't love cut-flowers? We'll have hand-knit items to keep you warm for the winter."

A bartering of community skills is yet another adjunct function of this humble food stand.

Brown put "The Notebook" in her stand, a spiral-bound notebook that serves as a way to communicate with her customers and let them communicate their needs among themselves.

"It's an experiment," she said. "Instead of people paying me, I would love to trade acts of kindness and list in the notebook what they intend to do. For example, say someone writes, 'I need some shelves put up, and in exchange, I can take out your trash.'"

By removing prices from the equation, she is, in fact, creating a level of abundance for herself where money no longer controls the narrative, something that burdened her as a child.

"Going back to when I was a kid, I always wanted to try the fancy foods, but I was a food pantry kid," she said. "My parents didn't have money. To see a kid in class whose mom made him a fresh-baked cookie — my parents never had the time or ingredients to do it — didn't make me feel good."

Doing what she's doing now balances out some of that childhood longing into actionable ways to not only meet her own needs and family's needs, but also the community's needs—somewhere on that Maslow chart.

"That's the best version of yourself I think, the adult version of yourself you wish you'd had as a kid," she said.

Mossflower Cottage Bakery will be undergoing more changes in the spring and summer. Follow Brown on her Facebook page.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com