Saint Paul By Bike

Highland Park, West End

May 24, 2026

17.6 miles

Christmas in May in Highland Park?

A 78-degree, mostly sunny day on Memorial Day weekend is not the customary time of the year for Christmas decorations. Yet, that’s exactly what was displayed on two arborvitae at 2195 Benson Avenue.

Construction of a new bridge

Shepard Road at Interstate 35E was littered with barricades, concrete culvert, rebar, a bulldozer, excavators and other heavy construction vehicles. It’s all part of replacing the 35E bridge over Shepard Road, a 60+ year old structure that was showing its age enough to require replacement with a modern overpass.

An unusual bypass, likely the first of its type in Minnesota, involved piling layer upon fortified layer of dirt about 22 feet high. That’s about 23,000 cubic yards of dirt. Traffic will be routed onto the bypass so that the old bridge can be torn down and replaced.

A new fence in the West End

A smaller construction project was visible along Randolph Avenue just west of Shepard Road. The privacy fence installation is part of the conversion of a nearly five-acre property into the Saint Paul headquarters of FCC Environmental, the city’s residential trash hauler.

Neighborhood opposition to FCC’s plan for 560 Randolph came quickly. The legal maneuvering quickly followed FCC’s purchase of the Randolph Avenue site. The West Seventh/Fort Road Federation fought the plan for various reasons, including documents which called for development that created better access to the river for pedestrians and bikers.

The city’s planning commission approved FCC’s site plan, but the city council sided with the Federation by voting against that decision. Then-mayor Melvin Carter vetoed the vote of the council and declared a state of emergency. Ultimately, the project moved ahead and with the fence being a part of it.

More like Memorial Day

Memorial Day pageantry was on display at 649 Jefferson Avenue. The American Foursquare house painstakingly painted in shades of yellow, beige, green, white and brown looks great any time of year. But the flowers lining the sidewalk to the front door and the red, white and blue buntings brought the nostalgic feel to another level.

Under the white canopy

The white tent kitty (or catty) corner from 649 Jefferson piqued my curiosity. As I approached I noticed two people sitting under the tent, sheltered from the luminous, warm sun. Placed next to the tent was a chalkboard that turned out to be a menu for a unique bake sale.

Madison, 16-years old, and her sister, Claire, 11, were selling Madison’s home-baked goods under the canopy on the southeast corner of Jefferson and Daly Street, just as they do every weekend. In short order, it became obvious that Madison was a poised, confident young woman.

You might think the weekly bake sale is a more mature version of a popup lemonade stand. But that would be vastly underestimating Madison’s enthusiasm and enterprise. The cookies, bread, muffins and pies all looked delicious.

A school project in 2023 is what led her to ponder her future, and ultimately, create Sugarplummm’s Bakery. “They were pressing us to figure out what we wanted to do in our life, figure out how we’re gonna work, what we’re gonna do. And I was like, ‘I don’t know.’ And so they asked, ‘What do you like?’” And I was like, ‘I kinda like to bake. I’ve been doing that my entire life.’” Added Madison, “ It was between that or photographer.”

The name Sugarplummm’s

The passing of her beloved grandmother Linda motivated Madison to turn the hypothetical into a business. “ In November 2023, my grandmother passed away and I missed her so bad. I needed something to keep her story going, keep her life going, keep her remembered. And I was like, ‘You guys want me to work, you want me to know what I wanna do, and I wanna keep Grandma alive.’ So that’s where Sugarplummm’s comes in.”

“Sugar Plum” is what Grandma Linda called Madison. An adaptation of that seemed to Madison to be the perfect name for her bakery. “I had a crazy bond with her. I loved her. And from like the time I was two years old up until 13, I’d bake with her all the time. She taught me everything I know pretty much.”

Grandma Linda taught Madison through her actions rather than offering a lot of advice. “ She was a very kind, very loving, very giving person. Very empathetic.”

Pies, cookies and breads

Sugarplummm’s customers can select from a sizable assortment of delectable goodies. Strawberry, rhubarb, apple, key lime and banana cream pies, chocolate chip, snickerdoodle and red velvet cookies and sourdough and banana breads are some of the indulgences she sells.

Just know the offerings frequently change. “ Every week I make a somewhat new menu. There’s always something different on my table, but there’s also something that’s the same because I have certain hits.”

Among those hits is key lime pie. Another is her Amish friendship bread. “That is something people really like. My chocolate chip cookies are always there and people have also really liked banana cream (pie.)”

Customers

Customers, admitted Madison modestly, relish her pies, breads, pastries and cookies. “ I’ve been told it’s like a lot of people’s mothers’; that it’s phenomenal. It’s the best thing they’ve ever had. I am a humble person and don’t like to talk about that.”

After pausing briefly, she talked about one customer who custom ordered a pie. “ There was a guy from the South who had ordered a sweet potato pie from me, and I had never made sweet potato pie before, but I was willing to give it a try. I gave it to him. He said it tastes like his mom’s. From the South, like, that’s a crazy compliment.”

For customers who want something special—an item not on the menu—like sweet potato pie—Madison will happily whip it up.

Most of her customers are from the West End area so they stop at the Saturday and Sunday sales. A few receive deliveries. “The pharmacy down at Riverland, I go to them all the time ’cause they love me. They have my business cards on their fridge in the pharmacy. I have lots of repeat customers in the area, and then some of my family members who don’t live here, they’re repeat customers too.” Madison mentioned that Sugarplummm’s has a loose partnership with a women’s thrift store on West Seventh Street called Nine Lives.

Baking it all

All of her baking is done in the family home on Daly Street. Even with the large volume, she doesn’t use a high-end, professional oven, tools or supplies. “I don’t have anything special,” and added, “I actually don’t really use mixers very often.  And people say that they can tell the difference. They say, ‘This tastes better because you hand-mixed it.’ I don’t know if that’s true or not, but they say so.”

A double oven, purchased by her other grandmother (who lives with the family) is a recent addition to Sugarplummm’s Bakery. “ She also bought me a company fridge that we keep in our basement,” explained Madison. “ That’s where I keep pies that are waiting to be sold and extra ingredients because we only have so much room in the family fridge.”

Madison has no set schedule for baking. “ Sometimes I just bake spontaneously. It could be late at night and I’m just like, I want to. But usually I’ll start by just, like, skimming through my cookbooks.”

It takes a family

Although Madison is the guiding force behind Sugarplummm’s, she quickly admits she gets a great deal of help from her parents, Heather and Jeff, and younger sister Claire. “ My dad does most of the decorating. He also makes whipped cream for the pies.”

As for Heather’s jobs, Madison said, “My mom does a lot. She does a lot of dishes, so does he. We all do a lot of dishes, but mostly them. I don’t like to.”

Jeff, however, minimized his involvement. “ This is all her operation. This was her inspiration. I mean, her grandma was her everything and this is her way of honoring that. And I’m just here to basically help foster that.”

Heather and Jeff steward much of the marketing and sales. “ My dad works at the airport, and he loves to just talk about me nonstop. He talks to all kinds of workers in there, travelers sometimes. So they find out through my parents’ work a lot, or word of mouth in the community, on Facebook, Instagram. I don’t have anything, like, big marketing at all.”

Sister Claire assists with direct sales. “ Today she helped set up out here and if I need to go in the house for something, she’ll sell while I’m in there.”

Madison and Jeff cooperate on the financial side of Sugarplummm’s, specifically how much to charge for her bakery. “ We’ll go through all of the ingredients, and then we’ll also compare it (prices) to the competition, like at the store, in other bakeries, that kinda thing,” she explained.

Customers do comment about the cost of her baked goods, but not for the reason you may think. “People ask me, like, ‘Do you even make money? Why is this only $5? It should be a million.’ And I just don’t like to gouge. That’s not who I am. I just want a fair price.”

With barely a hesitation, Madison noted, “ I still make plenty of money on it because I need to in order to sustain myself.”

The ingredients and supplies

Madison has a routine for purchasing the considerable variety of ingredients she uses. “ I usually go to Sam’s Club for bulk goods, flour, sugar, eggs. Eggs are a hard one because they were sky high for a while, but I still bought them ’cause I need them. I also get my butter from there.”

Packaging for the treats, such as boxes, bags, pie tins and the like, she’ll order online.

Sugarplummm’s future

There’s no standing still for Madison and Sugarplummm’s. Upon contacting her in July, she said via email that she’s working on getting her Cottage Food Producer Registration. The Cottage Food Law, according to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, “allows for individuals to make and sell certain non-potentially hazardous food and canned goods in Minnesota without a license.” Among the requirements is that Madison complete online training and an exam each year.

Meanwhile, dad Jeff offered a simple thought about Madison’s future. “Hopefully one day she’ll be able to open up in the West End somewhere and have a storefront.”

I wanted to leave with a pie or three, but being on my bike, pies would have wound up in a heartbreaking disaster, splattered on a road somewhere between the West End and my home. With prudence eclipsing my pie craving, I left with a box of beautifully shaped chocolate chip cookies to share with my family.

Anyone who has a taste for freshly baked goods or a sweet tooth (like me) will find plenty to love at Sugarplummm’s. You’ll find Sugarplummm’s on Instagram and its menu here.

Back on Shepard

I take pleasure in biking a busy road that is temporarily closed. First, it’s appealing to safely ride on a street that is inherently hazardous. It also feeds my slightly recalcitrant streak of going places I really shouldn’t. On this ride, westbound Shepard Road provided that opportunity.

Three people enjoy solace on a bench on the south side of Shepard.

Upon returning home and hopping off my bike, I excitedly opened the pouch where I’d carefully set the box of chocolate chip cookies Madison baked. Rather than the beautifully circular treats that went in, I found wreckage-a crinkled box and bits, crumbs and some slightly larger cookie fragments. Obviously, depositing the box of cookies in the same pouch as my U-lock was a dreadful move. At least the crumbled cookies still tasted delicious. On the other hand, as I write this three months later, I still regularly encounter cookie detritus in the pocket of my panniers.

A couple of important take-aways from this ride: Visit Sugarplummm’s regularly and unless you have a protected place to carry bakery, don’t bike.