Overtime: How Shelly-Anne Storer Started, Closed And Relaunched A Business During The Pandemic

After a tough year, Shelly-Anne Storer is looking for a new location for her business, Wild Orchid. (Alli Fam/NHPR)

Shelly-Anne Storer’s first job after moving to New Hampshire was at an assisted living facility in Concord, and though she spent long hours cooking and serving food to residents, there were parts she enjoyed.

“I loved finding out what their favorite things were, so I knew exactly what to bring to their table,” she says. Storer remembers one resident from the South asked her for a traditional hummingbird cake. Storer baked it and says she’ll never forget the gratitude of the resident. The resident told Storer it brought her back to her childhood.

But the cake brought Storer back too. She had the recipe from her old catering business back in Trinidad. Storer’s owned a business since her 20s. But she started small. In Trinidad, she and her brothers started putting fliers for her banana bread in mailboxes. Once she built up her finances, she expanded into the catering business. Within three years she says she had a slew of clients. Celebrities, she recalls, ate her baked goods.

Click here for the full story from New Hampshire Public Radio.