Cinnamon rolls to die for

The sign read: CINNAMON ROLLS.

I would die for a cinnamon roll with lots of frosting.

So, I turned off Highway 58 at the Jasper intersection and traveled a half-mile down the road to the cinnamon rolls.

There I met Aaron and Melody Lake, who own A&M Farms where the cinnamon rolls were perched on a shelf.

“We raise beef, pork, chicken, lamb, turkey,” Aaron explained as I kept an eye on the pastry shelves at their open-air market.

Aaron grew up on an organic farm where he said he “fell in love” with farming.

Later, he fell in love with Melody, who attended culinary school and now creates those fabulous cinnamon rolls in the kitchen on their 28-acre Pleasant Hill area farm home.

Aaron, decked out in one of the coolest hats I’ve seen, explained that a lot of young people want to become farmers.

“It is hard to buy land on a farm income,” he explained. “So, we worked 15 years and had successful careers before we bought this place.

“And then we were able to retire,” he added with a laugh. “Farming is hard work, but I get to work with my best friends all day long.”

Best friends include three young children and Melody, who churns out those to-die-for cinnamon rolls.

“Basically, we’re a pasture-based meat producer,” Aaron says.

Chickens and pigs are raised on pasture, and 2 ½ acres are devoted to veggies. The Lakes also work with a couple of nearby farmers who produce items for their market, which is open Thursday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. They get bison from a Creswell farm and call for help when they run out of lamb.

However, I hope they never run out of bakery items, especially cinnamon rolls.

That is unless too many customers like Dan Fischer of Jasper show up.

“My family eats them all the time,” Fischer said as he and several other customers showed up during the morning of my visit.

Pumpkin baking products are runner-up bakery sellers, Melody said as she stacked boxes of my favorite dessert on shelves near eggs that sell for $7 a dozen. A cinnamon roll cost $3, or you can buy a dozen for $30.

Later, while Aaron put up the signs on Highway 58 promoting A&M products, he confided that “cinnamon rolls revolutionized our business.”

That was after I asked Melody about the secret of her success in creating those yummy to-die-for cinnamon rolls.

“I think it’s the maple frosting,” she said.

Longtime Oregon journalist Dean Rea, widely known for his years as a University of Oregon journalism educator and editor at The Register-Guard in Eugene,  serves as a founding board member, correspondent and columnist for The Herald.