Today we’d like to introduce you to Martina Forgey Lay.
Hi Martina, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always loved to cook. I grew up in a home where my mother loved cooking and entertaining, and where food was about much more than what was on the table. It was about bringing people together, trying something new, and enjoying the process. It was about the experience, too. The setting of the table, the warmth you bring to your guests, the laughter and conversation around that table. That has stayed with me throughout my life. I still love entertaining, experimenting with recipes, collecting cookbooks, and attending wonderful events like the cookbook suppers at Middleburg Books.
Like so many people, I started baking sourdough during the pandemic. This pandemic hobby stuck. What started as a way to pass the time became something I genuinely loved. There is something incredibly satisfying about taking flour, water, salt, and a little starter and turning those ingredients into something simple but special. At the same time, I was getting more and more interested in where our food comes from, so this all was part of some new understanding for me too. What is so interesting about bread to me is that it is both mathematical (yes, those hydration percentages) but also part art. You have to understand your dough, get a feel for shaping it – each bake can be different!
In 2022, my husband and I moved to an old house in Philomont, in western Loudoun County, and I started Three Lost Chickens. This was a discovery year. We met so many fabulous people (who have become dear friends), gotten to know our local farms, restaurants, and other small businesses. It was all so inspirational. At the time, we used our cottage as an Airbnb. This opened my eyes to hospitality. (Currently the cottage is inhabited by my lovely daughter and we are happy as clams with her there).
I started a kitchen garden and started baking my bread more regularly. There were a lot of dense, flat loaves (all kindly taste tested by my friends and neighbors). Slowly, this hobby became a small side business.
I still have a full-time career in corporate recruiting, so I bake on a very small scale, usually about ten loaves a week. And I’m perfectly happy with that. I’m not particularly interested in making sourdough with a dozen different additions or elaborate flavors. What fascinates me is perfecting a simple, rustic artisan loaf. Good bread doesn’t need much else. You can dress it up however you like once you get it home.
As I continue to learn, I’m becoming increasingly interested in the ingredients themselves, particularly different grains, locally grown wheat, and the agricultural traditions behind the flour we use. Living in western Loudoun, surrounded by farms and such a rich agricultural history, makes that especially meaningful to me. I’d love to explore working with more locally grown and milled grains in the future.
For now, Three Lost Chickens is a little bit of everything I love: good food, an old house that always needs something, a garden that doesn’t always cooperate, creating wonderful opportunities for friends and community members to come together, and a small bread business that gives me a creative outlet outside my day job. It’s not a perfectly curated lifestyle, and I wouldn’t want it to be.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No business or life is smooth! Yes, there have been bumps in the road and continue to be. One Friday evening, I ran out to pick up something at the store. It was mid-May, I think, and the humidity was over the roof. The weather had warmed suddenly and I hadn’t taken it into account when timing my bulk ferment. I came home to disastrously overfermented dough. I shaped it and popped it into he refrigerator. The next day, when I baked, it didn’t have quite the oven spring I expected, but it they were still lovely loaves. Luckily, I was still in testing phase and let my customers know that I want 100% satisfied. They responded that they loved the bread – even if it was a bit denser. It reminded me that artisan dough, is just that. It’s a few ingredients, it’s not mass produced. That’s the point. It’s also easy to have. a bit of impostor syndrome. I am not a trained baker. But, with each week, I feel more and more at home as a bread baker. I am grateful to have this creative outlet and to be able to continue to perfect my bread baking skills.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I used to be a teacher. In about 2011 I started consulting and in 2018, I went corporate. Throughout all of that, I have loved old homes, cooking, and entertaining. Along the way, I decided to figure out how to make simple, straightforward, good bread. Who knew I would love it so much. I’m excited to continue entertaining, baking, and working on my old house.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
In so many different ways. If I am talking about what I do outside of my day job, what I do for Three Lost Chickens, it’s in the comments I get from my bread customers, the satisfaction of hearing your guests laugh and maybe even make a new friend at one of my events, at supporting another local business (be it a farm, a small store, etc.). I guess, for this business, it’s in community.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Linktr.ee/threelostchickens
- Instagram: @threelostchickens
