FOLEY, Ala. — Joyfulls Bakery, the allergen-free bakery that built a following by selling out at Baldwin County farmers markets, has opened its first brick-and-mortar storefront at OWA Parks & Resort in Foley, holding a soft opening over the weekend.
The bakery is run by 20-year-old Emersen Taylor, whose gluten-free, dairy-free and nut-free cookies, cakes and cinnamon rolls have taken her from a market table to a shop of her own in roughly a year of serious growth.
“It’s felt pretty crazy,” Taylor said of the bakery’s rise. “Even though I’ve been doing this for a little bit, it’s really only been about a year since I’ve gotten started. It’s felt pretty crazy and there’s been times where I don’t sleep at all, but it feels right, like this was the natural progression.”
Joyfulls Bakery: From Kansas to the Alabama coast
Taylor is originally from Wichita, Kansas. She moved to Baldwin County with her family about a decade ago and spent a stretch moving around the county and the state, living in communities including Huntsville, Fairhope and Gulf Shores.
She started selling her baked goods in 2023 at the Mobile Bay Maker’s Market in Fairhope. By 2025, she was selling at the Coastal Alabama Farmers and Fishermen’s Market in Foley — and that, Taylor said, is where the business really took off.
“It was incredible,” Taylor said. “People reacted to it and it kept growing. Kept selling out. It’s been amazing ever since.”
A storefront dream realized at OWA
Taylor said opening a storefront had always been the dream. The location carries personal meaning: she and her family were living in Baldwin County when OWA Parks & Resort first opened in 2017, and she remembers it as an incredible space.
Now that same destination is home to her bakery. OWA, located in Foley, combines an amusement park and a water park with a downtown district of shops, restaurants and entertainment venues, drawing both locals and visitors to south Baldwin County.
The resort is owned by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, and its name comes from a Muscogee word meaning “big water.” Its downtown district has steadily added restaurants, shops and entertainment, including the OWA Theater, and seasonal attractions such as the Primal Fear haunted house, which opened for the Halloween season last month. A bakery with morning hours adds another reason for locals to stop in outside of park visits.
What’s on the menu
What sets Joyfulls apart is its strict focus on allergen-free baking. The bakery is 100% dedicated to baked goods made without:
- Gluten
- Wheat
- Dairy
- Dyes
- Nuts
Taylor said the bakery also offers vegan and egg-free options.
The menu leans toward desserts and breakfast pastries, including cookies, cakes, pies, muffins and coffee cakes. Taylor named three items as her most popular sellers:
- Cinnamon rolls
- Blueberry muffins
- Chocolate chip cookies
Why a dedicated allergen-free bakery matters
For people with celiac disease, wheat allergies, dairy or nut allergies, finding baked goods is often more complicated than finding a gluten-free item on a menu. In a conventional bakery, flour, butter and nuts can easily come into contact with other products on shared surfaces and equipment. A bakery that is dedicated entirely to allergen-free products removes those ingredients from the kitchen altogether, which is why such shops tend to draw loyal customers among families managing food allergies and dietary restrictions.
The bakery’s exclusion of dyes also appeals to customers who avoid artificial colors, while the vegan and egg-free options broaden the menu further for those with additional restrictions.
From packing up to baking on site
Taylor will continue selling at farmers markets, but she said having a storefront changes the rhythm of the business. Rather than baking, packaging, loading and setting up a booth, she can now sell straight from the kitchen to the counter.
“It’s a whole different process than having to package it up, take it to the market, set up,” Taylor said. “I really like the idea of being able to bake and then walk three feet out to the kitchen and be able to sell it to people.”
She said she is excited to serve the community from the new location while keeping the farmers market presence that helped the bakery build its customer base.
The farmers market path
Taylor’s route — testing products at a makers market, building a following at a larger farmers market, then committing to a storefront — is a common one for small food businesses. Markets let a baker gauge which items sell, build name recognition and gather repeat customers without the rent and staffing costs of a full-time shop. In Taylor’s case, the repeated sellouts at the Foley market were the signal that demand was there.
Hours and location
Joyfulls Bakery is located at OWA Parks & Resort in Foley. Posted hours are:
- Tuesday through Thursday: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Friday and Saturday: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The posted schedule does not include Sunday or Monday hours. Because the bakery is in its soft-opening phase, customers may want to confirm hours before making a trip.
Key dates in the Joyfulls story
- About a decade ago: Taylor’s family moves from Wichita, Kansas, to Baldwin County.
- 2017: OWA Parks & Resort opens in Foley while the family is living in Baldwin County.
- 2023: Taylor begins selling baked goods at the Mobile Bay Maker’s Market in Fairhope.
- 2025: Sales take off at the Coastal Alabama Farmers and Fishermen’s Market in Foley.
- October 2026: Joyfulls Bakery holds a soft opening of its storefront at OWA.
A young owner’s next chapter
At 20, Taylor has moved quickly from a hobby-scale market table to running a retail bakery inside one of Baldwin County’s best-known destinations. She described the pace as exhausting at times but said the move feels like the right one.
For shoppers in Foley and visitors to OWA, the opening adds a dedicated allergen-free option to the area’s food scene — and gives longtime farmers market customers a permanent place to find those cinnamon rolls and chocolate chip cookies.
