After working long days farming land, Howard Yoder relished coming home to his wife Ida’s scrumptious home-baked goodies. When Howard developed a rare muscle disease and could no longer continue farming, however, the couple decided to sell the farm and open a bakery. In June 1996, they opened Country Lane Bakery in Middlebury. Over time, the business gradually grew, and in 2015, the Yoders’ son Vernon and his wife Jo Ann bought the business and have been blessed with great employees and loyal customers ever since.
Vernon Yoder has always dreamed of adding fried doughnuts to their menu but didn’t have the room to do so. Fate intervened when earlier this year he was approached by a business in Shipshewana to ask if he and his wife were interested in leasing the building.
“Jo Ann and I looked at it and decided to give it a whirl,” says Yoder, who opened Country Lane Bakery 2.0 in August 2025. Because this location has more retail space, they can sell sandwiches, doughnuts, coffee, and homemade baked goods.
The new bakery, located about seven miles from the original location, is large enough to accommodate Yoder’s doughnut dream. For instance, they sell plain glazed, maple bacon, jelly-filled, peanut butter-filled, lemon-filled, as well as Long Johns with Bavarian white cream. In addition, the space includes a coffee shop with air-roasted specialty-grade coffee that comes from a roaster located near Fort Wayne. According to Yoder, air roasting coffee has less acidity, thereby creating a smoother, better taste. The syrups for the coffee drinks have no artificial flavorings in them.
Open for breakfast and lunch, Country Lane Bakery 2.0 also sells sandwiches and a variety of homemade baked goods. One of Yoder’s favorites is the cinnamon rolls, a recipe formulated by his grandmother. Customers are constantly raving about how tasty they are. Other top sellers are their cookies and breads, particularly their honey oatmeal bread, which is made with honey and contains no sugar. All the breads are soft sandwich breads, not the crusty artisan style.
Each week they feature a Cookie of the Week. One of their recent popular ones was a blueberry cream cheese cookie with a lemon glaze. Another fall favorite they make when they get in fresh apples is an oatmeal caramel apple cookie.
A big hit in the AM is what they call the Inside Out breakfast sandwich, where the cheese is toasted on the outside of the bread, and customers can choose whatever bread and meat options they want. It includes egg and is served with a cranberry pepper chutney, which is basically a cranberry pepper chili served on the side so customers can put it on their sandwich or dip it. Also on the breakfast menu is French toast with cinnamon swirl bread served with real maple syrup.
For lunch, patrons can order sandwiches with a choice of homemade breads and deli meat options (roast beef, chicken, turkey, ham), all served with homemade sauces. Or they may want to try the chicken pot pie.
“I love playing around and experimenting in the kitchen,” Yoder says. “It’s not necessarily stuff that we will end up selling. I just like to try new things.”
With fall just around the corner, they are gearing up to sell seasonal items, including all things pumpkin—pumpkin rolls, pumpkin pies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cutout cookies, and pumpkin-flavored cookies, which they make with a divine brown butter icing.
Given the area, they get a good number of tourists who stop in, but they also have many loyal customers. One such customer is Garrett Rees, who came into the bakery years ago and was immediately hooked. He and his wife lived in South Bend at the time, and they would come into the bakery and grab a loaf of pepperoni pizza bread and polish off the loaf on their drive home. Rees notes that they quickly grew fond not only of the delicious cuisine but also the delightful people.
“At Country Lane Bakery, everything is done with an immense amount of love,” says Rees. “They care so much in a myriad of different ways. They care about the food and the experience you have. They care that you enjoy it, and they care about you and your family. It’s a really cool situation when two people and a family put so much into it that you feel it while you’re there. That’s neat. You don’t get that everywhere else.”
Rees is thrilled for the Yoders because Country Lane Bakery 2.0 presents the opportunity for them to have a physical space where they can connect with the public even more. The new location seats 60 indoors and close to 40 outdoors.
“Now they have people in there eating with them and spending more time with them,” Rees says.
The Yoders love it, too, as their favorite thing about working in this business is the relationships they have created with customers and employees.
“It’s satisfying for customers to come in and love the product, and I see a smile on their faces,” Yoder says. “We like chatting with them and getting to know them. We create an atmosphere to make customers feel welcome.”
Country Lane Bakery 2.0 is open Tuesday-Friday from 5 a.m.-4 p.m. and Saturday 7 a.m.-4 p.m. It is closed on Sundays and Mondays. Country Lane Bakery 2.0 is located at 120 N. Morton St. in Shipshewana. For more information, call 574-825-7918 or find them on Facebook.
