Three business partners, who also happen to be good friends, have transformed the Ajijic store once known as Marlowe’s Marvelous Market into “Alquimia” – alchemy in English.
The intention of Noelle Bourlon, Diana Suarez and Ximena Cortez is clear. Alchemy is defined as: “The process of changing something ordinary into something extraordinary.”
Bourlon is a bread maker, Suarez owns Kukis Caseras, a wheat-free cookie business, and Cortez runs Cachito Mio, an art-on-fabric business.
Cortez has created a workspace in a corner of Alquimia that was once the garage, where her clothing and accessories are on display.
“When buying my fabrics, my focus is on women and fair trade,” says Cortez, who lives above the store with her eight-year-old son. “I never bargain. I want to teach the women whom I buy from to value what they do.”
“Ninety percent of our suppliers happen to be women,” adds Suarez, “and about 75 percent of those women are single, like us. We love the idea of empowering women.”
Along with Bourlon’s bread and Suarez’s cookies, the store is stocked with an array of healthy, organic items, or “food for the soul.” From farm eggs, packaged foods, fresh-baked goodies and Marlowe’s homemade butter to essential oils, soaps and cosmetics, all the items they carry are either from people they know personally or from Jalisco, where they know the story behind them.
Being a business owner and single mother of three, Bourlon admits that it would have been impossible for her to take on this project by herself. “We took over the store with hardly any money, and I am grateful to our friends who have entrusted us with their products on consignment.”
Two weeks prior to their July 7 opening, the women had nights of little sleep, lots of hard work and plenty of laughter as they moved nonstop, all the while working their magic.
“We rearranged things and improvised with the materials we gathered from our homes and from donations,” says Bourlon. “Although we had some help with labor, we ended up doing most of it ourselves. We pulled out nails (there were literally hundreds), sealed holes and painted the walls and ceiling. We released cables attached to walls and cleaned as if we were selling the place.”
Rarely pausing to take a breath, they moved a refrigerator and two freezers, bought flowers and gathered cuttings from Bourlon’s garden to place in recycled glass bottles, converted pieces of old furniture into chalkboards, and calculated prices and expiry dates. Since opening day, when they were finally able to ease up, they’ve enjoyed meeting many new faces from the expat community who have entered through the freshly painted doors.
For Bourlon, Mondays are spent baking bread in a workspace behind her house in Chapala. It’s there that she and her employees crank out dense, flourless seed and fruit breads, plus seven varieties of sourdough bread. Her busy week doesn’t stop there.
On Tuesdays, she sells her bread at Ajijic’s organic market, which is also where Suarez sells her cookies. On Thursdays, she drives to the Guadalajara bus station, placing a box of bread on a bus headed to Mexico City. Five hours later, her client is at the station waiting to retrieve it. Next, she winds her way through the city, delivering bread to customers. On Saturdays, she and Suarez sell their goods at the Guadalajara farmers market.
To help with running the store, the women employ three workers from Tlachichilco, a small village near Mezcala.
“They have been working with me for five years,” says Bourlon. “On the days they don’t work with me, they work with Diana. When they go home, the women take Ximena’s pieces and do the embroidery work with their family members. We want to see them better themselves by helping them out financially.”
Situated behind the store is a cozy outdoor patio that functions as a seating area for café guests. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, a helper named Rosie, is whipping up fresh, creative brunch items.
Says Bourlon: “We see the kitchen area as an ‘idea incubator’ with the potential for cooking up delicious chocolate truffles, traditional Italian biscotti, pomodoro sauce and mouthwatering tarte au citron (lemon tart). We want the store to smell like grandma’s house, except with a healthier twist.”
All three women believe in honesty, paying fair wages to their employees and treating others as they would like to be treated.
“We’re committed to empowering others and being a light in our community,” she Bourlon. “We want everything in the store to be healthy and delicious, and we intend on having fun in the process.
“This is the beginning of a lifelong dream; to have a place where I can cook, experiment and provide delicious food, while affecting those around me in a positive way. When a customer leaves with a smile, that is one of the most rewarding things for me.”
Alquimia is located at Encarnación Rosas 1, Ajijic.