FAYETTEVILLE — Morning’s wrath is long away as you shift in your bed, look at the clock and adjust your pillow. It’s silent out, save for the occasional snow plow scraping past your bedroom window.

The clock reads 3 a.m. as you drift back to sleep.

But, for Angela and Lee Smith it’s time for work.

The Smiths start their day early to help you get through yours. They opened Wild Flour Bakery on North Court Street in Fayetteville in the same building as Diogi’s Mexican Grill and Cantina a month ago.

Angela, who has a degree in photography from The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, said she grew up in a home with an oven set on bake.

“My grandmother and mother always baked,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to open a bakery. I still enjoy taking photographs, but baking was always it.”

And, like the yeast in her dough, her business has been rising since the neon “Open” sign lit.

“It’s going great,” she said. “Ten times more than what I expected it already and I can only imagine in a couple months when the season starts how it’s going to be.”

A big factor in the business’ short success is that there aren’t too many — if any — locally owned and family-operated bakeries open daily in the area.

Like other state gems nestled on the plateau by the gorge — Pies and Pints Pizzeria, Diogi’s, Cathedral Cafe, which are well known throughout the state and beyond — Wild Flour’s route to prominence began last week when it was the featured bakery for Agriculture Day at the Culture Center at the Capitol Complex in Charleston.

Agriculture Day highlights West Virginia’s foods and agricultural businesses, said Cindy Martel, a marketing specialist for the Department of Agriculture who lives in Fayetteville.

Wild Flour put together a special order of 550 muffins, cinnamon roll turnovers and scones to take to the Capitol, Angela said.

It took them 19 hours split between two days to complete the order. One day they worked from 2:30 a.m. until 9:30 p.m.

“That was a long day,” Angela said. “But it was well worth it and got our name out there to many people in Charleston.”

But did they like it?

“The bottom line is we didn’t have any left,” said Martel, who delivered the order. “I was concerned because it was Friday, the weather wasn’t great, but there was a decent crowd. And that crowd isn’t afraid to leave product on the table they don’t enjoy.”

But without a loyal and local customer base, Angela’s dream of a bakery would be just flour blowing in the wind. However, in a town that craves anything local she has exactly that.

“I have the same people here every single day,” she said. “Some say ‘I vowed to come here two days a week so you’ll stay.’”

She added that almost daily a new person comes in, saying they just heard about the place.

Chris Kappler, who gives biplane tours with the Wild Blue Adventure Co. in Oak Hill, said he goes to the bakery “all the time.”

He said he stocks up on biscotti weekly and that everything she has is simply “unbelievable,” especially the cookies.

“The cookies are absolutely perfect,” he said. “Sometimes you’ll go in a bakery and they have big cookies that look amazing, but still have that processed taste. Her cookies taste like grandma’s cookies.”

Kappler, who just spent $75 on an order during the week, said he’d rather pay more to pour money back into a local business.

“I’d rather give someone like her the opportunity to get her business going,” he said. “It’s a good product. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t go.”

Angela and Lee are at the bakery every day, except for Monday, from 3 a.m. to about noon. They have a 21-month old daughter, Cassidy, and Angela’s mother, Marsha Fizer, baby-sits the child until she takes over for them at noon.

Angela said if it weren’t for her mother, “we couldn’t be doing this right now.”

Lee, who use to test construction equipment, but now works full-time with his wife, said it’s hard work with long hours.

“I’m learning every day,” he said. “I’m having a great time.”

National Park Service Ranger Sara Prior said she’s thankful to have a local bakery.

She said either she or other rangers stop in once a week to stock up on “goodies.”

“It’s wonderful,” she said with a box of pastries in hand. “We’ve wanted a bakery locally for sometime now. I’m very excited and stopped in and tried every pastry they’ve had — they’re all my favorite.”

They offer freshly baked bagels, doughnuts, cookies and cream horns daily and try to offer different types of biscotti, coffee cakes and scones daily.

They do special orders. In fact, Angela just finished a batch of organic peanut butter dog treats. She asks people notify her a couple days prior to when they want to pick up a special order.

They take orders for pies, cakes, breads, pastries and more.

Wild Flour also sales Grounds for Change Coffee, which is organic, fair trade certified and carbon free (the first in the nation to be certified).

The bakery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. The number is 304-574-0001. Their Facebook page, www.facebook.com/wildflourbakerywv, is updated daily with what they’re offering and you can also check their Web site at www.wildflourbakerywv.com.

— E-mail: cjackson@register-herald.com