METHOW VALLEY, Washington — Cold didn't faze Molly Starcher as she hauled 20-pound bags of confectioners' sugar barehanded from Winthrop's snow-covered boardwalk into The Little Dipper Café and Bakery on a zero-degree late December day.
Starcher, 27, graduated from a business incubator program and opened the sweet shop in September to showcase her Nutella-stuffed cookies and what she claims are the only macarons within a 100-mile radius. But she also took the entrepreneurial plunge as a financial strategy to secure a stable place to live amid a nationwide housing shortage that has manifested more acutely in small towns with plentiful outdoor recreation, like this remote corner of North Central Washington.
"I never thought I could buy unless something changes," she said. "I'd like to put down roots."
