Snacks these days just aren’t what they used to be. Due to options often overloaded with sugar, preservatives and mystery ingredients, picking the perfect (or even just palatable) snack for you and your family is now a bit of a chore.
At least that was the case for Southampton resident Kira Cummings, who during her pregnancy back in 2024 says she was less than satisfied with her habitual snacking situation.
“I was pregnant with my son, and I was eating a lot of Cheez-Its, and I just didn’t really know what was in them,” she says. “I feel like I should have been eating healthier than I was.”
That same time, Cummings was gifted a sourdough starter from a friend, with the hope of baking her own bread.
“I tried it one time, and I was terrible at it, and I kind of just didn’t have the patience to keep trying,” she say. “But I didn’t want to get rid of the sourdough starter. It was a 100-year-old starter, and it just felt really ancient and different.”
With her newly launched Kiki’s Crackers, local Kira Cummings is upping the East End snacking scene. (Photo credit: Jessie Watts)
With her love for Cheez-Its in mind, she began experimenting with the starter, eventually baking her own homemade version of the beloved snack cracker. Made from only four ingredients — sourdough, pecorino romano cheese, salt and butter — Cummings may have cracked the code on more responsible snacking.
Made daily from scratch out of her Southampton Village home, Cummings’ artisanal, small-batch crackers are available for sale at Farm and Forage and Barryville General in Southampton, Sagaponack General Store in Sagaponack, Babe’s Diner in Sag Harbor, Balsam Farms in Amagansett, and Gosman’s in Montauk. Additionally, they’re available for pick up through online ordering platform Hotplate, as a weekly presale situation. Orders are also available at Cummings’ brick-and-mortar cracker cabinet, an actual cabinet structure situated on the front porch of her home. Each package contains 160 grams of crackers, costing $10 each from her at-home location. Kiki’s Crackers merchandise is also available.
“Wednesday through Friday you can order online, and then Friday you pick up all your orders that you ordered, and you have crackers for the weekend for all your guests,” she says. “And it literally is a cracker cabinet on our front porch in the village. So, people walk by with their dogs and they pick up their orders. I kind of wanted to bring it back to like community, like having people just stop by and pick up their goods.”
For more information, check out their Instagram here.
