You have to get up pretty early to have doughnuts ready for customers on their morning commute. That means Wess was in the store at 3 a.m. kneading and rolling dough before heading off to classes.

“I was drinking copious amounts of coffee just to stay up,” says Wess. “I learned to appreciate a good cup and a bad cup in that time.”

These days Wess, the William R. Rogers Director of Friends Center and Quaker Studies, likes to think he brews only good cups – and a lot of them. In 2018, he turned his hobby of roasting coffee beans on his stove into a part-time business. Fireweed Coffee Company sells its wares at four restaurants in Greensboro and every Saturday at the Corner Farmer’s Market at Kensington Road and Market Street in Greensboro.

Wess actually got his start roasting coffee in 2011 living in Washington, a state that knows a thing or three about java. “It seemed like everyone was (roasting coffee),” he says. "People talked about it and shared recipes.”

Things were a little different when the Daniels family arrived in Greensboro. He was something of an outlier, roasting his coffee beans on the kitchen stove for he and his wife Emily. Using a Whirley-Pop he brought with him from Washington, Wess would often roast multiple hand-cranked batches of beans over the stovetop, eight ounces at a time. Roasting beans has gotten much easier since then.

He decided to start selling his coffee at the market in 2018 and knew almost immediately he was on to something. “People loved it,” he says. “They showed up every Saturday for it.”

These days Fireweed sells about 40 12-pounde bags a week at the market and goes through about a dozen carafes for those who need their fix on the spot.

Business has grown to the point that Wess has added two Guilfordians to the business. LaKeisha Williams is a Career Adviser for the College's Career, Academic and Personal Exploration Department and Shannon Barr, a former College employee, have helped grow the company. "Without them Fireweed wouldn’t exist," he says.

In addition to a handful of restaurants, Wess sells his coffee in two local grocery stores, Bestway Grocery and Deep Roots Co-Op.

It’s a hobby that also gives back to the community because Fireweed donates some of the  profits to local and national groups. “Supporting other groups that do good work makes it a net positive,” he says. “In the end that is one of the things that makes this all worthwhile.”