Summer Newsletter #2

Week 8, y'all. Here we are. Mitch celebrated a birthday the third week of March, when "normal life" was falling away like rocks on a shaky cliff. I made a comment that if we were still on lockdown by MY birthday, the first week of June, I'd have surely gone mad by then. But it's funny now that I look back on it. I haven't gone mad, and actually I'm quite far from it (but yes, we still have four weeks to go before my birthday)!

And why is this, I've wondered? Why HAVEN'T I broken down? Don't get me wrong, there HAVE been tears over here. I do have my days where I really struggle. But overall, I'm actually faring a lot better than I assumed I would. One thing that I keep coming back to is a saying that I first heard when I was going through yoga teacher training: "The way you do anything is the way you do everything." It's centered around the idea that you cannot think and speak one way, and then expect to live an opposite experience. You cannot act out your life rooted in fear and then expect to have love reflected back to you. It really is pretty simple: how you approach little things is likely how you'll face the big things.

I've been a nurturer-through-food for most of my adult life. In my early 20's I suggested our group of friends get together every week over a cooked meal, sharing hosting among the six of us girls. Once I entered corporate life, I was the one who would bring in brownies and cookies for coworkers, much to the horror of one of my female managers who told me I'd never be taken seriously if I was too "Betty Crocker" around the office. When I lost my job in 2015, I was the one who needed nurturing...and so I dove hands-first into bread. Baking literally healed me, and I have never once wondered why everyone seems to be baking now. I know exactly why they are. 

So in the little ways, I've always wanted to care for people and the medium has always been food. And now that so much caring needs to be given to so many, I'm feeling called to do exactly that. Each week, as long as people still need bread, I will keep baking. I'm not stockpiling food or routing out paths to escape the city. I'm not shaking my fists at politicians and their decisions or television screens. I'm not debating anyone about who is suffering more, who deserves more funding or who should be left to drown. I'm just a person, making bread, feeding those in my community who need it. Because the way I've done anything, is the way I'll do everything.

Okay - on to bread! THANK YOU for a wonderful first market yesterday! This is the first year I've been a part of opening day - I usually sit out the first few weeks of May and wait to really ramp up production until closer to Memorial Day. This year I wanted to be there from the beginning. There were quite a few mistakes made yesterday, and most mistakes were met with nothing but graciousness and patience. Again, I'm just a person, making bread, and trying my best to keep it all going and make sure everything is straight. But nonetheless, with new processes and rules to follow, wrinkles should to be expected. I've taken notes, and hoping that moving forward into coming weeks, we have no more incorrect orders!

New item this week: Raspberry & Cheese Sweet Brioche! Brioche is such a fun dough to work with, and it's so versatile and can be used for hamburger buns, cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls, and other pastries. It's the perfect base for sweet cream cheese and fruit sauces, no doubt! This week, for Mother's Day, I'll be making sweet brioche kolaches, topped with sweetened cream cheese and raspberry sauce. Think of it like an inside-out filled doughnut - only it's baked and not fried AND you get the sweet cream cheese bonus! 

Orders are open for both markets on Saturday - market inventories are separate from now on so no more mixed up orders between two different locations on the same day 🙂 Orders are also open for Wednesday home deliveries, although a lot of items are sold out for that. Reminder: delivery is within 15 miles of 45211, and the order minimum is $20 which can be shared with friends and neighbors, as long as there is just one house for delivery.