The past Month
Hm. No substantial objective update since August 6th. Remedied.
My parents car - which I have been using for deliveries at work ever since the end of June when my truck was in the accident - has been acting up periodically. Namely, not starting and sitting there and cranking and cranking. This resulted in me bicycling to work for a two week period, when the bakery was still in Pelham. About 13 miles one way with some really killer hills over the last 6 miles. Funfun. It usually took about 1h 45m, with some walking on the three steepest hills. Best moment from those 1am-3am rides: Sitting at a stoplight at the bottom of the long hill leading into Amherst at 2am on a Saturday morning, a woman in a car stopped at the red beside me rolled down her window and asked "You do this often?" "Yeah" "You wanna grab onto my bumper?" Laughs. "No, but thanks!"
Second best bike experience: Getting to ride down those ginormous hills on my way back, and each time when I approached 20 MPH thinking "gee. I really hope my handlebar stem doesn't snap into two parts again. Or my bearings don't seize up."
Went raspberry picking at cemetery road in Hadley. 16 quarts that all got frozen.
Salsa and stewed tomatoes one weekend, pasta sauce yester-Wednesday. 25 pints, 47 quarts and 23 quarts respectively. See my post on "pantry" for salsa and stewed tomato recipes and pasta sauce recipe
Planning to still do pickled beets (from my huge surplus at my garden), raspberry jam, and to do apple sauce and maybe pie filling when Alex & Aremy are here in a week and a half. That oughta finish me out for the year. Next year? Maybe some chutneys. Also considering buying a chest or upright freezer, so that I can freeze larger quantities of berries. 2/3 of the blueberries I froze are already gone.
Wheatberry opened it's doors for retail business on Friday Aug 31. The first two days were absolutely crazy, and since then it's quieted down yet been steady business. I no longer have any down time or twiddle-my-thumbs-read-a-cookbook time, which I greatly enjoy. Enjoy being busy, that is. I myself think the most exciting thing is that we do bagels now, which I absolutely love to make and eat. Shaping 'em is so delightful! Ya make the snake, ya wrap the snake around yer fist, and ya roll your palm across the table to seal the ends together. We've also started doing the Rosemary-Olive loaves as boules which I think makes them look fantastic. (Our loaves aren't quite as dark as that image and we cut them a little differently, butcha get da idea.)
The other perk of now doing retail is that we have wiggle room in our quantities. In practical terms, this means I can eat a bagel or cinnamon bun and it won't mean that our wholesale accounts get upset because they receive one less than they usually do. Wiggle room = room for nibbling. We also make sandwiches now, which absolutely rock! A ham & asiago, italian (salami, proscuitto, sopresseta, a green olive spread & asiago), or heirloom tomato & cheddar, all on the country french sourdough bread we make. Yum! I have begun to eat meat again (read: beyond bacon and sausage).
It's good to be able to see the customers and talk face to face with them. The feeling of the work environment has improved x10 now that everything is in one big open space and there are more us working what with counter staff and Ben & Adrie (business owners) usually being around. I dig being able to sell somebody a chocolate croissant and then being able to watch them sit down in one of the barstools and eat it while they read a newspaper.
I've started attending Pedal People potlucks again, ever since Jason's Game Night ended I've been lacking in social contact with people beyond coworkers and family. Alex and Ruthy are real good folks. They challenge me to be more true to myself, which is something I think I need from people around me.
In mid-August I attended the NOFA Summer Conference for one day, which was really good. Attended a workshop on Lacto-fermentation (led by the founder/owner of Real Pickles) which has thusly inspired me to embark on my own adventures of lacto-fermentation. At this moment I have two 5 gallon buckets of pickling cucumbers in the process of becoming dill pickles in my living room. I think I went way overboard on the spices, but nos vemos. I also plan to do a bucket of Kimchi in a week or two. Yum!
And lastly, today I coined two new names for products we sell at the bakery: "scancakes" and "boylodas". (Scone pancakes, coined while I smushed a bit of scrap scone dough into a two dimensional object, and boylodas from the Boylans sodas we sell.)
My parents car - which I have been using for deliveries at work ever since the end of June when my truck was in the accident - has been acting up periodically. Namely, not starting and sitting there and cranking and cranking. This resulted in me bicycling to work for a two week period, when the bakery was still in Pelham. About 13 miles one way with some really killer hills over the last 6 miles. Funfun. It usually took about 1h 45m, with some walking on the three steepest hills. Best moment from those 1am-3am rides: Sitting at a stoplight at the bottom of the long hill leading into Amherst at 2am on a Saturday morning, a woman in a car stopped at the red beside me rolled down her window and asked "You do this often?" "Yeah" "You wanna grab onto my bumper?" Laughs. "No, but thanks!"
Second best bike experience: Getting to ride down those ginormous hills on my way back, and each time when I approached 20 MPH thinking "gee. I really hope my handlebar stem doesn't snap into two parts again. Or my bearings don't seize up."
Went raspberry picking at cemetery road in Hadley. 16 quarts that all got frozen.
Salsa and stewed tomatoes one weekend, pasta sauce yester-Wednesday. 25 pints, 47 quarts and 23 quarts respectively. See my post on "pantry" for salsa and stewed tomato recipes and pasta sauce recipe
Planning to still do pickled beets (from my huge surplus at my garden), raspberry jam, and to do apple sauce and maybe pie filling when Alex & Aremy are here in a week and a half. That oughta finish me out for the year. Next year? Maybe some chutneys. Also considering buying a chest or upright freezer, so that I can freeze larger quantities of berries. 2/3 of the blueberries I froze are already gone.
Wheatberry opened it's doors for retail business on Friday Aug 31. The first two days were absolutely crazy, and since then it's quieted down yet been steady business. I no longer have any down time or twiddle-my-thumbs-read-a-cookbook time, which I greatly enjoy. Enjoy being busy, that is. I myself think the most exciting thing is that we do bagels now, which I absolutely love to make and eat. Shaping 'em is so delightful! Ya make the snake, ya wrap the snake around yer fist, and ya roll your palm across the table to seal the ends together. We've also started doing the Rosemary-Olive loaves as boules which I think makes them look fantastic. (Our loaves aren't quite as dark as that image and we cut them a little differently, butcha get da idea.)
The other perk of now doing retail is that we have wiggle room in our quantities. In practical terms, this means I can eat a bagel or cinnamon bun and it won't mean that our wholesale accounts get upset because they receive one less than they usually do. Wiggle room = room for nibbling. We also make sandwiches now, which absolutely rock! A ham & asiago, italian (salami, proscuitto, sopresseta, a green olive spread & asiago), or heirloom tomato & cheddar, all on the country french sourdough bread we make. Yum! I have begun to eat meat again (read: beyond bacon and sausage).
It's good to be able to see the customers and talk face to face with them. The feeling of the work environment has improved x10 now that everything is in one big open space and there are more us working what with counter staff and Ben & Adrie (business owners) usually being around. I dig being able to sell somebody a chocolate croissant and then being able to watch them sit down in one of the barstools and eat it while they read a newspaper.
I've started attending Pedal People potlucks again, ever since Jason's Game Night ended I've been lacking in social contact with people beyond coworkers and family. Alex and Ruthy are real good folks. They challenge me to be more true to myself, which is something I think I need from people around me.
In mid-August I attended the NOFA Summer Conference for one day, which was really good. Attended a workshop on Lacto-fermentation (led by the founder/owner of Real Pickles) which has thusly inspired me to embark on my own adventures of lacto-fermentation. At this moment I have two 5 gallon buckets of pickling cucumbers in the process of becoming dill pickles in my living room. I think I went way overboard on the spices, but nos vemos. I also plan to do a bucket of Kimchi in a week or two. Yum!
And lastly, today I coined two new names for products we sell at the bakery: "scancakes" and "boylodas". (Scone pancakes, coined while I smushed a bit of scrap scone dough into a two dimensional object, and boylodas from the Boylans sodas we sell.)