Sunday, July 26, 2009

I've Decided!


Crusty Artisan Bread ~ Wheat & Rye Combination

I have decided that this blog will be my space to write about my new love, my new hobby and my new business: yeast bread baking!

A few months ago after reading about baking bread in a few good books and a few more good blogs, I decided to try my hand at it. Well, both of my hands actually. On my main blog, Mountain Harvest Basket, I even wrote about some of my first bread baking experiences.

My blog readers cheered me on, so I kept at it. I baked for myself and my family and gave some to my friends. Everyone seemed to like it. So I got brave enough to take Hardware Bob's suggestion that I should sell my homemade bread in our local organic Farm Store.

So this past May, at the Farm Store Spring party (at the organic farm), I brought two big loaves of crusty, chewy, moist artisan bread as my potluck contribution, but also as my bread audition for the farmer.

To my great pleasure, all of my bread was eaten and gone in about 15 minutes! We saved a slice with some fresh farm goat cheese (from the farm goats) for the farmer to sample. She loved it, and hired me to deliver my freshly baked bread to their Farm Store every week.

Since then I have been trying to adjust to baking 8 loaves at a time instead of just 1 or 2 for my own consumption. Adjusting to baking that many every week, wrapping, labeling, and delivering them on time as promised. I also have been experimenting with different brands and types of flours, different recipes and different methods of preparation. It's been fun so far, and I plan to keep doing it as long it remains fun for me.

Please follow my adventures as I write about them in this new MotherHen Jen blog. (MotherHen Jen is my baking business name, and also my nickname with my close family.) I will probably also duplicate some of my bread posts on my Mountain Harvest Basket blog. Please come and visit me there too.


© Copyright 2009 MotherHen Jen

5 comments:

Farmgirl Susan said...

Congratulations! Your new bread baking venture is so cool! Can't wait to follow along. :)

Farmer Jen said...

Hi Susan,
I want you to know that you, your blogs and your baking expertise were part of my inspiration. Your idea of an artisan bakery sounds so wonderful. I love working with the flour and the dough. It feels so good to my hands.

Farmgirl Susan said...

Well I have an as-yet-unused 60 quart mixer if things really take off. ;)

Velva said...

I love it! I hope to follow along with your new adventure. Baking bread is a wonderful and comforting activity.

Farmer Jen said...

Hi Susan,
Wow! A 60 quart mixer! So far I have done most of my mixing by hand with a wooden spoon, but I do have my eye on a shiny new KitchAid mixer. My birthday is coming up soon...

What brand is your 60 quart mixer? I read about a Hobart brand mixer in Judi Hendricks' books Bread Alone & the Baker's Apprentice (love those books, by the way, Thanks for the reading recommendation!)I am not knowledeable at all about commercial sized baking equipment. Sort of intimidates me at this point.

Hi Velva,
Thank you for visiting my new blog and leaving a nice comment. I agree with you about the comforting activity part of baking bread. I love it for that very reason.