BUY SOMETHIN' WILL YA!

It's been kind of slow at work lately, I think people are finally realizing that we are in a recession and are acting accordingly. It was a lot busier last year, but it was also colder last year and we even got a little snow around Thanksgiving. When the forecast is for snow here in central DE, people panic, and we sell lots of bread and milk. It's getting a little colder now, but not much. From what I have seen, people will eat more baked goods when it's cold, which makes the holiday placement very fortuitous for a baker.

The three days before Thanksgiving are the busiest of the year for me. Last year I went into work at 10 pm Sunday night (we are closed on Sundays). I don't remember when I left, but by the end of Wednesday, I almost had my 40 hours in. That may not happen this year, but I'm okay with that. I won't be getting the overtime, but I may enjoy the holiday more. I am cooking for just Sarah and me, and I have off on Friday, so it will be a lot of fun. Sarah has been sick though for the past few days, and I hope she gets better in time for Thanksgiving so she can enjoy it too.

I don't want to give the impression that we throw a lot of stuff away; we don't. When the shelf life is reached, we put it out on a rack by the registers for half price, and 99% of the time, there is nothing left (we do throw it out the next day if it doesn't sell for half price). This has only been the case for the past year or so, which again is due to the economy in my opinion.

A few weeks ago we got a new label machine for our stuff, and the labels now print the pack date instead of the ordinal date (which is what day of the year it is, in numerical order. For instance, the ordinal date on our price sticker for Christmas this year would be 9359; 9 being 2009 and Christmas being the 359th day of the year. Sorry if my explanation insults your intelligence). With the ordinal date on the package, a lot of people didn't know what it meant, and most didn't ask. Now they can see the actual production date, which had me a little worried that people wouldn't buy bread if they thought it was old. I changed the shelf life to 3 days from 4 just to be on the safe side, and we're staling a lot more bread because of it. I've been trying to make less bread, but I've been doing it one way for so long that it's hard to break the habit. One bread that I don't have to worry about is sourdough. It has been selling out everyday (which is only 6 loaves, we are a small volume bakery, unless it's a holiday), and we also recently lowered the price.

I would love to sell more bread; I love making it and I'm pretty good at it. I wish I could concentrate on just that, but we don't have the help (or the sales, so I'm told) to make that happen. We also don't have the equipment. I've mentioned before that our ovens are crappy and we don't have steam in them like regular bakeries do (Sam's Club has steam, for God's sake). Steam gives you a chewier crust, which I like, but the boss doesn't like, or didn't. All the bread had to be soft when I started working there. I have taken to putting bread pans in the oven and filling them with water when I put the bread in to simulate steam, but it doesn't work as well. I wish we could have gotten a rack oven like I asked for for 4 years, instead of the convection ovens that we did get.

Sarah took the week off next week to come in and help me, which she's been doing for a few years now. She usually sets everything up and does the pull so I can start mixing the dinner rolls right away. It's nice, because I normally wouldn't see her those three days for more than a few minutes at a time. Plus she says it reminds her of when I worked for my dad and she would come and visit me when we were dating. I just hope that I'm going to need the help next week.