The price of success...

On Thursday, I was doing up a test batch of Belizean Creole Bread when my mixer broke.  Considering how many hundreds of pounds of dough it's done this year (over 250 easily), it's no surprise that something broke.  The bolt that holds up the head assembly that rotates around snapped, lucky for me the bread was done kneading when it gave.  

I'll start off with the most important part, the bread.  The Belizean Creole Bread is made with coconut milk, and came out tasting sweet and delicious. It reminded me a little bit of challah with the sweetness and slightly chewy texture.  Tomorrow some slices are destined to become French Toast for breakfast.

On the part of the mixer, there is a repair place only about half an hour from me, and I'm able to pick the wife up from work so she doesn't have to take the commuter bus back.  In about 7-10 days it should be fixed, and the cost is under a third of what a new mixer costs.  I do now realize that about 10% of the sales should go into a fund to pay for future equipment upgrade and repairs, so starting after I get the mixer back the fund will start.

One other thing I learned is that there are at least 3 patron saints of bakers.  I chose Saint Elizabeth of Hungary as mine, in case I ever need one.

Holiday Market Success!

I sold the most bagels ever at the Holiday Market this past Saturday, taking 16 dozen and bringing home only 5 plain (which maybe I could have sold, but feel silly sitting at a nearly empty table with just 5 plain bagels that may or may not sell in the last 2 hours).  I got to see many of my regular customers, and several friends that wandered in from out of town.

I'll be doing special orders during the off season, and the Lawrence Farmer's Market opens up again on I believe May 2nd of 2009.  

year end report

I just realized that I didn't do a post for the end of the regular Farmer's Market season.  It was cold, but sales were still decent.  My wife purchased me a hat from another vendor because my ears were about to fall off my head.

Overall I sold over 2900 bagels this season, learned much about what sells and doesn't at the Market, and have gained regular customers and earned a good reputation.  

I will be at the Winter Market on Saturday the 13th, at the Knights of Columbus building in Lawrence.  I'll post more about this next week.  

No market for me this Saturday...

I'm feeling ill, and there is no way I'm going to handle over a hundred bagels destined for consumption by other people when I may have a stomach bug or food poisoning.  Sorry to all my regulars, but I think you'll forgive me for not wanting to spread the ick around.  See you next weekend, the final weekend until Winter/Christmas market.

Market Nearly Over

Only 2 more weekends before the Lawrence Farmer's Market is closed for the season.  I will be selling at the Winter Market in December, details to follow.  

As the weather cools and traffic at the Market slows down,  I've been downsizing the number of bagels I make for each weekend.  I peaked at somewhere around 16 dozen, but have been scaling back to the 12 dozen range as people are reluctant to get up early on a cold Saturday morning (I'm sure reluctant to do it).  

I am also considering doing some off-season bagel baking and local delivery, details and minimum order numbers to follow.

New and Improved Flavors!

After taking a weekend off (I was in St. Louis at a convention), I have returned with a new but evolving bagel flavor and an improvement on an existing bagel.

The new one is currently Tomato Basil with Feta, but will probably become the Italian Bagel with Sun Dried Tomato, Basil and Parmesan. The bagels are good, but it just doesn't carry the feta well enough for top billing. So I'll play with the tasty elements and make it worthy of the regular lineup.

The improved flavor is the Cherry Almond. A better dried cherry appears to be all this one needed. I also added some imitation almond extract, but the flavor doesn't shine through and will probably be left out of future batches.

Only about a month left of the Lawrence Farmer's Market.

2000th Bagel Sold!

This past weekend the 2000th bagel (normal size, didn't bother figuring in the large or giant bagels into the equation) was purchased by the daughter of a fellow Lawrence Farmer's Market vendor.  As a bonus for making this landmark purchase, she also received one of my giant everything bagels (has the same amount of dough as 6 regular bagels).  

So far this year I have used over 450 pounds of flour between all the bagels and breads made this season.