Bread

 We all know that too much bread in one's diet can and is bad for one's health.  Who cares?  To have a fresh baked loaf of bread in front of you is a great thing.  I know that I could never be a baker by profession but home baking, for me, is very rewarding.  Bread baking is meditative for me and it's something that I really enjoy to do on my days off.  Something about the smell of the yeast blooming and the semi-crispy crust that crackles under the pressure of your hand is something that I really get into.  Bread making is a hobby of mine but I never thought that I would make bread to sell to others.

     October 2010, the 1st annual Taste of Place in Boulder took place.  My wife was the driving force for me to sign-up to sell my breads.  I thought about doing something like this but I never really pursued it.  When we first moved to Colorado, I had some difficulties in finding a good job.  With the little spare time that my wife had, she looked through ads to help me out.  That's when she stumbled across an ad that was calling for local artisans to sign up for this first annual event that was hosted by the Root Sellers, a local artisan group that focuses on local, sustainable products. 
     So, I bit the bullet and signed up.  Why the hell not right?  I did my research on making my breads that much better.  I experimented with different flours, sweeteners, fats, and pans.  I had about two months to get it together and get my breads where I felt comfortable with selling them to the public.  I'm sure my family grew tired of me feeding them bread after a while with all the test samples that I kept creating.  I got my recipes where I wanted, bought the packaging, and had a friend of ours create business cards for me.  I was ready.  I never did one of these events before so I had no idea on how much to make.
     This was the final list:
        -Honey Oat Wheat Bread
        -Light Rye Boule
        -Butter Yeast Rolls
        -Pumpkin Ginger Bread
        -Banana Bread

     It was great.  I never expected people to enjoy the bread as much as they did.  I set up a cutting board and sampled two of the breads and people started buying.  I finished the day with a couple hundred extra dollars in my pocket.  The great thing about it was, I didn't care about the money.  I enjoyed making all of that bread and participating at the event that the money was an added bonus.
     
     We'll get more into breads as we go along.  I'll definitely have more to say about this.