Hi Lewis,
Our farm is definitely very far from a large population. In fact, our nearest neighbor is several miles away. However, there are numerous little towns around here and absolutely nowhere to buy freshly baked bread of any kind. That's where we come in!
Our bread bakery is going to be strictly wholesale. Since there will be no retail outlet, locating it right here on the farm made the most sense. We plan to bake bread twice a week and deliver it to nearby ('nearby' being a relative term) restaurants and retail locations. We have a circular route mapped out of about 150 miles that will take us through 7 or 8 towns of various sizes.
The few people and business owners we've told about our bakery are very excited, and we have high hopes for filling a much needed niche in the area. Of course our plans may change entirely once we're up and running, but no matter what happens, we're both really looking forward to making this dream come true! : )
Hi SRHCB,
Ha ha, you may be onto something regarding the completion date of our building project getting pushed further and further back. The guys were supposed to build a horse barn before starting work here, but there was some kind of delay so they said they could work a couple of weeks here and then come back when the horse barn was finished.
Then they got here and found themselves working indoors with XM radio and plenty of baked goods. The one time we brought up the horse barn project, they gave some vague answer about them not even having all the materials yet. This was weeks ago. Today we mapped out the general timeline for the rest of the work here, and there was no mention at all of the horse barn. I can only hope those horses have some other place to spend the winter! ; )
Hi Miss Kitty,
LOL it sounds like your mom did exactly what we didn't. When Joe first moved to the farm, the plan was to tear down The Shack and build a 'real' house as soon as possible. It was in pretty bad shape.
But then all the available funds went towards animal type stuff--you know, fencing, shelters, feed, and basically trying to stay afloat keeping livestock. So seventeen years of living in it later. . . And of course you can never rationalize spending much money fixing the place up since you know you're going to tear it down. Plus it's one of those things where if you make one improvement, the rest of the place looks even worse! ; )
I know what your mom means about the ease and convenience of a new house. We're going to be so spoiled with this place. Right now our lives are held together with duct tape, clothespins, extension cords, and all the buckets and tubs we keep out to catch the rain that falls in the house. Already we're having trouble truly comprehending the idea of ceiling lights wherever we want them, let alone central heating!
Hi Linda Sue,
This is all very exciting. Things are moving so fast now we're in sort of a state of shock. We might actually be moving in a matter of months. This morning Joe called to order 54 (!!) rolls of insulation to hopefully be delivered next week. Before he was even done on the phone they'd started loading it onto the truck and they were here a couple of hours later.
As far as the "as long as. . . we might as well" thing, I hear you on that. Fortunately we're pretty much doing everything from scratch so there isn't much else we could add, LOL.
Hi Steven,
Great to hear from you. I owe you an email or two. Learning all this building stuff has actually been pretty interesting. Hopefully, though, we won't be having to go through all this ever again. ; )
Hi foodhuntress,
Welcome to the farm! Thanks so much for taking the time to write and say hello. Until you're actually living your dream life, you're welcome to e-visit as much as you like--it's all of the farm fun (and craziness) and none of the work!
Hi Bgina,
Great to hear from you. I'll email you soon.
Hi B,
The dogs ate your rosemary bush? And I thought my dogs were destructive, LOL. As far as a substitute for the rosemary in this bread, I've been racking my brain and haven't come up with one yet. Of course I'm not very imaginative when it comes to cooking with herbs. I'm sure you could use dried rosemary in a pinch--just add a bit less. And you could always simply make it without any, but I think that subtle hint of rosemary is what makes the bread really special. Sorry I'm not more help!
Hi The Dame,
Thanks so much. I'm hoping to have more updates soon, too!
Hi Zanne,
Thanks for the support and the smile. Ha ha, 'major fresh herb operation'--I love it. And I think you'll love this bread!
Hi Lydia,
You renovated an entire house and three kitchens and lived to tell about it? You are much braver than I am. I can't wait to see photos of the finished bakery either! : )
Hi STC,
Wow, I'm amazed that I've managed to come across as organized (and my mother and Joe will be even more amazed when they read this, LOL). Honestly (and why I'm being honest about this I have no idea) my recipes are a mess. I'm a recipe hoarder, so besides my oodles of cookbooks I've squirrelled away countless magazines and probably a couple of thousand recipe clippings.
I have dozens of file folders that are sort of helpful, and at one point I actually used to put little sticky notes in magazines with the name of the recipe written on each one. But the only place my recipes are really easy to navigate is online. Anytime I see one that catches my eye I save it to del.icio.us (click here to see my stash). In about five seconds you can install a tab thingie so that you can save a recipe (or any web page) with one click, and then you can give it all sorts of labels to make it easier to find. I highly recommend it!
Hi Annie,
Thanks. Well, Joe says we're going to have to tear down The Shack, because it really is falling down around us. But I'm hoping that we'll be able to save the older (really scary) half--it's a log cabin (hidden under rotting wood siding) that's about 150 years old and used to be a general store. I have dreams of restoring it, but I'm afraid that may be only a dream. You never know, though. Besides, razing this place will make a huge mess! ; )
Hi Almost Vegetarian,
A hot cup of tea and a warm slice of bread sounds like perfection to me. : )
Hi Junglegirl,
I loved reading your comment. Your mother sounds wonderful. And I can't believe people don't feed you! That is such a shame. Your timing is perfect, too. This afternoon I was apologizing to the guys because I'd meant to give them some banana cake to take home and instead of mixing up the cream cheese frosting (and doing various other things), I spent a couple of hours chasing down some extremely wayward donkeys instead (we're talking miles from the farm). They (the builders, not the donkeys) were very understanding. The good news is that the sourdough onion rye I started this morning took much longer than expected to ferment which worked out perfectly with the donkey chasing schedule. And now I'd better go get it into the oven--and get us fed some back-up bread instead!
Hi Christine,
So nice to hear from you. Thank you and you're welcome!
