BEN'S BREAD-MAKING CAREER PART II

Word up Folks,

Time for another low down of how the empire's coming along.

Last Thursday I had a message from my buddy Jim who's in the Farmers Market Business - I'd been onto him about getting a pitch and at the last minute he offered me a spot for the next day. I couldn't say no, and had the benefit of knowing I could call upon the support of the muffin making duo Emily and Josh who are now on the scene. I started cracking at midnight, and worked flat out until 7 a.m. I made around 10 white loaves with olives, sun dried tomatoes, and sprigs of rosemary pushed into the top. I made 5 x pure wholemeal. I made some overnight sponge with walnut and raison, and I made a rye, wholemeal and white combination with sunflower and pumpkin.

It was clearly a pretty stressful undertaking. I even did my Level 1 Food Preparation exam online at about 4 a.m. I got mixes wrong and spent a fair bit of time cursing myself. My kitchen at home was floured! But by 7a.m. I had wiped the surfaces down, delivered a loaf to the neighbour below who I feared I had kept awake (she slept through) and was ready to leave when Josh came around at 8 a.m.

We set the stall up, photos attached, and the day went quite well although the clientele around Finsbury Square weren't ideal. The Celtic bakery were around the corner and had much more passing trade. I sold loaves here for around £3.50 for a 600 gram loaf. I think after expenses (congestion charge, seeds and olives, oil, flour), fortunatley jim let me off the £40 pitch fee - yep, I think I made about £35.....

The next day I had a stall at the local shop. So prepared sourdough and an overnight sponge which I took to the wood fired oven at 8 a.m. the next day. I've got much better at using the peel now, but the problem I'm having is that as I take the loaves from here to there, they cool down and don;t rose long enough before going in the oven - they're a bit small. Sales were okay, as it makes a big difference if the baker is with his bread. But it was a bit boring so I left after a few hours. Emily muffin was there with a cake providing some support.

That night we had a much more fun event. By chance the pub around the corner which is squatted was hosting it's first ever evening market a mixture of gig, pub, cocktail bar etc - basically a mini festival. I bought a really crazy sweatshirt which blew my profits but it went down well and we've been invited back and the plan will be to do soup and bread.

Today we toured some restaurants and cafes. picked up a couple of orders 2 loaves a week to one place and about 5 loaves a day to another - I took the 60/40 with seeds, a wholemeal and the sourdough - but I can see that the market we need is higher end restaurants, where the likes of Rhodes and Gails bakery are selling to. To dazzle these guys I suspect a website and business cards will be a more appropriate introduction than me rocking up with a cardboard box full of delicious bread. Altough will persevere with that.

Josh and Em have orders for banana cake and muffins at a few places as well now.

We're looking at how we could make this viable, and reckon if we do it togtether need to be selling about £500 a day, that could be in other types of food as well, and the premisses we use could possibly double up as a retail outlet. But it's daunting.

Well, if anyone fancies slinging some advice, that'd be great. Otherwise, hope you're enjoying chilled out baking. Rest assured I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't get a kick out of it. Just gotta meet the bills at some point.

Smiles.