Building a Bakery

Figuring Out Flour

June 30 (flour)
Originally uploaded by romanlily

Since I got back from SFBI I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with my flour. Around the time I switched to organic unbleached flour back in November I’ve been struggling with pale loaves. We talked about this at school and I suspect that the organic flour might [...]


Bakery site is up!

Wow, lots of work lately in getting the oven up to speed and the loaves turning out on a semi-regular basis. I’ve set up a web site for the bakery to share what we’re doing, what bread is available, etc. Check it out!


Lund BC: worth it, if only for Nancy’s Bakery

This may well be the best bakery I’ve ever been to. The bread is good but not the best (Christies in Saskatoon is still #1) but the pastries, the lunches, the friendly staff and the amazing views are unbelievable.
You might think it crazy to drive 50km down a somewhat paved, very twisty road to visit [...]


Birds of a Feather

I just heard about two fellows on Gabriola Island BC who are building a commercial oven and hope to open a bakery this year. They started baking out of their homes two years ago, which is a pattern I want to emulate in Saskatchewan.
I hope to go see them as I’ll be out that [...]


First Bake!

I’ve got to post some pictures soon (sorry!) but I had to shout out. My Brick Oven is now a Bread Oven! Yippee!!
I fired up the oven on Sunday and baked three batches of bread: some french loaves, semolina bread and seven grain bread. It was quite the adventure since I [...]


Working “On” Your Business – The E-Myth Revisited

I just finished a pretty decent book called The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber. It helped me get my head around some misconceptions I had about running a small business.
The author really pushes building your business as if it is a prototype for a franchise, regardless of whether you will ever spin it [...]


But I Want To Follow Directions!!

I was reviewing recent posts at the brick oven list and there was a post from a fellow just starting his oven building journey. He’s going to be building a 5′x7′ oven based on Alan Scott’s plans and was frustrated that the number and type of blocks the plans called for is a [...]


Mixer Woes

The dough hook for my 20QT Hobart Mixer arrived this week so I’ve got the itch to do some large scale baking. I spent most of Friday giving the mixer a good clean. When I bought it it looked pretty clean already but once I got started I realized it was actually quite [...]