While opening a bakery seems to be a dream to many people, and most days we feel very lucky to be doing what we're doing, running a small, family business has its share of turmoil. It's a constant race to form a team of people that can make our vision a reality before we crash, burn and suffer severe emotional trauma.
We're lucky to have a team of young, talented bakers. We have a great crew working with Cindy and me, but change still happens:
-
in September, our friend and co-worker Kim moved to Vancouver to attend Pastry and Culinary School. We are very hopeful she will come back to work with us when she graduates in a year. We stopped short of holding her favourite slippers hostage, but I would've if I thought it might help!
-
in October, we were thrilled to welcome back Teisha, our 2011 summer intern, to become a full time bread baker. Teisha moved to Regina from her hometown of Calgary after graduating from the Pastry Arts program at SAIT. She is very talented with bread dough and has a lot of ideas; we've already started experimenting with new loaves to share with you.
-
Sadly, just as we thought we had our Christmas plans in order, our bread baker Ethan has resigned to pursue a new path in the hospitality industry. Ethan has been a big part of the team for over a year now and I really hoped he would decide to turn pro and go further with bread. But it's not to be. We're sad to see him go but hope he finds joy in his new job.
Up front, we now know what it's like to be a University Registrar as we juggle staffing around the class schedules of Emma, Reid, Libby, Haley and Ben. Cindy writes the schedule firmly in pencil and we do our best. But it's worth it because these five fine folks do an excellent job describing our products and serving customers. They are a joy to work with and bring a high level of energy to the shop.
We've never had a stronger team of bakers, but it's a little small these days. I hope to expand by 1-2 bakers over the coming months if we can find the right people with the right mix of skills and enthusiasm (especially enthusiasm!)