I need a better way of getting out of bed in the morning. My relationship with the snooze button has become unhealthy. I know, I know, in my logical, waking brain that those eight or twenty-four or fifty-six minutes (yes, embarrassingly, I've done that), are better spent on getting ready for the day than on jerking in and out of dreams at eight minute intervals, but my half-asleep brain will use almost any excuse to stay put. Does anyone have a favorite trick for circumventing a lack of get-out-of-bed self-discipline?
Despite all evidence to the contrary, I love early mornings. I love the time just after dawn, when the sky is still white at the edges and I can sit in the kitchen with a mug of tea, listening to the crows through the open window, the whole day stretched out before me. That first hour is all possibility. But since I spent too much time flirting with the snooze button this morning, there's no time to sit quietly with the crows. I need to go pick blackberries to finish off todays Double Trouble Blackberry Tart (Cooked and fresh berries! Brown butter crust! Honey drizzled on top!), and finish packing up the pastries for market. Also on the sweet side of the menu: basil cream and peach tarts. And the savory specials are a malted German rye (100% rye, for those of you who've been patiently waiting), and cheesy garden pesto rolls. If you didn't open yesterdays Prologue email, the gist of it was that I'll be gone next Saturday, and to make up for it am taking orders for Wednesday pickup. Three pickup locations. Nearly a full menu of bread and pastry to pick from. Download the order formHERE and return it to me by Monday, or fill out a copy at the market. Blackberry time. Later gators. Sophie I'll be missing market a week from Saturday to attend the Grain Gathering, a three day annual conference for bread and grain nerds of all stripes. To compensate for this farmers market failure, I'm taking preorders for bread and pastry, to be picked up Wednesday. Orders are due by Monday morning, and though I'll have copies of the order sheet at the market this weekend, I realized that for those of you who will miss the market, a Saturday email might come too late. So, take a look at the order sheet below, and download a copy HERE. Or pick up and fill out a copy tomorrow. Ok. Off to the kitchen. Until Saturday!
SophieWEDNESDAY 7/27 ORDER FORM (to make up for the missed market Saturday 7/30) NAME: _____________________________ EMAIL: ____________________________ BREAD ___ Mountain Rye ($7) ___ Rosemary Sea Salt ($7) ___ Black Sesame ($8) PASTRY ___ Bittersweet Chocolate Cookie ($2) ___ Malted Chocolate Chip Cookie ($2) ___ Sourdough Buckwheat Scone w/ Rasperries ($4) ___ Brown Butter Shortbread ($1.50 or $8 / half dz) ___ Blackberry Peach Turnover ($5) GRANOLA ___ Royal ($8.50) ___ Farmstead ($6.50) TOTAL: $_____ PICKUP LOCATION (Wednesday 6/27) ___ Fairhaven Farmers Market (12pm – 5pm) ___ 1313 N State St (12pm – 8pm) ___ My front porch in Sunnyland (all day) (further details with your reminder email on Tuesday) Orders and payment due by 10am on Monday, 7/25. Checks can be made out to Raven Breads. Direct any questions to Sophie at ravenbreads@gmail.com / (206) 484-7089 I find myself too sticky-eyed and potato-brained to pull up any interesting musings this morning, or really any thoughts at all, so I'm going to stick to the facts:
Today's bread experiment is a garden pesto twist. I should have taken a picture, but by the time the loaves came out of the oven the light was already gone, and I couldn't face the horror of fluorescent food photography. I also have Mountain Rye, Rosemary Sea Salt, and Red & White, of course. And this week's seasonal pastry delights are buckwheat peach galettes, and lime curd & fresh blueberry tarts. And finally, if you like your granola dark, I have an over-baked batch I'll be selling by the pound and more or less at cost. Bring a bag and stock up. I'll be gone for a few Saturdays later this summer, and was thinking about having bread and pastry to order earlier in the week for all those who can't make the Wednesday farmers market. Which is pretty much everyone with a job. Is that something you'd be interested in? All right. I'm going to go stare blankly at a cup of tea for a bit instead of at this computer screen. I'll be more alert by the time I get to market, but you should still perhaps count your change. Basic arithmetic sometimes eludes me on these zombie mornings. See you soon. Sophie I love the exuberance of all the fruiting and flowering plants this time of year, their enthusiasm so explosive it bursts out in reds and yellows and vibrant violets. Who needs fireworks when we have such a wealth of flowers? Even from here, sitting at inside at a desk on this early grey morning, the nasturtiums and scarlet runner beans crawling up the trellis outside the window are as cheerful as sunshine. This also means we're in the season of abundant fruit. I have cases of apricots ripening in the kitchen that I've been turning into preserves, dried fruit, and beautiful pastries. The flat of raspberries I picked up at the market got rolled into this week's sourdough buckwheat scones. There's peach & earl grey jam cooling on the counter beside a bowl of blueberries. We are surrounded by such riches! Speaking of riches (sort of), I've decided it's time that I get rich. Well, not really, but I have decided, after much hand wringing and internal debate, that I can't put off raising bread prices any longer. I love making you hand mixed and shaped, long-fermentation, organic, sourdough breads with locally milled flour, but it's an expensive and labor intensive process. It's time and past for my prices to reflect something of that reality. Plus, if you didn't notice, I increased my loaf sizes by a third at the beginning of the year (at 720 g they're definitely the biggest bread in Bellingham!). Starting next week, bread prices will go up $1 per loaf.
But for one more week you can get your Mountain Rye, Red & White, Rosemary Sea Salt, and Black Sesame breads at the market for the shockingly low price of $6-$7! See you soon. Sophie |
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