Happy New Year from All Good

We've been taking a much-needed break over the holidays and hope you've had at least some relaxing time to yourselves too.  Nick and I do everything ourselves (baking & delivering are really the last component, there's a lot of business planning, contact cultivating, marketing & creative effort that comes first). The last several, thankfully busy, months have left us needing a little recuperation and family time.  Time at home, often by the fire doing projects with our little family has been welcomed with gratefulness.  Not to say we haven't still been working!  We've got some exciting plans in store, for the far and immediate future, but we're not quite ready to share everything yet as they are still in various processes of development. 

A few tidbits we can let you in on:

Our most recent delivery of flour from Champlain Valley Milling included an organic NY-grown (and milled) all-purpose white/wheat! We'll start using it next week as soon as our supply of other AP runs out.  Strangely (we thought), Champlain Valley said they weren't able to share the name of the wheat farm with us.  We ordered the flour anyway and will soon be asking them why they aren't giving out that information.  We like to verify exactly where our ingredients are coming from and we look for supporting information that the farms in question follow organic, organic-practices, or certified naturally grown guidelines.  We'll keep you posted on developments.

We tried a new muffin this week, Spiced Apple Butter, made with our own CSB member Jen Stafford's homemade apple butter!  With a moist center of whole wheat flour, oatbran, apple cider, rapadura sugar, Siggi's yogurt, maple syrup & crunchy topping of strudel and finely chopped walnuts.  Since we only had one member who asked for muffins this week and I'm all about quality control, one was consumed warm, another after the insides had some time to set properly.  We've got some delicious muffins, but this one really exceeded my expectations.  Taking a moment in our cozy bakery to savor the fruits of our labor is an enjoyable task.

I was asked recently to share the story of how our Community Supported Bakery came about by Homegrown.org, Farm Aid's online community website.  I've written professionally in an administrative environment and here on our blog, but this is my first, real, published article!  Read more about it here: http://homegrown.org/blog/2010/12/all-good-bakers-a-community-supported-bakery/

Some of our fans know that we drive a bright yellow 1978 Volkswagen Bus (Daisy).  Maybe you've seen us around town?  She was acting up last Wednesday (our CSB delivery day, crisis!) and had to spend some time in our driveway.  Luckily, we have a friend who is a fellow bus owner with loads of spare parts and repair experience - he fixed a blown fuse in minutes!  We'd like to give a big shout out to Jules Herr for coming to All Good's rescue.  Give him a honk and a peace sign if you see his '74 Orange Westy driving by!  Some other friends, Megan & Tom offered us the use of their extra car during the crisis (it's got heat! Which Daisy lacks - so we're going to hold on to it for a little bit, that heat is a luxury).  We couldn't have completed our deliveries without these people willing to lend a helping hand.  Daisy's all fixed up and don't worry, she'll be back on the road when some of that rust-eroding salt clears up.

(That's Nick laying down on a much warmer day than today.)

More exciting opportunities are on our horizon!  The first being a pot-luck tonight where we're sure to be fed well in good company.  We hope you all have an equally peaceful, safe and satisfying New Year Celebration.

Britin (& Nick)

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