ALL GOOD BAKERS: AGB Weekly Roundup

All Good has got so much good news to share this week, we thought we'd post a roundup!

First, and most importantly, we've finally got more local flour in our bakery. Our delivery this week from Champlain Valley Milling included locally-grown, organic Greenmarket All Purpose and Wheat flours. We've been occasionally using a local Stoneground white, but this is the first local flour in bulk we've received. We're very excited to begin using it and still working on the farm-source question. Here's a (long) discussion about local wheat if you're interested in knowing more about it and local bakers using it: http://www.valleytable.com/article.php?article=002+Features%2FHudson+Valley+wheat%2C+the+next+frontier

We've finalized our regular delivery of local free-range eggs this week. Our friends from our days at the New Baltimore Farmer's Market, Ross & Liz of Raven's Roost Farms (in NB) will be driving up to exchange bread for eggs every two weeks. Ross & Liz are prime examples of our area's small working farmers and they "strive to be wise stewards of the land". They raise a small number of grass-fed lambs & pastured poultry, and Liz spins & felts beautiful wool (our daughter has one of her hats). Their animals are fed without the use of pesticides. Raven's Roost is a member of the Delmar Farmer's Market now, please plan to stop and see them once we open again in Spring.

We (and other Delmar Market vendors) are working with market member Cheryl Franzten of Franzten's Scenic Acres (http://www.frantzensscenicacres.com/) to organize a monthly drop-off in Delmar of various farm and other agricultural products. If you don't currently have a source for humanely-raised organic chicken, grass-fed beef & pork, eggs, locally-sourced baked goods and other fresh foods, please email Cheryl with your interest. (frantzenc@msn.com) First drop-off should be in a couple of weeks. More small farmers & producers are coming together to pave their own way!

Dan Livingston, the food coordinator for the Northeastern Organic Farmer's Association conference in Saratoga January 21-23, in search of a local bakery, Googled "Albany organic bread" and called us a few days ago! We've been commissioned for 84 dozen hamburger/sandwich buns (1008 to be exact). They've got great wheat connections in NY so we'll be starting a dialogue soon with them about that and Dan helps distribute local farm stuffs in Binghamton via an online Farmer's Market there. https://www.nofany.org/events/winter-conference

We've become proud sponsors of Tri-City Trad's Jam & Sing Thing January 14, 15 & 16 at the Christ United Methodist Church in Troy (35 State St.). We'll be providing our Vegan Cornbread for Saturday night's dinner, personal 8 oz loaves of bread for lunches and Vegan Cinnamon Buns for breakfast. Our CSB members Jen & Fritz Stafford are organizing this (sure to be very cool) event. The Jam & Sing is "A weekend of jamming, singing, and celebrating the wonderful genres of traditional music together." Mark your calender and join the fun! http://2011jamsingthing.webs.com/

If you read our last blog post, you know our 5 Daily Breads are now available from the Heldeberg Market, Albany's Online Farmer's Market. Be sure to get your orders in by Tuesday nights! http://www.heldebergmarket.com/HeldebergMarket/All_Good_Bakers.html

Britin was pre-interviewed by Cory at Dick Gordon's "The Story" (a radio show broadcast on various NPR stations). Mr. Gordon interviewed Shannon Hayes this week for his series on people who have made big changes in their lives. I wrote on their Facebook page how Shannon's story & book ("Radical Homemakers") inspired us to live less of a mainstream lifestyle, there may or not be a follow-up interview - guess it depends on how interesting they find our story! Listen to Shannon's fascinating interview here: http://thestory.org/archive/The_Story_010311_Full_Story.mp3/view.

And finally, our camera is working again! Here are some recent photos of our breads & baked goods.