Shop News: More Croissants, Lunch Items & New: Seasonal Tarts!

Happy Summer Solstice AGB Fans!  We spent the Solstice camping and brainstorming new menu items that we want to share with you.

But first: Big Croissant News! 

These are made....

with this!

Our faithful sidekick (and CIA graduate), Molasses Meg, and I are beginning the process this week of learning how to make Nick's traditional French Croissants ($2.00-2.50) so that we can offer them to you on Saturdays, in the shop AND at the Delmar Farmers Market!  Seriously disappointed faces in search of our croissants have greeted us in Delmar these past few weeks, so we're figuring out how to turn those frowns upside down.  We'll start offering Chocolate Croissants as well this weekend (as requested, at both locations) and will come up with other delectable flavors as time goes on.  Hopefully it won't take us more than a couple of weeks (under Nick's careful tutelage) to perfect the process and the quality won't suffer from our inexperience.  Did you know they are made with chemical and hormone-free Meadowbrook milk & cream, rBGH-free butter from The Country Creamery in Canastota, and organic flour from Central New York?  Provided our preparations don't go horribly awry, we'll be bringing croissants to Delmar this weekend and they will be available in the shop Saturdays and Sundays going forward as well.

Hooray! Summer is officially here!
It brings with it all sorts of new fresh vegetables from local farms, 
so we are increasing our sandwich options. 
(Weekly specials are posted on our Facebook page.)

{special in-shop offer} This Weekend:
Purchase a sandwich or a full salad
and receive 1/2 off a dessert or baked good!
(just tell us you read this post)

Grilled Cheese Sliders with R&G cheese & local micro-greens.

To help celebrate and support our local farmers, we'll start by adding a Vegan Sandwich Special ($4.00-5.00) to our menu each weekend.  Our friends over at Farmer Jon's Produce in Selkirk are visiting the bakery tomorrow with a delivery of freshly picked, sustainable vegetables.  We're excited to see what Jon & DJ have coming up that they haven't brought to the markets yet!  Nick will decide on this week's new vegan sandwich special then and we'll get that info to you asap on Thursday via Facebook.  Please spread the word to your vegan friends.

Our other two Weekly Sandwich Specials are a Grilled Vegetarian ($4.00-$5.00 with local produce & cheeses), and Gourmet Grilled Cheese ($3.00 "Not Just Lot Food Anymore!").  For the grilled vegetarian sandwich this weekend, Nick is preparing a trio of sliders - each slider will be different, particulars to follow after farmers' visit.  In-house sandwiches are served with a micro-salad to balance your palate.  All Sandwiches are available in-house or to-go (wrapped in our compostable, biodegradable parchment).

We are adding a Salad Special to our roster: each weekend, Nick will prepare a Panzanella Salad with Fresh, Seasonal ingredients ($4-4.50, depending on ingredients) that you can take with you or enjoy in the bakery.  We also prepare a Foccacia Pizza ($2.50-3.00 per slice) every weekend; again, with local produce & cheeses  - see a pattern here? 

Pizza Margherita with fresh basil, local hydroponic tomatoes and R&G fresh mozzarella.

We're close to the hospitals, campuses and downtown - just 2 blocks off Central Ave (turn at the Linda, we're on the left just after Washington Ave. at 160 Quail St.). 
Come to All Good Bakers for an affordable, healthy, sustainable lunch!

Our Storefront, 160 A Quail St, corner of Spring between Washington & Western.

A few other Summer Solstice changes and options:

• Starting this weekend, Nick is going to begin baking more "Specialty" loaves in the shop; he'll be focusing less on our "daily" loaves and more on bringing you a better variety of interesting combinations.
• Meg is preparing two varieties of Individual Fruit Tarts for us this weekend (available at the shop & the market): Lemon or Peach Raspberry - with organic fruits and handmade crusts! ($3.00-4.00, fruits local if we can get 'em organic and in season).  We going to start offering you more light, seasonal desserts now that summer is here.  If the tarts go over well, we'll prepare them regularly.
• There are a few items we're offering a discount on if you purchase in larger quantity: Baguettes are 2 for $5.00, Bialys 4 for $5.00 and Biscotti is 6 for $6.00.
• We hope to start adding homemade, seasoned croutons soon.

If you enjoy our offerings,
please bring a friend with you when you visit! 
And ask them to bring a friend along, too while you're at it.  Our "word of mouth" reputation is growing, but (we won't lie) we could use your help bringing more people into the bakery on a regular basis. Remember, everything we serve, WE make in-house with the freshest, hyper-local, sustainable ingredients (with the help of aforementioned sidekick).  

Our new "outdoor cafe" is open, more fresh vegetables are coming in every week, we believe in what we're doing, and we are loving life running our own small business.  We hope you'll encourage the people in your circle to come see what we're all about.  All Good is open Fridays 11-6, Saturdays 10-4 and Sundays 10-2 (with Quiche, Croissants, French Toast and other brunch specialties).  Those of you who are observant may have noticed, we decided to open an hour earlier on Saturdays!  A minor expansion, granted, but hopefully it will allow more of you to stop by the shop during your Saturday morning routine.

We look forward to seeing our regulars this weekend and hopefully meeting lots of new faces!

Your bakers,

Britin (and Nick) Foster

The Trinity

Britin has been the driving force behind the logistical nightmare of getting our shop opened to the public.  Prodding various media sources to come check us out, Britin...Figuring out which permits we need, Britin...Accounting...Britin.  Blogging, Britin again.  So I (Nick) am going to write a blog post!!...whatever that is.

During this whirlwind of activity, sometimes I feel like I'm just the driver and "that guy who bakes all the bread".  I've never been much of a talker which is why Britin handles all of the business stuff (she has a great personality for that).  AND, when it comes to writing...I'm a really good baker!  That being said, she has asked me to write, so write I will.  But...what do I write about?  What hasn't been said?  We've covered the flour, the donations, a little of our history.  So, how do I keep this interesting without straying too far from the topic of All Good Bakers?  Yes, the shop is open and I could tell you all about ordering fiascoes I face, trying to gauge how much product to stock...bboooorrriiiinnngg!!  Instead, I will use my time in this sleep deprived state to do what I do best in my sleep deprived states...go on a rant about my 3 true loaves...I mean loves :) (other than my family and friends, of course) which I will refer to as "The Trinity".

1- Good bread                                                      2- Good beer 

3- Phish!

I can tie these things together somehow...really...

Bread can take on many forms but can usually be boiled down to a couple of key ingredients.  A grain (or several), yeast, salt, and water.  From Wikipedia, bread is defined as: "Food made of flour, water, and yeast or another leavening agent, mixed together and baked."...uuhhh, is it just me, or is this the worst definition in the history of definitions?  This makes my job sound like I'm just throwing a bunch of stuff in a bowl, baking it and saying "SHAZAM!!  BREAD!"   These ingredients can be manipulated in a number of different ways to completely change the end result.

Beer is the same thing.  A few key ingredients...malted grain, hops, yeast and water.  Let's see what an online dictionary has to say about beer, shall we?  "1. An alcoholic drink made from yeast-fermented malt flavored with hops."...WOW!  Now that sounds interesting, doesn't it?  I take back what I said about the bread definition...this is just a load of poo.  Any true enjoyer (yes, I invented a new word) of beer OR bread knows that these components are there and necessary, but are not the things that send chills up your spine or make your eyes roll back in your head.  A good sample of either will surely make you do so.

Now, what happens when we wiki Phish?  From "Wiki":
"Phish is an American rock band noted for its musical improvisation, extended jams, exploration of music across genres and devoted fan base. Formed at the University of Vermont in 1983 (with the current line up solidifying in 1985), the band's four members - Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon, Jon Fishman, and Page McConnell -- performed together for over 20 years before breaking up in August 2004. They reunited March 2009 at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia, and have since resumed performing regularly."

It goes on...WOW!  Wikipedia's definition of Phish is longer than the definitions of beer AND bread together!!  While it may be longer, it still doesn't do the phenomenon any justice.

I was first introduced to Phish in high school in the early nineties by a friend who's sister would always disappear for weeks on end to a mysterious place called "tour".  "Hey, Zach, where's your sister?"  "Oh, she's on tour."  I would just say OK like I knew what he was talking about, for fear of sounding like an idiot.  The same friend played me Phish and I immediately went out and bought the album Rift.  My initial reaction was, "Whoa!  this is NOT the music I'm used to!  No simple chord progressions, little form and yet, it all came together beautifully and ALWAYS put a big smile on my face.  I only later learned that Phish and this thing called "tour" were connected and never got to go on aforementioned tour as a youngun.  Now I have responsibilities (a child, a wife, A BAKERY!) and tour is a pipe dream.  I can still, however, fire up the oven, pop open in ice cold IPA, crank up a good show from the days of yore and dance around my kitchen like an idiot doing my 3 favorite things.  Only problem is, these days I get injured while doing so.

So...bread, beer, and Phish all have a few main ingredients to start it all out...but lets be honest, Budweiser is no Lagunita's Hop Stoopid!  Freihoffer's is no Placid Baker or Rock Hill (or us, for that matter, thankyouverymuch).  And no studio recording of Phish could ever compare to the collective feeling of release when the band goes off to some other worldly place in the middle of a jam and comes back to where they started, sending 20,000 plus people into a phrenzy!  That being said...even the studio albums are good so I can't really compare Lawn Boy to Wonder Bread, can I?  I suppose this means, that the words of my friend Ian ring true..."Phish always wins". 


I'm letting you in on my Phish obsession because I told Britin that if we opened up our shop before the start of summer tour, that we would have to close up at least one weekend so that we can attend one show this year together.  Memorial Day weekend, Phish happens to be playing in Bethel, NY AND it's Britin's 40th birthday.  Yep, I said 40, as of Saturday, I'll officially be married to an over the hiller.  We'll be incorporating each component of the Trinity that weekend: We'll be OPEN Friday the 27th (11-6) so you can get your weekly breads and baked goods, then Britin and I are "Goin' Phishin'" Saturday and Sunday where there's sure to be lots of quality IPAs, and we can get our groove on before the Delmar Farmers Market begins the Saturday after (June 4).  I'll be manning the shop while Britin goes to the market every Saturday thereafter.

It all starts when a seed  is planted.  Whether it's hops, barley, wheat, the high note that Trey hits at the peak of YEM, or the first time you heard a funky Page solo in the song Maze.  All of these things can eventually lead you to dance uncontrollably like an idiot in a wild state of euphoria and ultimately collapse on the sofa with your head spinning.  There you have it, folks!  The holy phreaking trinity from the eyes of a true baker.  These things cannot be defined...just like God...or Lady Gaga.

Your baker,
Nick (a.k.a., "Captain Sparky")

Community Supported Bakery

It all started with a desire to bring our community fresh, healthy breads - and a broken ankle.

We (Nick and Britin Foster) have been participating bakers in regional farmer's markets for the past 6 years. We started out at the tiny St. James Church Tuesday market on Delaware Avenue and got invited to New Balitmore's Saturday market by some farmer friends (Sam & Chris of Otter Hook) a couple of years later.  Last winter we decided we were ready to grow so we joined the Delmar Saturday Farmer's Market.  We've experienced success there and are now the only bread vendors.

For a while we've been bouncing around ideas on how to continue serving our customers during the winter months when our Farmer's Market wasn't operating and how to bake with primarily local, organic ingredients on a shoestring budget.  The other nearby winter markets felt too big for us, were too far away (with a '78 VW bus our only vehicle) and were cost prohibitive, not to mention the abundance of talented bakers already in place at the markets in Troy, Schenectady & Saratoga.  With a young daughter, finding quiet time to meditate on life's challenges is always in short supply.

During the summer of 2010, in what we think of as a stroke of good luck, Britin broke her ankle (nothing extreme - just embarrassing, picking up a toy from the front yard).  Nick moved into triple time caring for our daughter, working at the Honest Weight Food Co-op and baking for the market.  Britin accumulated some quiet time and happened to be reading 3rd generation Upstate NY farmer Shannon Hayes' book "Radical Homemakers".  Our family strongly feels the need to become more self sufficient, to further build relationships with our local farmers, and to contribute to our community in a positive way using the skills we have developed in life.

Our passion for baking, combined with the inspiration of others' stories about becoming more connected with their food sources, and time to talk through burgeoning ideas, yielded Albany's first Community Supported Bakery!  Our mission is to bake affordable, healthy bread (with only organic, locally milled flours) and from-scratch baked goods with high-quality, primarily organic materials from local farms and businesses.

Our inaugural CSB season began November 3, 2010 and runs through April 27, 2011.  Members can choose which bread and/or baked goods they want every week, beginning at $6.00 per week and we accept special orders.  We have pickup locations on Wednesday nights from 5-7pm in Albany & Delmar.   Our website has all the specific information.

We started renting a small kitchen on Quail St. this month.  The space has a tiny retail area that we hope to open within the next several months.  We've got big plans but realize they must be undertaken in small steps.  Until we can open up, if you'd like to stop by the Delmar Farmer's Market (Saturdays 9-1, inside the Bethlehem Middle School cafeteria through December 18), we'd love to meet you.  You can also still join our CSB.  We are taking pro-rated memberships now and your support will help us bring more people in our community affordable, fresh, healthy bread.

Your bakers,
Britin & Nick