Winter Bread Share Signups, Gift Certificates!

Greetings Friends! We're signing up members for our 2012 Bread Share program and now have holiday Gift Certificates available, please read on for details!

2012 WINTER BREAD SHARES
Last year around this time we rolled out Albany's first Community Supported Bakery ("CSB") Winter Bread Share Program and we are now ready to offer Shares for 2012! Similar to a CSA where one pays for weekly produce at the beginning of the growing season, our Winter Bread Shares offer weekly pickup of sustainably produced, small-batch, artisan loaves in exchange for payment at the beginning of our program season.  Members are benefitted with larger Specialty Loaves than those sold retail, a reduced price on Daily Sandwich breads, a unique view of the evolvement of Nick's skills and talents throughout the winter, and greater involvement with those in our community who care about consuming Real Bread!  

Nick's Hearty Multigrain Loaf


Each single Share equals one loaf per week starting Sunday January 8, for 18 weeks, for $103.50. Multiple shares may be purchased, sign-up sheets are HERE!  We will only be accepting 30 members this year and have 6 previous members signed up so far.  The deadline for sign up is Sunday, December 18 - please consider confirming your spot right away as they are sure to go quickly.  We are offering Sandwich Loaves (Whole Wheat, Hearty Multigrain, Rye, Ciabatta) and "Baker's Pick" Specialty Loaves this year; pickups will be Sunday afternoons from 3pm - 6pm at the shop (160 A Quail St., Albany).



Matt B., last year: he couldn't wait to dig in!

 Last year, we prepared our locally-sourced breads and from-scratch baked goods for 49 CSB members who split 69 shares over 6 months, including 4 sponsored shares for Catholic Charities Mercy House Women's Shelter and Refugee Resettlement Program. We will be offering this option again for anyone to who would like to sponsor a full share of Weekly Healthy Bread to Catholic Charities for the season at the discounted rate of $90.00 for the season (please indicate your choice on your sign-up sheet). 

Our first season went incredibly well! There were two babies born and we formed long-term relationships with many of our members who have given us valuable feedback, the ability to open our storefront and were reponsible for us beginning to use all Organic Flours and much higher-quailty ingredients all around. We are eternally grateful for their encouragement and support over this last year as we have grown our little bakery! We hope you'll join us as we embark upon our second Community Supported Bakery Winter Bread Share Season!


HOLIDAY GIFT CERTIFICATESWe are offering Gift Certificates in just about any denomination that will be great gifts for those AGB lovers in your life!  Choose $5, $10, $15 or more - all certificates over $25 will receive an extra $5 on the certificate to be redeemed by your chosen recipient, the balance of which doesn't have to be used all at once and the certificates have no set expiration date.  Please email us, or see us in the shop or the Saturday Delmar Farmer's Market to pick one up.

NEWS
The Albany Wine and Dine for the Arts Fest is coming up January 12-14! Nick will be in the Rising Star Chef Pavilion and participating in the Slider Slam on Friday night. Get your tickets now!

Please let us know if you have any questions, we're happy to answer promptly.

Your bakers,
Britin & Nick Foster

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.

(More details about ingredients & such on our Facebook & web pages)

Hope you all are staying warm & well! As Shannon says in her interview, "Hope is a renewable resource."  We're already hoping for an early spring!

Your bakers,

Britin & Nick