Back to Baking

I admittedly digressed a bit this week on this blog. Another busy week baking to get ready for Saturday at Byron Center. I again increased my amounts of bread – if everything goes as planned tonight I will have around 50 loafs of bread – both big and small to bring. 3 of them have been specially ordered, so they will be delivered separately, but still it will be a lot of bread. I am hoping for a good day at the market. The weather tomorrow is forecasted to be a bit cooler, but sunny. After all these weeks of hot weather I am looking forward to needing to wear jeans. Hopefully others will want to go out and enjoy the weather with a stop at the Farmers Market.

Location Update - I am going to have a new spot at the Byron Center Farmer's Market this week. I am not sure where yet, but if you have stopped by before I will not be in the same place. If you have not stopped by before, I have the tan canopy.

Tropical Storm Erin Forms - Gulf Gets Ready for Lashing

This was one of my favorite headlines today. I have to admit I still get excited about Erin being chosen as one of the official tropical cyclone names. I blame some of this on my childhood, my older sister had the most popular name of decades and everywhere you turned her name was the example – named stickers, pencils, embroidered bags, blankets, characters in books, movies, songs… Meanwhile my name as never that popular and I was at the beginning of it being a female name. Plus technically “Erin” is not my name, mine is “Erinn” which meant it was impossible to find anything with my name on it unless it was specially ordered. Nevertheless I will accept this alternate spelling for this purpose. I also claim that I missed my calling as a meteorologist. I love weather. So this culmination of a major weather event being called by my name is thrilling to me.
Currently the lists of names used for these storms are rotated on a 6 years basis with names being retired if they reach a monumental or catastrophic level i.e. Andrew, Katrina. So far pervious storms named Erin have not been significant, although in 1995 Hurricane Erin did make landfall around Gulf Shores, Al. I joking said I need to make up t-shirts that said “I survived Hurricane Erin.” Maybe in 2013?

Downtown Grand Rapids?

Last week I was downtown for lunch with friends and to our surprise we saw this car. Not only was the adornment on the car surprising, but the location – right by the Arena in GR. It would be one thing if we were in Sparta or Hastings, but not in the “big city” :)



While the picture itself is blog worthy the following response from a unnamed source whose job it is to know Michigan laws concerning motor vehicles makes it even more humorous. When asked if this was legal this was the response -
“Why wouldn’t it be? As long as you have two functioning rearview mirrors and they are properly secured to the vehicle, I think it is fine. Tacky yet fine.”
So if I understand this correctly I can mound anything I want to the back of my car as long as I have two functioning rearview mirrors that are properly secured. Hmmm….

Sizzling Saturday

Saturday was another hot day – both the weather and my sales. I ended up only making a little more for this week. I had a very busy week and basically did all my baking on Friday night, I think it was around 2 am when I finally loaded up my car to head home for a very short night. I ended up with a few more loaves of bread and added cupcakes to the mix. Here is what my tables looked like when I arrived.

The market was a bit slower then last week. My theory is the heat – it was a hot one. I usually start out my mornings in a fleece and some weeks I am in it most of the morning. Saturday I never even put it on. It was hot, humid and no breeze – not a lot of fun. By 11 or 11:30 things were noticeable slow. Someone also mentioned this was the last weekend before all the school sports practices and other activities began, so people were taking a last weekend away. Whatever the cause the other vendors mentioned their sales were down. Here is a picture of my tables at the end.

As you can see I didn’t sell out of everything, but just about. I ended up making $2 less then last week – so even if this was a slow week I did great again. My bread sold out again by 11:00 or so, which means I obviously need to make more bread. This week is considerable slower for me, so I will for sure make more bread and see how it goes next week, also hoping for a cooler day or at least a breeze.

Friday already!

Another week has flown by and it is already Friday afternoon. I will be at the Byron Center farmers’ marker tomorrow from 8 am to 1 pm. I am planning on taking a bit more then last week and adding cupcakes to the mix. Hopefully this week with be as successful as last week. I am also hoping to take some pictures tomorrow of the new market – to spice up the blog a bit. J I am hoping for a full table “before” picture and an empty table “after” picture.

Stop by if you are in the area.

SOLD OUT

Yes you read that correctly, I sold out, sold everything I had with me. The Byron Center Market is really nice and busy! I really liked it and I am planning on going there from now on.

I had actually made a bit more then I usually do – so I had 18 packages of cookies, 16 brownies, 24 congo bars, 21 small loaves of bread, and 11 large loaves of bread when I arrived and nothing when I left. :) Money wise I made more today then I have in the past 3 weeks combine!! (I am not at all excited here :) ) I am already trying to decided how much more to bring next week. I am going to incrementally increase. I am also thinking I am going to try cupcakes next week.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by – Joel, Brenda, and Emma, Terri, Beth, Shana and Jason – it was good to see you all and chat for a minute. It is so nice to see a familiar face.

Change in Venue

I am excited to announce that I will be at the Byron Center Farmers Market this Saturday. The Byron Center Market is at 84th and Byron Center from 8 am – 1 pm Saturday. I am really looking forward to this opportunity. They have a thriving and growing market with over 25 vendors. At this time they do not have anyone else selling baked goods. There is some breads, but yeast breads, not sweet breads. So I am hoping this will be very successful. I am planning on my usual, Banana Bread, Amish Friendship Bread, Zucchini Bread, Zucchini Carrot Nut Bread, Congo bar, Turtle Brownies and Frosted Cookies.
If you are in the area, stop by, I would love to see you!!