The Happy Monk Baking Company has been in full throttle for a month, now. Our orders grow each week, the praise continues to come in. It has been a month of hard, happy work, and a month of discovery!
Here’s one thing: when the bread is out of the oven, there’s still half a day’s work ahead: packaging and delivering. At this point, I’m bleary-eyed from being up since earliest morning stoking Mildrith’s fire, baking and trying to stay ahead of the chaos in the kitchen. But the promise of these last few steps is enough to keep me inspired.
Packaging and delivering the bread is the final act of presentation. It’s the moment when I hand it over to a customer, packaged in a crisp brown bag, stamped with the Happy Monk logo. It’s a completion and a moment of truth. A fulfillment of the customer’s expectation. The anticipation of breaking into a fresh loaf of bread. A little salivation (and perhaps a little salvation). A happy customer retreating to the kitchen. And the Happy Monk, driving off to the next destination.
Aha! So You’re the Baker!
Many customers are old friends; some, I’ve never met. Others are people I might have chatted with, but long forgotten their names. And as I approach the front door, we both might experience moment of recognition: “Aha! So you’re the baker!” … “Oh, yes, you’re the actor I saw in that play a few months back!”
Delivering bread has led me along Pender Island roads I’ve never been on. It has taken me into driveways I would never have noticed, driving by. I’d never been more than a hundred yards along Hooson Road, but I now know its open farm lands and forested roads. One meandering driveway led me down to the waterfront and a house with one of the most exquisite views of Saturna Island and the Salish Sea.
Another time, I had some trouble finding a customer on Pirates Road. I stopped to ask a pedestrian where the address was.
“Oh, that’s down the road, where the rich people live!”
I found it, eventually, another meandering gravel driveway through the woods to a smallish house looking out onto Bedwell Harbour. Well, my conception of Bedwell is from the heights of Mount Norman, or looking north from Poet’s Cove, or south from Medicine Beach. It was a surprise to find myself looking east across the harbour to another forested landscape. My view of a familiar Pender spot, turned upside down.
We are all rich, when you think about it. This island gives us natural splendour, a place to discover who we really are … to ourselves, to others. Some of us find something we love, and some of us at least have a good chance at finding it, if we really look. The baker’s life has brought me closer to Pender Island. What a surprise, what a discovery, what a blessing!
This is as dark as these loaves are gonna get in the falling heat of Mildrith, the wood-fired cob oven. They’re good enough for me. She’s already baked 53 loaves throughout the morning, and this will be her last labour of the day. Right now, the clay walls are about 420ºF, not enough heat for another load. If I were more organized and more energetic, I’d have a bunch of cookies lined up to bake or, better yet, a few pan loaves of dark rye bread that could bake the rest of the day. She’s a miracle, Mildrith is, and she’s helped feed hundreds of Pender Island residents over the past two-and-a-half years. Saturday is a rest day for the Happy Monk baker and a day of gratitude. And this Saturday, I’m directing my gratitude at Mildrith, the wood-fired oven!
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#woodfired #woodfiredoven #woodfiredbaking #woodfiredbread #clayoven #clayovenbaking #coboven #cobovenbaking #sourdoughbread #sourdoughbaking #breadmaking #breadbaking #breadlove #bread #seedbread #bakersofinstagram #bakerslife #penderisland #southpenderisland #southerngulfislands #southerngulfislandsbc #happymonk #happymonkbakingcompany #happymonkbakery
Moonset and high tide, South Pender Island at 3:50 a.m.
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#woodfired #woodfiredoven #woodfiredbaking #woodfiredbread #clayoven #clayovenbaking #coboven #cobovenbaking #sourdoughbread #sourdoughbaking #breadmaking #breadbaking #breadlove #bread #bakersofinstagram #bakerslife #penderisland #southpenderisland #southerngulfislands #southerngulfislandsbc #happymonk #happymonkbakingcompany #happymonkbakery
Happy Monk Tidings - July 21, 2021 🍞 - Baker's Choice: Bird Seed Bread; Blog: Rye Bread: The Agony and the Ecstasy [ See link in profile ]
Whole Rye and Spelt Sourdough with generous scoops of seeds and great texture. Mildrith loves these rye loaves … I wish we had smell-o-vision to smell you what I mean.
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#ryebread #wholegrain #wholegrainbread #speltbread #woodfired #woodfiredoven #clayoven #clayovenbakery #clayovenbread #woodfiredbaking #woodfiredbread #sourdoughbread #sourdoughbaking #breadmaking #breadbaking #breadlove #bread #bakersofinstagram #bakerslife #penderisland #southpenderisland #southerngulfislands #southerngulfislandsbc #happymonk #happymonkbakingcompany #happymonkbakery
In the early light of dawn, Mildrith oven-springs sourdough, caramelizes crusts gold and brown and leaves heavenly smells as evidence. Inside her hot clay dome, 12 boules of Salish Sourdough are on the final stage of their journey. Behold the steam rising out of the chimney!
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#woodfired #woodfiredoven #clayoven #clayovenbakery #clayovenbread #woodfiredbaking #woodfiredbread #sourdoughbread #sourdoughbaking #breadmaking #breadbaking #breadlove #bread #bakersofinstagram #bakerslife #penderisland #southpenderisland #southerngulfislands #southerngulfislandsbc #happymonk #happymonkbakingcompany #happymonkbakery
Happy Monk Tidings - July 14, 2021 🍞 - Baker's Choice this week: Rye and Spelt Sourdough; Blog: Pleasure and Worry in the Summer Heat; Gratitude for Pender Island Fire Rescue; Happy Monk Search-Ability [ See link in profile ]
Happy Monk Tidings - July 7, 2021 🍞 - Baker's Choice: Sourdough Sandwich Loaf; Blog Redux: Aunty Betty's "Brown Bread"; [ See newsletter link in Profile ]
Happy Monk Tidings - June 30, 2021 🍞 - Baker's Choice: Spelt and Honey Loaf; Blog: These Waters, This World Around Me - [ See Link in Profile ]
Happy Monk Tidings - June 23, 2021 🍞 - Baker's Choice: Deli Rye Bread; Blog: Summer Stars; and Who invented No-Knead? [ See link in profile ]
Dawn at the Happy Monk Baking Company, Friday 4:18 am. Olive loaves tumbling out of Mildrith, the wood-fired oven, and a few beautifully shaped Salish Sourdough.
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#woodfired #woodfiredoven #woodfiredbaking #woodfiredbread #olivebread #olivebread🍞 #oliveoilbread #sourdoughbread #sourdoughbaking #breadmaking #breadbaking #bbga #breadbakersguild #breadlove #bread #bakersofinstagram #bakerslife #penderisland #southpenderisland #southerngulfislands #southerngulfislandsbc #happymonk #happymonkbakingcompany #happymonkbakery
Happy Bloomsday from the Happy Monk - June 16, 2021 🍞 - Baker's Choice: An Earthy Olive Loaf; Blog Redux: The Terroir or Wine and Wheat; A Letter from Carrie and Leighton; [ See link in profile ]
Cinnamon-Raisin loaves, they get it on! Can’t keep their hands off each other when they’re a little too close in the oven. Monkey business!
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#woodfired #woodfiredoven #woodfiredbaking #woodfiredbread #sourdoughbread #sourdoughbaking #cinnamonraisin #cinnamonraisinbread #cinnamonraisinsourdough #breadsex #breadporn #showusyourfuckedloaves #breadmaking #breadbaking #breadlove #bread #bakery #bakersofinstagram #bakerslife #bakersandspice #penderisland #southpenderisland #southerngulfislands #southerngulfislandsbc #happymonk #happymonkbakingcompany #happymonkbakery
Happy Monk Tidings - June 9, 2021 🍞 - Baker's Choice: Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough; Blog: Chasing the Perfect Loaf - [ See link in profile ]
Happy Monk Tidings - June 4, 2021 🍞 - Baker's Choice: Metchosin Wheat and Honey Pan Loaf; Happy Monk Favourite: Salish Sourdough; Blog: Gratitude and the Joy of Chopping Wood - [See Link in Profile ]
Look what I found in the back of the wood-fired oven last Friday morning. A mighty Seed Feast from last week, no longer so mighty, burned to a crisp. Knew I was one loaf short, but no idea where it went. Mystery solved. The ravens will appreciate it ... it’ll need a hammer to break it up!
Happy Monk Tidings - May 19, 2021 🍞 - Baker's Choice: Double Fermented Oat Bread; Blog: Dreams of Bread; Introducing a New Way to Order Happy Monk Bread - [ See link in profile ]
Happy Monk Tidings - May 12, 2021 🍞 - Baker's Choice: Rye and Currant Sourdough; Happy Monk Blog: No-Knead Bread Revisited [ See link in profile ]
Happy Monk Tidings - May 5, 2021 🍞 - Baker's Choice: Whole Wheat and Spelt Pan Loaf; Blog: This Bread You Eat, This Poem You Digest - [ See link in profile ]
Here’s a Purple Barley Loaf made with purple-tinged barley, soaked in water overnight along with a handful or two of sunflower and flax seeds. So delicious, nutty! The variety is Ethiopian Purple Barley, grown by Against the Grain Farms of Mountain, Ontario. Really happy to be using this heritage grain from a real Canadian regenerative farm operation! Nice to make your acquaintance, @againstthegrainfarm!
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#barley #purplebarley #barleybread #sourdough #sourdoughbread #organicgrain #organicgrains #bread #breadbakers #baker #breadlove #woodfired #woodfiredbread #happymonkbaking #happymonkbaker #penderisland #southpenderisland
Happy Monk Tidings - April 28, 2021 🍞 - Happy Monk Blog Redux: Life in small-town Burgundy: The French Factor; Bread of the Week: Baker's Choice, Purple Barley Bread, PLUS return of the mighty Seed Feast [ See Link in Profile ]
Happy Monk Tidings - April 21, 2021 🍞 – Happy Monk Blog: Read about one of my greatest bread teachers: “A Bread Teacher With No Recipe” Also: This week’s Baker’s Choice: Danish Black Rye Bread.
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#teachers #breadteachers #bread #breadlove #breadlife #norecipe #happymonkbaking #happymonkbaker #happymonkbakery #penderisland #southpenderisland
Raw dough, scored and ready for Mildrith’s heat. A thing of beauty!
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#woodfired #woodfiredbread #bread #breadlove #dough #breaddough #breadmaking #breadbaking #sourdough #sourdoughbread #sourdoughbaking #breaddoughrising #happymonkbakery #happymonkbaking #happymonkbakingcompany #happymonkbaker #southpenderisland #southpender #penderisland #pender #woodoven #woodovenbread #woodovenbaking #clayoven
G&T and HT - C’est necessaire after a long day and night at the Happy Monk Baking Company.
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#ginandtonic #gin #G&T #BoundaryPass #SouthPender #SouthPenderIsland #HappyMonkBakery #HappyMonkBaking #HappyMonkBaker #cestnecessaire #cestnécessaire #cestnecessaire😍
First attempt at Nina’s Pain Sauvage, wild bread. Borne of simplicity: coarsely milled grain (I used spelt), freshly milled red fife flour, water and salt. No yeast, wild or commercial. A few flax seeds sprinkled on top, baked in bread tins. Tastes of grain and earth. This is Nina Raginsky’s bread. She lives on Salt Spring Island BC in an old house that she calls her Maison Sauvage, and she tends her garden, her Jardin Sauvage. She prefers living with a small footprint; loves the aimless life, but is an Officer of the Order of Canada for her photography. Read the latest Happy Monk blog post for more about Nina. Thanks to Sophie Williams @ravenbreads for sharing about her conversations with Nina back in January — a meeting of like minds and hearts, I think. Today is Nina’s 80th birthday! Happy birthday, Nina!
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#bread #wildbread #painsauvage #baker #bakers #baking #bakinglife #ancientgrains #heritagegrains #yeastfree #nosourdough #tassajara #tassajarabreadbook #edwardespebrown #woodfired #woodfiredbread