
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!
Happy Monk Tidings - November 30, 2022 🍞 - Bakers Choice: Cranberry-Pecan Sourdough; BLOG: Tassajara Wisdom/Perfect Loaf Mastery; REMINDER: Happy Monk holidays fast approaching! [ See LinkTree in Profile ]
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#theperfectloaf #perfectloaf #perfectloaf #maurizioleo #tassajarabreadbook #tassajarabread #tassajaracookbook
Just rockin’ the Olive Sourdough at 4:30 a.m. in the morning. Into Mildrith’s fire they go!
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#woodfired #woodfiredoven #woodfiredovenbread #bread #realbread #naturallyleavened #baker #bakery #bakerslife #bbga #artisanbread #breadhead #breadmaking #breadmaking🍞 #sourdough #sourdoughbread #coboven #earthoven #earthenoven #olives #olivebread #olivesourdoughbread #penderisland #southpenderisland #happymonkbaking #happymonkbakery #happymonkbakingcompany #southerngulfislands #southerngulfislandsbakers #southerngulfislandsbakeries #penderisland
Cinnamon-Raisin bread, an enduring Happy Monk favourite. And here’s proof of Mildrith’s (the wood-fired oven) recent health check, as she just baked 41 loaves of this (and another 40 of Seed Feast) with lots of heat left to spare. Long live Mildrith and long live Cinnamon-Raisin bread!
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#cinnamonraisinbread #cinnamonraisin #woodfired #woodfiredoven #woodfiredovenbread #bread #realbread #naturallyleavened #baker #bakery #bbga #artisanbread #breadhead #breadmaking #breadmaking🍞 #sourdough #sourdoughbread #coboven #earthoven #earthenoven #penderisland #southpenderisland #happymonkbaking #happymonkbakery #happymonkbakingcompany #southerngulfislands #southerngulfislandsbakers #southerngulfislandsbakeries #penderisland
Bread (AppleRye), bread (a homely looking Salish Sourdough) and bread (fire brick authenticity) … and my new oven arrives!
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#rackmaster #rackmasterrm2020 #rm2020 #bread #sourdoughbread #woodfired #woodfiredsourdoughbread #woodfiredforever #artisanbread #realbread #naturallyleavened #baker #bakersofinstagram #bakery #breadhead #sourdough #sourdoughbread #sourdoughbaking #ryebread #appleryebread #ryeapplebread #apples #applebread #penderisland #southpenderisland #happymonkbaker #happymonkbaking #happymonkbakery #happymonkbakingcompany
Dog days. The beginning of summer mellowness. Baked in languor. But sometimes it's hard to let go. Shouldn't I be baking something? [See LinkTree in Profile ]
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#penderisland #southpenderisland #happymonkbaking #happymonkbakery
#happymonkbakingcompany #dogdays #dogdaysofsummer #southerngulfislands
#southerngulfislandsbakers #southerngulfislandsbakeries #southerngulfislandsbc
This is James Morton, my father, who would have been 100 years old today if we hadn't lost him 36 years ago. I've surpassed him in living age and spent more years without him than with him, yet he still whispers in my ear and is a great listener when I talk to him. Taken at 14th Ave. and Burgess St., Burnaby, 'round about 1955. Handsome devil, ain't he?