
A Happy Monk customer once told me that the next best thing to eating Happy Monk bread is reading the Happy Monk blog.
Well, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. But I was surprised to look back, a while ago, and find that there were now over 70 blog posts! “My god!” I thought, “that’s turning into a small body of work!”
I’m happy with the responses I’ve had, which make all the toil and thought I put into the blog worthwhile. Some I’m proud of, one or two I’m a bit embarrassed by.
Old-time newspaper columnists
I used to marvel at the old newspaper columnists of the 1960s or 70s who would churn out four or five x 500-word columns a week. I think of old Vancouver Sun writers like Alan Fotheringham, Jim Taylor, Pat Carney, Jack Wasserman, Bob Hunter, or Denny Boyd.
What must they have thought about their output? I’m sure cigar-chomping editors were leaning over them, yelling, “Where’s your copy, Foth?” The imperative was to get the column done, fill the hole in the page … and who cared what they wrote? Indeed, they must have been embarrassed, too, about some of their columns.
And pleased with themselves when they wrote a humdinger!
Ah! The pros there were then! Seasoned newspaper people, who could string together coherent sentences with ease, summon authority and wit at the blink of an eye and hammer out masterpieces on their noisy Underwood or Remington manuals! Copy!
Just a bread blogger
I’m just a “bread blogger,” but I still have to do all the work: come up with topics, research background information, make phone calls, source photographs (or take them myself), seek permissions to use poems or pictures, and proofread as carefully as I can, often into the wee, small hours.
Jennifer, of course, is my second set of eyes. She makes sure the posts are grammatically sound, properly spell-checked, and clearly written before they’re made live on the Happy Monk website.
There are no hot metal printing presses waiting for typeset proofs. No giant rolls of newsprint, no buckets of ink. No delivery trucks and paperboys and girls waiting across the city to get their bundles of newspapers tied with twine.
It’s just me and my blog and the Happy Monk website somewhere in the cloud.
It’s a different era, but the same challenge is there, even for a bread blogger: what to write about?
The Happy Monk experience
The bread and the baking world is the main topic here. But I’m also drawn to life on Pender Island: the community, the baker’s life, rural life, the nature around us, and my own experience of it all.
The blog has allowed me to explore these topics in ways I might not have done otherwise. It has been a way to share my experience and enthusiasm with the communities that have been so generous to Jennifer and me. And maybe the blog posts add a new dimension to the bread that emerges each week from Mildrith, the wood-fired oven. It’s just bread, after all, but it’s bread made on Pender Island!
Here’s a list of all blog post titles since day one of the Happy Monk Baking Company with links to each of them.
Click away! Revisit some of these blogs. Let me know which ones you like best. Send me some constructive criticism of ones that could be better.
I’ll try to update the list from time to time, adding more current ones.
The Happy Monk Blog Posts: Complete
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?
Have good mosh-pitting, baker! Friday and Sunday morning won’t be the same without you.