
The Upsides
The upsides of working the early morning baking shift starting at two a.m.:
- Peace and quiet (no phones, computers, noisy neighbours)
- Sunrise (when not cloudy)
- Morning birdsong (Spring and Summer)
- Simple tasks, mind floats on autopilot
- The warmth of the oven
- Aromas bread baking, cooling
- Breadsong 1
- Early finish to the day
The Downsides
- Leaving a warm cozy bed
- Cold, rain, snow, wind
- Sweeping out the ash and dust from the oven
- Darkness
- Short-term fatigue
- Long-term fatigue
- Sleep debt
At least thereâs no morning commute. Everything is ready to go: the dough is mixed, shaped, and fermenting in the fridges. The order lists are organized, bags are stamped. Thereâs still lots of time to get the bake done and the bread out the door.
A nod to that sleep-deprived baker
If these early morning bake shifts have taught me anything, it’s the knowledge that a muffin or pastry or a loaf of bread was baked by someone else while I was sleeping. That delectable product Iâm about to bite into was made with love and some sacrifice. Itâs worth a nod to that poor baker, slumping into a chair at the back of the bakeshop about to fall asleep.
That someone could be me.
There is a bond between bakers over the early morning shift. We have a mutual understanding and appreciation of the trials, fatigue, crazy thinking, mistakes, and joys. The nodding-off-to-sleep when you sit down for a moment, the rising stress of delivery deadlines, the next load of bread.
It’s addictive

There is something addictive about the early morning shift for all the above reasons. And when itâs all over, thereâs a sense of triumph. And that pile of loaves before you is proof that it was all worthwhile. What seemed an impossible task at two in the morning (making all that bread), now lies before you, cooling and singing, and filling the kitchen with a heavenly aroma.
But itâs also something to dread. Hard physical work and nights with little sleep build a sizable debt in the body. Itâs hard to make yourself whole over a few days, in time for the next bake. Long term, you feel as if youâve fallen deeper into the hole.
After nearly six weeks of holiday, Iâm finally feeling well-rested. Sleeping is easier now than itâs been for some time! Over the past week, Iâve strung together periods of sleep that might score 80% in terms of quality.
Remember, Iâm in my mid-sixties and may not have a younger bakerâs stamina.
What are you trying to prove?
Byron Fry is a baker probably half my age, with many more years of baking experience than Iâll ever amass. Heâs the owner and proprietor of Fryâs Bakery in Victoria and has become a bit of a mentor to me, though heâs too modest to admit it.
âYou should make your own schedule to suit you,â he told me when the Happy Monk Baking Company was just getting off the ground. âTurn your hours around so you can get a decent nightâs sleep. What are you trying to prove?â
When I saw him a year later and told him I was still working the early shift, he shook his head in dismay.
âI get it! Working through the early morning is kind of addictive,â he said. âBut I sure donât want to be doing that when Iâm your age.â
Catching up to your sleep
Maybe the problem is that I bake just once per week. Thatâs one day I push through on three hours of sleep. The rest of the week is spent trying to catch up!
A rule of thumb for recovering from jet lag is that your body needs a day to adjust for each hour between time zones. This means if youâre travelling from Vancouver to Toronto (four hours), youâll need four days to recover. So if you lose four hours of sleep one night, does it take four days to regain some sense of normalcy?
Maybe a regular schedule of graveyard shifts is better than a single day of minimal sleep? The body adjusts to the late hours, one would think, if itâs the norm.
Sleep hygiene
From what Iâve read, good sleep hygiene requires consistency. Go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time. 2
Bakers who donât want to keep consistent night-shift hours (me!) find themselves with a problem: If you are in one time zone five days a week and in another two days a week, can you ever adjust to one place? Or are you like a pilot forever flying between Tokyo and New York, never landing in either place long enough to get off the plane?
Byronâs words suggest that heâs tired, too, and after a decade or so in business, heâs looking for more balance.
Wearing thin
His advice echoes in my head these days. The romanticism of the early morning baker could be wearing thin. But Iâm not quite ready to say goodbye to my morning bakes. As we head into the spring and summer, soon, Iâll enjoy being outside, pulling loaves out of Mildrith in the loveliest time of year.
I am lucky to be a bread maker. Itâs one of the most rewarding vocations Iâve ever worked at. But maybe Iâve come to this work too late in life. Can my 66-year-old body sustain the physical and mental side effects of mixing dough and working through the night?
âThings fall apart; the center cannot hold,â said the poet, W.B. Yeats 3. I canât work the night shift and have an untroubled sleep at the same time.
Which way do I turn? Itâs nothing a good sleep canât solve.
Happy Monk Tidings - November 30, 2022 đ - 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 rockinâ the Olive Sourdough at 4:30 a.m. in the morning. Into Mildrithâs fire they go!
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#woodfired #woodfiredoven #woodfiredovenbread #bread #realbread #naturallyleavened #baker #bakery #bakerslife #bbga #artisanbread #breadhead #breadmaking #breadmakingđ #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 hereâs proof of Mildrithâs (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 #breadmakingđ #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?
The cracking sound bread makes when it comes out of the oven↩
Thus the ongoing dissatisfaction with Daylight Saving Time, a seemingly harmless one-hour clock shift that gave an advantage for farmers and their families at harvest time. The extra hour of daylight made a productivity difference in the wheat fields when Canada was one of the worldâs great âbread baskets.â Now that time shift correlates less to productivity than to an increase in heart attacks and car crashes.↩
Dear David, thrilled u are willing to sacrifice sleep for us…just FYI… We’ll eat your bread whenever u bake it!!..Esp if it’s ready for dinner with my pot of soupđ.
A lovely read, as always. Thanks for your delicious bread, you are appreciated!