Cultivate from what is around you

There is an inclination with the “yearly in review / recap” format to show (ideally positive) change with year over year comparisons. But is this really possible to do, all the time? And without cherry picking data? 

Is it a necessary definition of success? 

I think we started with a pretty high bar, so without making any drastic changes to our business model and sourcing, everything is pretty even keel this year. In our last recap, my comments for looking forward included “keep doing what we are doing or find ways to do more of it,” and this is exactly what we have achieved. 

In this review of 2023, I have two sections below. One is related to data, how we spend our money, how and where we consume our food. Every quarter I audit our stack of invoices and break them down into location categories (MN, WI, ND, IA, OTHER), grain categories (grain types, whole grain vs. sifted), and how they were sourced (direct, farm-supporting producer, distributor). This originated from applying to an MDA grant in 2019, and realized that this data can help inform our actions and to know that what we are saying (the easy part) is what we are doing (the hard part). 

The second section is not data, or at least not yet. Quantifiable but not quantified, this type of information relates to another form of meaning, for us, and for you. Success comes in many shapes, and there is a full spectrum of wealth not related to money. We’ve worked hard to make this part of our reality. And to do something beyond the status quo, there has to be more than money and [traditional] success that drives us. And it’s hard to quantify this, because I just cannot keep track of how many times laughter occurs in the bakery. Or how many regulars we have that are under five years old.

DATA -

We don’t need to make large changes because where we are now is basically where we started, except that we have grown and therefore are sourcing more. Every quarter produces more or less the same results, with relative fluctuations. Currently our upwards trend is due to growth, education, and experience informing our decisions.

Growth has been a natural and mostly intentional aspect, with very little marketing beyond word of mouth (good job, you!). Our vision of the bakery is to find a level of production that supports us, where we can earn enough money, maintain integrity and quality, and have good lives, too. Not growth for growth’s sake. Still comparatively small for a bakery (27,820lbs of flour in 2023), our movement upwards needs to be without incurring more waste, cutting corners, or burning out.

Education comes from our expanded knowledge of our ingredients, processes, and their interaction that creates our breads and pastries. As we pass year two baking on East Lake Street, we are continuing to discover how to use more local foods through our own curiosity and experimentation, and by talking with farmers and learning more about their farms, ingredients, and how we can fully support them. 

Experience helps inform the ways in which we transfer new knowledge into the bakery. Some recipes now require very little work to convert into a 100% whole grain version, or local food product, as we’ve become quite familiar with what is available to us. Transitioning from one years’ harvest to the next feels a lot smoother. And as a daily practice, it just means the more time we spend here, the more familial everything becomes. I’ve known Bread Bread since 2015. Tiff has known it since 2019, Phoebe for over two years.

We are able to successfully build new recipes and positively change old ones. As some examples, 

• Beetbrot comes from an abundance of storage beets from Racing Heart Farm. Most of the liquid comes from beet puree, this is wild adaptation of our 100% Rye loaf, Roggen.

• Mulled Winter Apple Rhubarb Pie from our trading of neighborhood rhubarb, a great apple harvest from Marty Dirty Face, and black currants from Heirloomista. And a sprinkle of magic spices to bring it all together, thanks to Tiff.

• Bread Bread whole grain once again increased - 69.1% whole grain (62.7% last year, 50% in 2020), and non-wheat grain (diversity!) has increased from 11.5% to 18.5%. I think at this point, I will stop changing the recipe. Otherwise it might just become a different bread.

In general, we had minimal positive net changes in 2023. Our largest change is the increase in our ingredient spending, up 133% over 2022. The best net change within this is that we spent an extra $12,073 directly to farmers and producers, up 139.34%. This is compared to our spending beyond the upper Midwest, which is at its lowest point since 2019, at 21.09%. This is me cherry picking, of course. Basically everything stayed within a 5% margin. Small, positive change.

When we set out on this project, our goals were a bit vague, they also felt somewhat unknown, entering a territory of locality that doesn’t fully exist within the baking industry (or food industry, in general). As we followed our values, they became easier to define, without having to actually put in much more work or make large changes. Although, from the beginning, it has always taken a lot of work for our values to become reality. It requires a lot of communication, planning, flexibility, and production time to source from a multitude of farmers.

Source regionally, prioritizing Minnesota
Minnesota is a huge grain state, so it was obvious to me, when moving here in 2014, to connect with farmers and source local grains. Once I found success with wheat and became more familiar with the seasons of Minnesota, I began to realize how we could bake locally in all four seasons.

Purchase directly from farmers/producers 
When you prioritize your sourcing, it becomes easy to find local food. I’ve known Les & Els from Racing Heart Farm since 2015, and in some ways it feels like we are growing up together. Purchasing directly, we are supporting them wholly, building relationships and understanding their realities, farming practices, and work. In the summer, we are often texting a handful of farmers to see what they can bring to the bakery. 
Comparatively, we are a microscopic bakery when it comes to a grain farm like Askegaard Organic Farm. Like, we purchased 1.5% of Mark’s wheat harvest. And yet we still talk, and when there’s time, visit each other, because we value each other and share the idea that local supports local.

Whole Grain Forward
At some point in my baking career, I realized I wanted to incorporate the whole grain, and stop excessive energy consumption through sifting and creating byproducts. That the easiest way to enrich bread is to simply not remove anything. This bakery lives somewhere in the inbetween of reality and idealism, where we strive to make most things similar enough to white bread, to what is familiar, except have more flavour and nutrition. 

Diversify the grains we use 
In 2022, I realized that there is even more we can do. To support a more regenerative approach to agriculture, we need to move away from the traditional model of baking with mostly wheat, a monoculture supporting enterprise. Beyond that, the grainbow is beautiful and adds a depth of flavour, texture, and nutrition. You could describe soil health and gut health in very similar ways, in that diversity and the right mixture of nutrients and needs can make it thrive.

As this territory becomes familiar to us, we find more potential within our model to focus on exploring and expanding on our core values. 

Our reality is that we are working hard to maintain what we are doing, with integrity, honesty, transparency, and as a successful business. Our reality is to have time for creativity, our hobbies, to build and support community. Our reality is also that we need to make money in order to succeed, but there is much more than just dollar bills.

We (with your help) donate bread with intention, and to different organizations. We volunteer our time and bring baking skills to youth and teens. Bread as art, as a model, as an architectural schema. The best pretzel I ate last year was probably the one that a teenager made during a Project Success baking class I led. It had Old Bay seasoning and Kraft Parmesan grated cheese on top. 

This marks the second year of our brick and mortar, in an industry where 60% fail within their first year, and 80% within 5 years. We pay our bills on time, we take days off (even full weeks!), and we make time to get to know each other, our farmers, and hopefully you. 

We work to support our employees, empowering them to contribute their own self, grow their skillset, know our farmers and their ingredients, and find a balance between work and the life beyond bread. In the restaurant industry, the employee turnover rate is 79%. We have been incredibly fortunate that our whole team continues to show up every day, with a 100% retention rate. This will not always be so, as life changes and needs change, but for now, it feels good to give and receive support, and to do it with the same group of people. In fact, in 2023 we grew from a bakery of six humans to nine humans. 

People have asked us how we created our business model, and I think mostly it came from the void of what could be. Not many role models or businesses to follow, it feels like we are making it all up. What’s the ROI on knowing your farmer, or creating personal connections in the bakery? Joy. So here we are, we found success in the idea that local supports local. Beyond pride, we want to be a model for other businesses, to see that you can still turn a profit and run a successful business while working in a local food system, to work with who and what is available within our own countryside. Speaking of within our own countryside, we even upped our sweet bartering system for summer produce from your yards.

I cannot offer any data about how much we waste, or don’t waste, but what I can say is that our trash and compost cans are pretty small. Comparable to a home, even. They have been the same size since we opened two years ago, from baking once a week to baking four days a week. Our time and energy are important to us, as are the ingredients we use. It’s impossible to predict how many people come into the bakery a day, but we attempt the impossible game of prediction to the best of our ability, and when we have a slow day, we drop pastries off on our way home to neighboring businesses, families, schools, and others.

So when I look back on our numbers, it feels all right. We are doing hard work, and the words we choose correspond to that work. 

UNDATA - 

More of the ephemeral, wealth giving information. It represents an abundance of meaning beyond money. Generating income is necessary for our business to succeed and to support all the hands that contribute, but it is not what provides us with an abundance of meaning. 

Quantifiable but not quantified, therefore I cannot offer any data, only a series of questions that count toward our success:

How many times someone laughs at the bakery
How many connections between bread and family
How many children have grown up eating our bread
How many times people run into their friends & neighbors at the bakery
How many loaves were gifted and received
How many people have discovered that a croissant can taste like wheat

Farmers we get to visit, who visit us. Sharing our work together - their hands, their fields. Our hands, our ovens

People who receive our bread at a food pantry, to experience (and enjoy) sourdough for the first time.

The food dance before your first bite
The despair when you don’t realize it was your last bite, and it’s all gone

Your weekly routine, of familiar faces, smells, and grains. 

How do you experience the bakery, the bread & pastries, the journey?

So, to booknote this speech, I am going to repeat our goal from last year. “Keep doing what we are doing orand find ways to do more of it.” To support ourselves and each other. To make time to breathe in all the relationships baked into our breads and pastries.