farm market follies
Hi, wanted to share some farm market adventures I've been having lately. I've been baking sourdough for nearly 10 years now and just last year felt my bread was good enough to make it to farm markets, so this is my second year. It's been received with an overwhelming following, keeping me busy every weekend from march thru late October.
As some of you have been to farm markets you meet all kinds of folks and today for me was no exception. First I had one person who wanted a crispy bread, so I tried to direct them to a nice sourdough and explained that all they needed to do was warm it back up in the oven and the crust would crisp right back up, not mention it freezes extremely well, unswayed and picking thru a few other breads they decided to go with a plain non sourdough soft bread after being adamant about something crispy, my first inkling that there might be a problem starting to brew in the space time continuum.
The best came later on towards the close of the market when someone walked up and demanded that I tell them what flour I use, I should have noticed something wasn't quiet right the way they were squeezing my bread.
No sooner that I said I use king Arthur, they drop the bread as if it had sprouted two heads and they blurt out Azodicarbonamide, being on only a couple hours sleep I didn't recall that Azodicarbonamide is a flour bleaching agent (last I checked KA has never used chemical bleaching agents) so I blurted back "ohh really and what flours don't have Azodicarbonamide" quick on the draw they respond "European flours" .
So I let them walk away since I had already sold plenty of loaves and they obviously weren't there to buy any bread even if it was made with European flours (which by the way I do happen to use for some of my bread, but they will never know).
If it had just ended there I wouldn't have given it much more thought but they then decided to move onto the next vendor selling honey from hives they personally bee keep.
The person tells that vendor that they don't like wild flower honey, and then decide to open one of the skin lotion honey products that's clearly NOT marked sample and decides to argue with the vendor that it was just there and thought that they could just sample it.
At this point I'm breaking out the tin foil hat because I'm not planning on catching whatever they have.
So they buy nothing and mozy over to the vegetable stand whose produce comes from farms that use all kinds of chemicals way worse than Azodicarbonamide and proceed to buy a number of vegetables, at this point I'm cowering under my table thinking I'm screwed and one tin foil hat isn't going to help.
Eventually they make their way over to the vendor selling wine and proceeds to buy a bottle for the ride home, I'm thinking to my self under table , now two tin foil hats on "huh, KA flour bad , but sulfites and chemicals on your veggies ok, wow" as they move out of the market the space time continuum comes back in order, at least for now ,I think to myself, I better remember to bring more tin foil next time.
Anyway this was less about the chemicals, etc.. and more about sharing today's funny at the farm market, hope you got a laugh out of it.
Hope to hear some of your fun at the markets.
Happy Baking.
Angelo
I hope you continue to share your market adventures with us. I totally enjoyed reading this.
Yet another validation of the principle that the customer is NOT always right. It would have been highly entertaining to witness as an uninvolved bystander, though.
This won't do a thing for those who are True Believers in various wacky ideas (all wheat is drenched, DRENCHED I tell you, in Roundup before it is harvested) but it might help address the concerns of the uninformed or somewhat misinformed: Have some ingredient data sheets printed out for each of the breads you offer so that your customers can see what they are getting. They wouldn't have to cover everything but could have some general information like miller, hard/soft, spring/winter, red/white, bleached/unbleached, whole/patent, protein content, fiber, or anything else that you think would help your customers decide that you are giving them top-quality stuff. You can probably print off quite a few from the millers' own web sites.
Paul
The ones that get me are the people who say they can't have yeast (because of the whole anti-fungal fad) so their bread has to be sourdough. Hmmmmm...
because un-pasturised milk does not have any lactose in it and she is lactose intolerant.
Now, I know that the temperatures in the UHT pasteurization can change some of the milk's chemical make up, but it does not denature lactose.
When she and her family came to visit, she INSISTED she was lactose intolerant and had to have all kinds of special stuff.
Until her children decided they wanted ice-cream. She had a nice double scoop sundae with them.
I keep telling myself that we all have a place in this world, but... I don't like it when this person's space intersects with mine.
The wonders of the human race. Elon Musk, founder of "Space X' asked "Why is there no Flat Mars Society? An official member of the Flat Earth Society from Flatearth.org responded, "Because unlike the Earth, Mars has been observed to be round."
Tin foil anyone?
: )