February 2013
Some of you will be aware that I am currently working as a contract baker for Dunbar Community Bakery, covering 4 nights of breadbaking each week. I began this assignment in early January, and it is set to run until at least the end of March. I am continuing to sell at 3 Farmers' Markets every month in addition to this contract work.
This is a demanding schedule, however, at New Year, Alison and I resolved that we would continue to work as hard as ever, and push the boundaries, in order that we could afford to fund more in the way of holiday time for us to enjoy. We consider this as more than essential recuperation time, and having just enjoyed 4 days of wall-to-wall sunshine in the far North West of Scotland, we feel totally vindicated in our chosen work strategy. Our home in Northumberland, UK might be considered by many to be far into the Northern hemisphere, and not noted for kindly weather. Our holiday base is some 300+ miles further north than where we live, and yet I hung about in shorts for much of our time. You can see all the photos on my flickr site, here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24731237 [1]@N03/sets/72157632818927609/ There are a lot of photos; here is a taste of what we enjoyed:
In order to try and relate this blog entry to bread, in some kind of way, we enjoyed the most fantastic sandwiches for lunch on our daily walks, made with a Sourdough Seed Bread which I took along. Yes, I had a real holiday, and didn't make any bread at all during our time away!
After a long journey back on Wednesday, I enjoyed a good day of baking yesterday, and a sell-out day today at Alnwick Farmers' Market. In the meantime, my colleague Nigel has been working hard on production, and I am all-set to go to Hexham to sell our wares tomorrow.
Then it's back to Dunbar. But we have 2 weeks' holiday in Crete to look forward to at the start of April. Back to Anatolika, the Beach House with the wood-fired oven where we stayed a couple of years ago. How we are looking forward to that!
Very best wishes to you all
Andy