Bakery Building Time Capsule - Values, Sanctuary, Licensing

Tuesday, April 16th - “Day Off” / Admin Day / start of Wednesday shift

Started the day with a 10-minute meditation and drew an oracle card to guide my day (thanks Rebecca Campbell). Brain-dumped into my journal for about 10min to clear out the sleepiness.

Made coffee, and sat with Colleen to crank through a few things.

Hiring:

We had quite a few new applications come in for a Farmers Market role we posted on Friday. This is the first time we’ve used our values as screener questions on our Indeed postings, and of course, it has already proven to be highly valuable and illuminating. I’ll write another blog about those values some other time - but I am really proud of them since our employees were very involved in, and excited by, the process of writing them. They feel super true and specific to how we all work.

I immediately noticed that almost all (I’d say 80%) of the women/nonbinary/trans applicants* took the time to write thoughtful answers to the values questions. None of the men who applied—not a single one—answered any of the screener questions. My first reaction was “Wow, do they really assume they’ll get an interview without even trying?” but when I paused to consider other reasons why this might be, it actually hurt my heart. Could it be that no one has taken the time to invest in helping these [mostly young] men in job readiness? Or helped them learn how to be introspective and reflective?

I’ve hit the point in my transition where I am almost exclusively assumed to be a man, so I am treated like a man by society at large. Which, as someone who was socialized as a woman, gives me an interesting perspective into the lives of men. And what I see is kind of heartbreaking—so many men are disconnected from their emotions, which is then reinforced by the subtle and not-so-subtle behavioral conditioning of this world. In interacting with men (who think I am a man), I get the sense that many crave deeper emotional connections not just to others, but to themselves, either on a conscious or subconscious level. But where do they begin, especially if this need is not quite recognized within themselves? If it’s at the edge of their brains, but then gone like something that was dreamed? And if this kind of approach to work—with their emotions online—is not something men are encouraged to pursue?

But back to the day at hand…

*we sometimes know folks are nonbinary/trans because they say so in their messages to us when they apply, not because Indeed tells us. It’s a population we attract as a visible trans/queer/woman-owned business.

Licensing:

Called the Somerville Health Department to follow up about a temp permit we need for an event at the end of April - they needed our allergen cert which I thought I uploaded but I guess I didn’t! One thing about owning a food business - if you do events in another county, or another state, you’ll probably need a bunch of different forms because heath departments all do things do differently.

Colleen called NY Ag and Markets about our 20C license application (our current license is through the county) since we are going into more markets outside of Dutchess County. They’re going to be doing a site inspection for us next week.

I priced out the sound system and researched the kind of music program we’ll need to be compliant from a licensing perspective. Right now I’m deciding between using Pandora for Business or Soundtrack Your Brand for FOH. I think I can have just a speaker with Spotify/Pandora playing BOH since it’s not being broadcast for a public audience…right? I guess we’ll find out if we get a notice from any PROs!

Events & Scheduling:

Followed up with Dutchess County Pride about sponsoring this year and serving as the pre-parade meet-up spot since we’re on the route here in Poughkeepsie.

Talked through the schedule with Colleen for next week, when we have both the Beacon Farmers Market and a large vegan market in Somerville, MA on the same day. We don’t compromise when it comes to baking everything fresh in the morning, so a huge bake like this in a commercial kitchen requires putting together a jigsaw puzzle of a schedule. We need to get the timing just right with the proofing (aka thawing), baking, garnishing, and driving, which is made more complex by having an electric truck that we’ll need to charge once along the way. We also need to figure out when Colleen and I will sleep...which at the moment isn’t looking super promising. This is why we are moving to a new space—baking 1500 items before two events is really hard with the two small ovens in the incubator kitchen! And I just need to say thank god for our staff, they show the heck up for events like this. It’s cool that they get a rush out of seeing how much we can take on as well.

Ordering things:

Ordered new pastry boxes, parchment, and catering boxes for the event (we use reusable ones for wholesale but not for large festivals since they are super expensive). Also ordered a shorter speed-rack to fit into the truck. Looked at buying another Terracycle glove box since ours is pretty full but it’ll have to wait til next week, financially. They’re expensive but worth it, not just because it’s the right thing to do from a sustainability POV but because it makes our employees feel good to use it, and makes our customers feel good to see it being used.

Sanctuary Tour:

Went to the Woodstock Animal Sanctuary to meet their partnerships manager for a tour since we’ll be a vendor at their 20th Anniversary Party this summer. We got to meet some of the residents and learn about their paths to the sanctuary, which included escaping slaughterhouses on their own, being surrendered by overwhelmed hobby farms, or being rescued from hoarding (or worse) situations. Sanctuaries don’t get a lot of state funding or grants, and when I asked why that was, our guide said it was because taking care of animals doesn’t generate revenue. This led to an “oh, of course” moment for me. As a society we tend not to value caretaking for humans—be it for those with medical conditions or the elderly—so I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise that other beings on this earth are discarded in the same way. They need all the help they can get! So, we are going to treat our sales at the event as a fundraiser for the sanctuary, either by donating a portion of our proceeds to the sanctuary by giving folks the option of adding a dollar or two to their order when they check out.

Packaging:

On the drive back, I talked to our rep from Noissue, the company we work with on some of our packaging needs. We want to have them handle all packaging for us when we move into the new space, so we are getting a quote together for us to order everything in bulk later this summer. We love Noissue for their carbon-negative business model.

Work on Climate; Nap

Did some work for Work on Climate, the non-profit where I serve as the volunteer marketing lead. I won’t go into details about that since it isn’t bakery-related, but the org is pretty dang awesome.

Around 4pm took a nap for a few hours to “end the day.” Woke up around 7pm, had dinner, watched the OA with Colleen…

Wednesday Moring Bake / more admin

Then I went to work around 9:30pm (still Tuesday) to do the Wednesday morning bake. We just have one wholesale account on Wednesdays (Lagusta’s Luscious), so this is the day that Colleen has been training me to do the bake on my own. Learning how to do this on my own is important—both of us should understand how to do each part of the business to at least some degree so that we can step in to cover a sick employee, make informed decisions related to that part of the process, and empathize with whoever is working that shift.

Today I went in, trayed everything up to proof, made a coffee, did the twice-baked (almond) croissants, wrote most of this blog, knocked out payroll and the deposit, and then once Colleen came in I baked everything else off. I still need her guidance on knowing when things are fully proofed and fully baked, though I am getting close to being able to fly on my own!

Around 2:30a I packed up the order in one of our reusable bins and drove it over to New Paltz for a dark delivery (also known as a key delivery). Drove home, slept for about 5 hours, then got up to start the next day (today) around 9:30am!

Til next time!