December update

It's been almost three months since the farmer's market ended, and I'm still a baking fool. I said I was going to work on my cake-making skills during the off-season, but so far, I've only made one. It was a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, and it was pretty darn good. Oh, and for my daughter's sixth birthday, I made a different chocolate cake recipe with peanut butter frosting. Wow, were those good!

For my cookie exchange at work this holiday season, I made these cookies called Snickery Squares. They're a bar cookie, and totally delicious. They had a shorbread crust, and were then layered with dulce de leche and candied peanuts, then bittersweet chocolate spread on top of that, with more peanuts sprinkled on top. I had trouble cutting them, and the dulce de leche wasn't as stiff as I was expecting it to be, but regardless, they tasted yummy. But they were quite an expensive cookie to make. I bet I spent $20 on the ingredients for a 13x9 size pan. It was a nice treat.

For the cookie trays I'll be giving away to my friends and family, I made some of my favorites from the market—cinnasnappers, chocolate chip snowballs, and squish monsters. In addition to those, I made some other Christmas favorites of mine: a lemon meltaway covered in powdered sugar. These look so pretty on the cookie tray. Also very pretty on the cookie tray are linzer wreaths—a shortbread-like cookie made with crushed almonds, sandwiched with raspberry jam in between, and dusted in powdered sugar. Some other favorites include snickerdoodles, peanut butter blossoms, and double peanut butter cookies. It's been a busy couple of weeks.

There have also been some exciting things going on for HappyJack Bakery. Back in October, at my daughter's school's family spaghetti dinner, they had a cookie contest where my chocolate chip snowballs won first prize. A freelance writer for the Post-Gazette happened to be at the dinner, and thought my cookies were worthy of printing in the paper. Although I sell these at the market, I felt it was worth it to give out the recipe to get some exposure. So she printed my recipe, along with a little write-up about me and HappyJack Bakery. I was so thrilled about this.

But even more thrilling was the email I received a few days later. The adult program coordinator from the Whitehall Public Library contacted me to see if I was interested in teaching a demo/class on baking there at the library. I told her I would love to, so now sometime in February, I will be having a class to share my knowledge with those interested in learning from me. I'm now working on a name for this class (if it takes off, she said they may ask me if I'd be interested in doing more), and I need to come up with an agenda for the class. Or is that called a curriculum? I don't know. I need a list of topics. And I need to practice. And practice some more. I don't mind speaking in public, but this is still kind of exciting but scary. I'll be sure to keep you updated on when the class will be held. Look for mentions on the library's Web site.

Until next time, have a yummy day!

So how did we do?

It's now been a few weeks since the market ended, and I finally have a breather to sit down and reflect on the whole experience. But where to begin?

Well, first of all, let me say that I thoroughly enjoyed meeting so many wonderful people, and I'm very grateful that I actually was able to acquire a following of loyal patrons. That was such a big unknown to me. I know that I like my baked goods, and I know that my friends like them, but would total strangers think they were good enough to spend their hard-earned money on? It turns out that yes, strangers will spend their money on my treats, and the good news is that those folks aren't strangers any more.

As you know, if you've been reading my blog, I have long-term goals of opening a bakery storefront some day far into the future. Selling my treats at the farmer's market was a low-cost way to see if I could produce a good product that would sell, and that people would continue to come back to buy. I wanted to create some buzz. I think I was successful at this initial step. So when I evaluate my earnings now that the season is over, and they are pretty piddly, I have to consider that making money wasn't my only goal.

Baking throughout the summer was hard. I'm not going to say that it wasn't. Did I get tired of it? Well, not exactly. The thing that I got tired of was trying to squeeze as much into my weekends as I possibly could. I typically worked at least five hours baking on Saturday mornings, then again on Sunday mornings. I'd also spend two hours (which Jack also spent) on Sunday evenings packaging the cookies and preparing for Mondays. Then Mondays took another six hours or so, plus I usually baked for a few hours on Thursdays and/or Fridays. This totaled about 20 hours of work each week. So although I was able to keep most of my baking work confined to times of day that didn't interfere with other events, by the time it was time to go to a picnic or visit a friend, I had already put in hours of work and I was tired. So the thing that was hardest was waking up on a Saturday, knowing that I couldn't be leisurely about what needed to be done, because I had to get the baking done so I was ready to spend the day with my family. But I never got tired of baking. The time always passed very quickly when I was baking, and I was able to get a lot done in a short period of time. When I think back now on how I used to make such a fuss at the holidays about finding time to bake my cookies, I have to laugh. Every year, I make about seven different kinds of cookies, usually one batch each. I would spread this baking out over a few weeks, planning to bake two or three kinds on a few days throughout December. But now, seven kinds of cookies is old hat. I can whip that out in one day.

If you're following HappyJack Bakery on Facebook, you would have seen these stats, but I'll repeat them here for those of you that didn't get to see these numbers. They're quite astonishing. I don't know how I did this. Over the course of the summer season, I baked the following:

6,522 cookies

43 apple pies

111 happyjacks

72 muffins

37 whoopie pies

So is the buzz and the following that I'm creating worth the time and effort that I put into this? As I said above, by the time I took out for all of my expenses (especially since this was my start-up year), I didn't make much money. But hey, at least I'm not in the hole. I did make a profit. I'm just not sure that it was all worth it. That's not to say that I don't love baking, and don't want to continue to bake for my customers. I do. I really, really do. But committing to making 500 cookies each week is a decision I won't take lightly when it's time to decide if I'm going to do it again. It's a lot of work. If I didn't have another job that requires 32+ hours from me each week, I wouldn't mind it at all. In fact, I'd probably do more than one farmer's market if that were the case. But because I can't match the kind of money I can make at my "real" job, I have to keep it (and the good news is that I do like my job; it's not one that I ever really saw myself leaving). So now I'm faced with trying to figure out what to do next with this baking career of mine. When do I take the giant leap and leave my "real" job so that I can pursue my baking career? That's such a scary thought to me. I'm not sure that I'll ever feel like I can take that financial risk, but I also realize that no one ever becomes successful in launching a new business without taking risks.

Ideally, if I could make some extra money baking, in a capacity that's not as intense as the farmer's market, I would love to just do that for now, and still be able to enjoy my real job, and the financial security that goes along with that. I would like to have enough baking business to give me something to do a few times each month throughout the year. I wouldn't mind selling some product wholesale, like to the local coffee shop, but even that becomes a little more committed than I think I'm prepared to do right now. If I had to be producing baked goods every week, ideally I'd be doing this somewhere very close to home, if not in my home. But to do that, I'm back to needing a commercial kitchen, which I have yet found the time to pursue.

So as you can see, I haven't figured anything out yet. I do plan to keep in touch with my loyal customers in the off-season. Hopefully an email will go out to these folks within the next week or two with an update on my plans.

Oh, and during the off-season, I plan to work on my cake-making skills. Boxed cake mixes are so good and easy to make, I hope that I can find a recipe that works without fail like the boxes do. I don't have any decorating skills, so I need to work on that, too. But when I saw how much bakeries charge for a 13x9 cake, I was shocked and thought, hey, I can do that, and I bet it will be much better, and I wouldn't charge as much. So that's my short-term goal. And to go along with that, I'm also trying to lose about 10 pounds. It's going to be hard if I'm baking cake.

And before I go, let me just say that I have this awesome recipe for cinnamon rolls. I made them last weekend, and they were still good a few days later. If I ever open a bakery, these will definitely be on the menu.

So that's it for now. Thanks for taking the time to read. I hope to have updates for you throughout the off-season, so check back now and again. Until next time, may you be blessed with peace, happiness, and good health.

And have a yummy day!

Woops!

I just realized I skipped a week in my blogging. I have been so busy lately, it's no wonder. On top of my 32-hour/week regular job, and my 20-hour/week baking gig, I'm also planning my mom and dad's 50th wedding anniversary, as well as working with my husband on assisting in the running of the Pittsburgh Catholic diocese girls volleyball league for 5th through 8th graders. We're responsible for creating the schedules for probably about 60 teams or so, as well as collecting registration money, rosters, and addressing issues that come up during the season, which started last Friday. August has been nuts.

To give you a quick summary, last week was rainy—very rainy. There were moments when it wasn't raining, but most of the afternoon, it was coming down like cats and dogs. Overall, my sales were the same last week as they were the week before, so the rain really didn't affect me much. However, when I got home, I decided to treat myself to one of my leftover packs of cookies. I was sad because it was very... well... you could tell they had been sitting out in a damp environment. Oh, and my pie crust on my apple happyjacks were like that, too, and that's the worst. My pie crust is usually pretty flawless, but after last week with all that rain and humidity, it was very evident that the weather got to them.

Last week, I also tested out another new recipe as my featured item for the week: Peanut Butter Cup Rice Krispy Treats. Yeah, that's what I said. All that yumminess all in one goody... the peanut butter, the chocolate, the peanut butter cups, marshmallows, rice krispies. Yum! I had a few people ask for them again this week, but I'm so sorry. The featured items usually only make it for one week. Unless, of course, you're the snickerdoodle blondies, in which case I had many people ask to see those return, so I did indeed make them a second time a few weeks back.

So then on to this week. This week was the complete opposite, weather-wise. It was extremely hot today, as it has been for most Mondays throughout the summer, and the crowd seemed a little lighter than usual. I'm guessing that this is due to several reasons, one reason being that most kids have started back to school, so parents' schedules are different and perhaps there isn't as much time to get to the market. A few of my regulars weren't around either, and some that did come came at different times than usual. I did acquire a few new customers today, and I can only hope that they come back again. I met a nice mom and daughter combo that live in Upper St. Clair, and don't get to frequent the Whitehall market often. They really seemed excited about my goodies, so I'm hopeful that they'll come back for more some day.

This week, I made two new happyjack flavors. I had blueberry and sour cherry happyjacks for sale. All of the happyjacks sold out by 4:00 pm (within one hour), so that was exciting. I think I may try making the different varieties again for next time, as I think it went over well.

Lastly, the market is closed next week for Labor Day. I'm excited to have a week off, but it will be so insanely busy, as that is the weekend of my parents' anniversary party, and all of my brothers will be in from out of town, so we have a weekend full of family activities. In addition, I have 10 people coming to my house on Saturday morning for our annual fantasy football draft. Sheesh, I'm tired just thinking about it.

I'm still uncertain what my future holds with this bakery business, but I'm working on it. I'm praying that God will deliver the answer to me one of these days soon.

Until next time....

A million things on my mind

I just thought I'd share with you a glimpse into my crazy mind and all of the things I think about on a regular basis, usually all at one time. No wonder I'm exhausted.

1. I sure hope my pie turned out good this week. I made two, and sold them both at the market today. I baked them longer than I had been baking them, and to ensure that the crust and crumb topping didn't get too brown, I started off by covering the tops with aluminum foil for about 15 minutes. I also used a wooden skewer to test the doneness of the apples once I thought the pies should have been done. This seemed to be a good test, but honestly, without knowing how the firm apples in last week's icky pie would have felt, it's hard to know whether or not they were soft enough this time. I can only hope for the best.

2. I love my customers. They really make my day just by coming back week after week, telling me how much they like what I produce. It puts a smile on my face, and skip in my step.

3. What am I going to do in the off-season? I barely have enough time to go to my regular day-job, bake in my spare time, and play with my kid and take care of my house, so when am I going to have the time to figure this out? But it's coming quickly. The market ends at the end of September, and I would like to be able to confidently tell my customers what to expect from me in the off season. I did try to contact the local Methodist church. I'm currently awaiting a return call, but I'm not hopeful. I have two other places in my area to contact that have commercial kitchens. I'm not sure if either would be willing to work out a deal with me, but I'll never know unless I try. Then part of me wonders if I shouldn't just be investigating how much it would cost to turn a room in my basement into a commercial kitchen. That would save me rent, plus I'd have my own equipment that I could maybe someday move to a store front if I ever get that far. By having the kitchen in my home, I'd be able to bake whenever I want and not have to drive to work, which is convenient. In trying to rent time and space in a commercial kitchen, I'm envisioning that I would have to bake at times that may not work for me, like wee hours of the morning. But what if it's going to cost me $50,000 to set up a kitchen in my basement? How much would it cost me to build a store front bakery in a leased space? Would it be $100,000? More? I'm not sure. But say it was $100,000. If I'm going to the trouble of half that expense to build it in my house, why not go the extra mile and do it for real where I can actually serve customers, rather than from my home where I'd likely have to deliver or mail my goodies to my customers? Would my neighborhood even allow me to have a commercial kitchen in my home? Would it allow me to have customers come to my house to pick up orders?

4. Why do sales fluctuate so much? I can't believe that I sold out of my chocolate chip snowballs by 3:45 p.m. today. In most prior weeks, these sell slowly, and I'm usually stressing about whether I'll have a bunch to take home or not. But in addition to selling out of them early, I still had probably 5 people ask me for them after that. So had I made a double-batch, I think they would have all sold. On the flip side, I only sold 6 of my Squish Monsters, out of the 14 I had made. These usually sell out each week without any trouble. What's up with that?

5. I think next week I'm going to try a peanut butter cup Rice Krispy treat. I'm doing a test run tomorrow; if it goes well, look for these next week.

6. I hope I have enough energy to get up early and go for a walk/jog. I haven't exercised in over a week, and it's bringing me down. I have to make the time. Tomorrow is the day!

7. Somehow we got done packing up at the market, and then unpacking everything at home, much quicker than we had been. I was done and ready to relax by 9:00 p.m. That was fantastic. I hope we can keep that up in the weeks to come.

That's not my pie!

Yesterday's market was another good one. It's funny, but I always seem to think I'm not going to do well, and things seem slow, but by the end of the evening, most of my packs of cookies sell. This was the case yesterday. By about 5:00 p.m., the market really seemed to have slowed down. There weren't a lot of people around, and I still had a lot of cookies left, plus a pie and some happyjacks. But fortunately, Miss Shari, the owner of the local dance studio and coffee shop (two separate businesses, mind you), stopped by and bought $20 worth of stuff. That was a great end to my day!

Some of my regulars stopped by and bought a variety of treats, and even a few friends stopped by (Molly, Tara, Samantha, Danielle, Miss Ceil, the Kublacks, and the Fiores). And this week, I featured two kinds of cupcakes that a friend of mine makes. They were delicious.... Strawberry Shortcake and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups. But unfortunately, only two of the twelve that I had for sale actually sold. My muffins never sold very well, either. I'm not sure what it is about those kind of goodies that make them not appealing to the customers. But it was a good test to see if there was a market at the market for cupcakes.

I had quite a few people ask for the Snickerdoodle Blondies that I made a few weeks ago, so I've decided to bring those back next week.

And the flies! Where did they come from? At about 5:00, I started to get bit by these tiny flies around my ankles. It was miserable. And very, very hot, and humid, again. I pray for a Monday where the temperature is lovely and pleasant and the sun isn't causing me to squint for four hours straight. Ha!

So about this pie, I'm so sad. I ended up with a leftover pie this week, so last night for dessert, jack and I decided to cut into it and treat ourselves. I was so sad by what I had tasted. My apples were crunchy, and my pie is not famous for crunchy apples. I don't like a pie with crunchy apples, so I was so embarrassed that we tell people how awesome my pies are, and then they go home with this pie with crunchy apples. That's not my pie! A new acquaintance of jack's that he met at his table tennis league stopped by specifically to try my pie. I feel like I need to get ahold of Wes and tell him that it doesn't normally taste like that. Now I realize that some people may like crunchy apples in their pie, but that's not the kind of pie I like to make. And now I'm wondering if all of my pies have had crunchy apples. It's not like I can taste test the pie before I sell it. So my plan this coming week is to cook the pies longer, and maybe cover the top with foil to keep the crumb topping and the crust from burning, while still giving the apples plenty of time to soften up. And for those of you that have bought my pie and didn't like it because it had crunchy apples, I'm so sorry. I had no idea. Although I realize that's no excuse, I hope that you'll give my pie another chance.

Eight weeks down, seven to go

The farmer's market at Whitehall goes for 15 weeks this summer. We end on September 27, and we're closed on September 6, so there are seven weeks left to go.

After week one, back on June 14, I wasn't really sure how I was going to manage keeping up with the pace. I did really well that first week, selling about 150 packs of various cookies, muffins, brownies, apple happyjacks, and a few pies. I worked so hard that weekend, and it took forever to bake everything. Eight hour days at least both Saturday and Sunday, plus I had done some baking the Thursday before. It was exhausting. I was a little fearful of what I had gotten myself into.

The next week came, and I made the same amount of stuff, except this time, I only sold about half. Ok, lesson learned. Week one sales are going to be super high, so plan subsequent weeks accordingly. So now, after quite a few weeks of experience, I think I've finally narrowed my margin between what I take to the market and how much I sell. I'm usually only off by a few packs of cookies. That's not too bad.

The really good thing, though, is that this pace is very manageable for me. I usually bake on Thursdays or Friday evenings, and then Saturday and Sunday mornings. I don't mind this at all, and in fact, the time passes very quickly. I think that's a sign of something... that I love what I do, perhaps. But you already know that if you read last week's post. :)

Anyway, I'm just having a blast! My customers were great again today. I had a woman mention that she had read my blog last night, and after trying some cookies last week, had to come back to support me. So thank you for that! It made my day that you took time out of your life to read what I've been up to. Margot and Tony were back, as were the Fiore's, along with some friends from church, Kelly and Kim. A friend of my mom's stopped by and bought an apple pie—thanks Dee! Not to mention the brother and two sisters that stop by my table every week... this week they bought some brownies, a pie, and some snickerdoodle blondies. My best sale of the day went to a woman who bought 8 packs of cookies! And Bill, who's following me on Twitter, stopped by and bought a few packs of cookies again, but this time had a friend with him that took a few photos at my table. Wonder what that was for?

I will be grateful once this heat dissipates. Every Monday has been super hot; so hot that some of my treats get a bit melty. I keep the ones that are susceptible to melting in a cooler, but I need to leave a few out to entice customers, but even those get melty. They still taste fantastic, but they look gooey and sticky. So I'm looking forward to some September days where it won't be so hot. I'm not sure I'll be so lucky, but maybe the weatherman will do me a favor.

On an unrelated note, I had a few more people ask me today when I'm going to open a store front. I wish I knew the answer to this. It's already clear that some of my customers would still support me in the off season in some way, perhaps with Christmas cookie orders and such (although I might need to get a big freezer if I decide to do that). But now is the time to start to figure it all out. It will be October before you know it, and I'll be going through farmer's market withdrawal. I promise by September, I will have a plan.

Well, it's late, and I'm tired. It's been a long day. I arrived at work at 7:30 am today, then went straight to the market at 2:00 pm, and didn't get home from there until 7:30 pm. And I've been non-stop at home, too. There's just too much to do, always, and too little time to do it in. But I will persevere. I always do. Nothing worth having in life comes easy.

Until next week...

I love what I do

I love to make people happy, and I think I've found a way to do that on a weekly basis. Every week, I spend hours in my kitchen baking my favorite recipes to share with the rest of the world. I just can't tell you what it means to me, and how happy it makes me, to hear how much my customers like my goodies. I think I've talked about this before, but every week, I'm always amazed that people I don't even know are willing to go out of their way to tell me how much they like my desserts, or to go out of their way to tell other people about my desserts. Sure, I expect this kind of support from my mom and dad, and even my husband; but that's what makes the support of my customers so special. They have no obligation to like my treats, or to tell me how much they like my treats, or to tell other people how much they like my treats. But they do all of those things anyway. And for that, I'm very, very grateful. It's great customers like that that keep a business going, so to all of you, I appreciate your generous support!

So let me tell you about this week. I was so tired last Thursday, and ran so many errands during the day, that yet again, I ran out of time to bake that day. So instead, I baked on Friday. I started after dinner around 7:00 and was done by 10:00. I got three goodies done and out of the way, which was great progress. Jack was playing football on the PlayStation with his friend, Armand, so I wasn't missed in the TV room. On Saturday morning, I got started at 6:30 am and was done by 11:00 am or so. I made great time that day. We even had time to clean the house afterwards. On Sunday, all I had left to make were the brownies, HappyJacks, and pies. I was done with those before it was time for church at 10:00 am. Of course, Sunday evening included packaging, as it always does, which takes a good two hours every week. Jack and I do most of the work, and occasionally let Lila help out by having her carry packed cookies to the table we use for organizing all of the packs. It's funny how even the smallest of tasks can make a five year old feel included.

At the market on Monday, Jack was unable to join me, so I was on my own for most of the time. My mom and Lila came down to help me set up, and they stuck around for a while. Lila found a new playmate in Olivia, my friend Deanna's daughter, so she didn't want to leave. They were instant pals. The market started very slow this day for some reason. There just weren't as many people milling about at 3:00 like there usually are. I was worried it was going to be a slow day, but in the end, it turned out to be one of my better days. I didn't have a featured item for this week, but I did give away a few snickerdoodle blondies to some of my repeat customers. I have since heard from three of them, and they all loved the new goodie. I might have to make them again and see how well they sell this coming week.

I had a few visitors this week. My fabulous friend, Faith, stopped by with her daughter Jordan. Faith lives on the East side of Pittsburgh, so I was grateful that she took time out of her day (and gas out of her tank) to drive out to support me. And she bought three different kinds of cookies. She was really looking forward to trying the Squish Monsters, so hopefully she wasn't disappointed. My new friend, Sean, a co-worker of mine and Jack's, stopped by, too, with his beautiful German Shepherd, Din. She is a very pretty dog. Sean tried my lime cookies, but I forgot to ask him today how he liked them. Friends of my mom's and dad's stopped by as well. I'm glad they told me who they were because I didn't recognize them (sorry about that, Carol). A neighbor of ours stopped by, too, and I felt bad because I had her name wrong. All this time I thought her name was Angela, but it's Andrea. Duh. I promise to not get that wrong again. Of course, there were all my regulars, too, and I'm always very delighted to see them come back for a chit chat.

Last week, I had bought a chalkboard easel to set out in front of my table to try to draw in customers. It seems to be working, as I think I sold a few HappyJacks and a pie that I might not have normally sold.

Lastly, I acquired two new followers on FaceBook and Twitter that stopped by my table yesterday. I was very grateful for their tweets, promoting my stand at the market. And to the girl that couldn't wait to come and buy some Cinnasnappers, and the girl that turned her on to the Cinnasnappers, thanks so much! I love those cookies, too! Finally, I received an email from a new customer who tried my Squish Monsters for the first time. I'm happy to say that she's delighted with them and can't wait to come back and get more.

Hopefully those of you reading this are feeling the same way, and will come and see me next week at Caste Village! Until next time....

$40 lost and found

I'll get to that title in a minute.

But first, let me bore you with the latest at HappyJack Bakery. Last Thursday, I had so much going on, I couldn't find the time to bake for the market. So I skipped it, but ended up baking chocolate chip and PBL Dreams on Friday night. Both Saturday and Sunday found me up at 6:15 am, but done baking by Noon-ish. On Saturday, we still had time to go out for lunch, and then spend the afternoon with our friends. Sunday, we had time to do some shopping at IKEA and Target. I met Franklin at IKEA. He's a lovely, folding bar stool.... tall, low back, and footrest—exactly what I needed to keep me company at the market.

So today was market day. I did really well. It started off, only 30 minutes in, when this very sweet woman stopped by, and told me she was going to call me earlier over this past weekend. She had a fundraiser that she needed to take cookies to this week, and was going to call to see if I would bake them for her. She couldn't find the time to call, because she's been taking care of her husband, who has been in and out of the hospital recently, and is recovering from surgery. She ended up buying my only apple pie that I made this week, plus four packs of cookies. Next came the mom and son team who really like my Cinnasnappers. She asked how many I had today, and I said "Five packs that are here on the table, but more are in the truck." She said, "I'll take all five here." Sweet! I had a few other people that came and bought four or five packs of various cookies, as well. At one point, a nice girl, perhaps late twenties-early thirties, stopped by and was having a hard time deciding what to take. She ended up buying two packs of cookies, one pack being my A-maize-ingly Lime Cookies. About 10 minutes later, she came rushing back to my table from the parking lot and said, "I just had one and they are fabulous! I need to buy another pack!" She bought my last pack of those.

One woman stopped and bought some chocolate chip cookies. She's been to my table before, and as she was leaving, she said, "You have a really good product here." Another regular commented on how lovely my packaging is. And another woman, who bought some PBL Dreams, ended up coming back twice with two different women, trying to get them to buy some of my cookies. She was a great promoter of my bakery, and for that, I'm very, very grateful. It really is an unexplainable feeling when total strangers come back week after week because you make something they really like. It really makes this adventure so much fun!

So you're probably wondering what's up with the $40 that was lost and found, right? Well, when I got home, I counted my cash, and counted what I had left over. I calculated that I should have brought in $40 more than I had. I was getting pretty anxious about it. Forty dollars is a lot of money, especially when it's your own sweat and tears that are behind the work. Anyway, I counted, double counted, then triple counted. The money was just not there. Then I was starting to get super sad about it. I felt defeated. How could I have made such a big mistake? Did I drop it? Where could it have gone? Then Jack, trying to help, starting prodding me with questions. Fortunately, one of the questions he asked was, "Are you sure you started out with the same amount of change as you always do?" Well, that sparked my memory. I had gone to the bank last Thursday, and got some $1s and $5s that I knew I would need to replenish for my change pouch. And I kept telling myself last night that I should do my paperwork from my banking last week before I start sales for this week, but I was too tired, so I didn't do it. Well, sure enough, my $1s and $5s ($40 worth) were still sitting in an envelope up in our office. I had never added them back to my change envelope, although I was counting the money today as if I had. So there it was. My $40 was found almost as quickly as I discovered it was missing. I was so grateful to jack for helping me solve that problem.

Before I leave you for the night, I'm now perplexed with where to go next. My new friend, Deanna, has invited me to sell my stuff at her table at another farmer's market on Tuesdays. But I still have a pretty full-time part-time job. I'm not sure how often I can justify taking another hour or two of vacation time each week to go selling my baked goods. But I'd like to try it, even if it's just to see how well my products sell at other markets. She also sells at another market on Thursdays. I don't work on Thursdays, so this one might actually be a good one for me to look into getting a table at, even if was just for a week or two, again to just see how my products sell at other markets. But selling more means having to find the time to bake more, and right now, with only having weekends to do it, I'm not sure I want to give up more family time in order to bake more. It's so hard to figure out the right balance between personal life stuff, my regular job, and my passion. I just keep trusting that God will guide me in the right direction.

Friendly faces

I had fun today.

I arrived at the market around 2:30 to get my tent set up. Joyce, the vendor who makes fudge, came over to help with my tent. She's so kind. And then when Lila arrived a few minutes later, she brought her over a present—a bottle of bubbles and a large bubble wand. Joyce is always so pleasant; Lila loves to visit her at her table. And Joyce is so good with Lila. It's very sweet.

My mom came down for a little while to help me get set up, and she stuck around for the first 30 minutes or so of sales. It's nice to have company, but this time, it wasn't so bad to man the table alone after she left. Jack didn't arrive until close to 6:00 pm, so I was on my own for a good 2-1/2 hours. During that time frame, I was able to chat with quite a few people that stopped at my table. Some of them bought goodies; others just looked, inquired, and shot the breeze with me.

An older woman asked how long I've been baking. I realized I didn't know the answer (when did this all start?), but I guessed at about 20 years. Then she referred to me as a "kid", and yes, my 41-year old bones were loving that. A few people inquired about placing orders, Christmas cookies, and a peach pie. Several asked where my bakery is located, and I told them that I bake from my kitchen right here in Whitehall. That always seems to intrigue people. Then I had one person ask, "Did you make these pies?" I'm not sure what answer they expected. Where would they have come from if I didn't make them? Then it made me wonder, do some people not realize that I'm spending every spare moment every weekend fresh-baking these items I'm selling? Do they think I'm buying them at the local grocery store and reselling them under a different name? I hope not, but I guess anything is possible.

There is occasionally an Amish truck selling baked goods, but they weren't there today. I asked a few women who came to my table, who usually buy from the Amish, why they like the Amish cookies so much. I wondered, what do they have that I don't have? They told me that they're much cheaper than my cookies are. But in the end, personally to me, it's not just about cost. It's about value for the cost, and the experience you get at my table. I've had several people tell me what they don't like about the Amish's treats. And I've had many, many people stand at my table and talk about how good my products are, and how great they look, etc., etc. So I don't think I'm too worried. I have a nice clientele who come back week after week, and I'm grateful for my customers that have such wonderful things to say about my goodies. (Although I guess I wouldn't be writing about this if I weren't just a little worried that the next time the Amish truck is there, some of my business will be lost to them. Why do people associate the Amish with good baked goods, anyway? Other people in this world can bake, right?)

Again, I was grateful to see some friendly faces in the crowd. My friend, Tara, stopped by with her two daughters. One of Lila's friends and her mom and sisters stopped by. My friend, the wants-to-be-a-baker-when-he-retires one, stopped by with his wife. Some of my closest friends, Mike and Molly, stopped. The woman and her son who love my Cinnasnappers stopped by and bought the few that I had this week. The I-think-they're-two-sisters-and-a-brother group stopped by. Margot and Tony stopped, as did my next-door neighbors. And Deanna gave me more great tips this week. We're going to try to get together later this week to share some strategies. I'm excited. Lastly, one of my good friend's mom and dad stopped by at the end of the night. They live out in Plum, so it was a haul for them to make it over, but I was grateful to see them. It's always nice to get surprise visitors.

The weather was nice today. Warm at times when the sun shone bright, but there was a breeze, and it was a bit cloudy, so it was bearable. Much better than last week. I tried selling a new cookie today that my boss named for me—Love Triangles. It's three cookies in one: chocolate chip, peanut butter, and chocolate. Total yumminess. Sales were pretty decent. I didn't sell out, but came close. About 90% of my product sold. But I'm stumped, yet again, with what to make, and in what quantities, for next week. This week, the oatmeal cookies didn't move very well, but they've sold out in other weeks. It's so unpredictable. Only one pie sold. At least this time, I only made two, so that wasn't quite as big of a loss as it has been.

Anyway, all in all, it was a good day. I was grateful for Jack's company when he arrived, as things really do slow down after 6:00, plus I really needed a bathroom break. Lila made it out a few minutes before we started to close up shop, and it was nice to have her there, too. It's really turned into a family affair. And I'm loving it every step of the way.

Hot, hot, hot!

Oh my gosh, yesterday was stinking hot! I'm almost embarrassed to even write a post about it, but I did so terribly yesterday, it's not even funny. I had decided to make about 90 items (I think I ended up with 95); that was based on how much I sold each of the last two weeks. It seemed like a good number to go with. But I wasn't certain what to expect. It was July 5th, the end of a holiday weekend. Many businesses were closed. I thought that perhaps we'd have a new crowd—the people that are normally at work from 3:00 to 7:00 on a Monday and can't make it to the market. But I didn't expect that the regular regulars weren't going to come. I also thought it was possible that some people wouldn't come because they'd be at picnics, or that they had already bought their farmer's market items a few days earlier in order to prepare for picnics over the weekend. At any rate, I thought that for each customer that normally would have come that didn't, there would have been a customer that would come that couldn't normally get to us.

I was so wrong. There just wasn't anyone. Perhaps the 90+ degree heat had something to do with it, too. Sure, there were a few people, and I was happy to see a few of my regulars stop by. I'm always grateful to see the Fiore's. They live close to us, and Jack coached their daughter in volleyball a few years back. They're really nice people, and they seem to really like my goodies, so that makes me happy. There is another group that always stops by... two women and a man. I'm guessing that they're brother and sisters, but I don't really know. And then my new friend who also has a desire to open a baking business someday—he stopped by and brought me his brownies he promised to make for me. They were pretty darn good. Very rich and chocolatey—they had a prevailing dark chocolate flavor. But it's hard to beat the taste of something you've made for years and really have a love of. I still prefer my brownies, as I think they have a nice texture (firm, but cake-like), and that fudge frosting on top is to die for. But I was grateful to have a treat that someone else made. They made a great dessert after dinner this evening.

I met another new friend—a fellow bakery vendor named Deanna. She had some good information regarding her journey to baking for a living. She recently quit her job and is now baking at a commercial kitchen she rents that's located in a coffee shop. She's selling to that coffee shop, and others, and is working several farmer's markets. This is where I'd like to be some day, but I don't know if I can financially afford to do it. We'll see where God takes me down this journey. In the meantime, she was kind enough to take my leftover apple pies to try to sell them at another market she was selling at today. I'm anxious to see if she had any luck.

Oh, in the end, I only sold about 1/3 of what I made. Hopefully it will all keep well until next week so I can at least have somewhat of a weekend off. I'll still need to bake, but not nearly as much as I have been. It will be nice to have some quality family time this weekend.

Until next time...

It was better today—or was it?

This week I made less items to sell. I had 116 items for sale, and of that, I sold 90. Last week I sold 88, but I had started with much more (155 items). So, although this week I seemed to be doing better (i.e., my table was emptying out by the end of the evening), it's all relative, since I started with less items. Starting with less made selling the same amount as last week seem like I sold more things this week. Ok, I'll stop blabbering. My analytical mind thinks this way, but I realize that more than half of you are probably thinking, "What in the world is she talking about?"

So let me tell you about my day.

The weather was threatening today. It was windy, and it seemed like a storm was trying to brew all day. At one point, it did rain for a brief 10 minutes or so, but then the sun came out. A while later, it looked gloomy again, but never did rain. And then the sun came out again. Overall, it was a pretty nice day. It wasn't too hot, and the breeze was lovely. The crowd seemed about the same as last week. It's pretty dense right at 3:00, and each hour afterwards, the crowd thins out a bit, so that by closing time, maybe two or three people are left wandering from table to table.

I've had some great repeat customers, and that tickles me pink! I love that I recognize them now, and I even know one or two of their names. It's nice that they care enough to share that with me. And I make a point to remember them. Some people come back for the same thing, while some people come back wanting to try something else. Some people send their friends. One man and his wife have come twice now, and they're wonderful. He is a few years away from retirement, and has said that his dream, like mine, is to someday open his own bakery. He raves about his brownie recipe, but was willing to try mine last week (I understand this concept, as I find it hard to find another apple pie that tastes as good as mine). This week, he said he really liked mine, but now wants me to try his. So he's going to bring me a few of his brownies next week to get my opinion. I love the way this works. I love being in my community, meeting people, sharing stories, and having a following. Many people seem to be extra supportive when they find out that I'm baking from my kitchen, and that I live here in Whitehall. And that makes me feel good, too.

This week, none of my items seemed to be a real stand-out like they have in the past. In fact, the lime cookies sold so well the first week, but have tapered off drastically in sales. Maybe they just weren't good? I don't know. But the people that come back for them rave about how good they are, so who knows. Last week, the Squish Monsters sold the best, and this week, they moved slowly, but steady. This week, Cinnasnappers and PBL Dreams re-emerged, and I'm glad they did. People seem to like them. I didn't make a ton, but just enough to offer a nice variety. The muffins, on the other hand, are not selling at all. And this week, I only sold two pies, and one of them was to my mother-in-law, so I'm not sure that counts.

So yet again, I'm faced with what to prepare for next week. Next week is July 5. We're off of work, as I suspect many people are, so will the market be more crowded? Or will it be less crowded because people will be at picnics and such? Or less crowded because people will have had picnics over the weekend, so not really need anything else to start their week off? I don't know. With such a perishable product line, this is still the hardest thing to figure out. Until next week....

(On a side note, I ate dinner at the Escajeda Taco tent this week. It was so awesome. A fresh, soft tortilla that they deep fried in front of me, and filled with beef and simple toppings. It was delicious. And the Amish bakery finally appeared this week, and I tried one of their homemade donuts. It was fantastic! Uh-oh, is it dumb of me to write that here, since they kind of are the competition? Oh well. When it's good, it's good, and I can't deny them that!)

Week 2

Today was not as fun as last Monday.

I arrived home from work around 1:50 pm. We're allowed to start setting up at the market at 2:00, so I ran inside, packed up the car, changed my clothes, and headed down to Caste Village. My mom and Lila were with me this week to help set up. Set up went fine. It's not much physical labor—just big, bulky things like tents and tables that it's easier to assemble with two people. I was grateful for my mom's help, and Lila was a doll and knew to stay out of the way. By 3:00, the market opened, and we were ready for customers. While the crowd seemed to be the same size as last week, we just didn't have as many customers. And I don't think it was just me. I talked to a few other vendors who were also a little slower this week than last week. One thing that might have affected me, particularly, was the weather. It was hot and sunny. There was a vendor selling snow cones, and on a hot, summer day, he did very well. But for every snow cone he sold, that was probably one less pack of cookies I could have sold to a mom who wanted to buy a treat for her kid. So c'est la vie.

I made the same amount of treats for this week as I had made the previous week; however, last week I sold out, and this week, I had about 40% left. I had quite a few people stop by to tell me how awesome the goodies were that they bought last week, so that was nice to hear. Miss Bernie, one of the teachers at Lila's day care, sent her husband down to get some treats, and I was very appreciative of their support. He even came back for more! And our babysitters' dad stopped by after we were packing everything up, and bought one of my last apple pies. Thanks, Fred! We had several repeat customers, and I was happy to see Margot return for more lime cookies. She emailed me last week to tell me how good they were—that really brightened my day, to get an email from a stranger raving about something I made. This week, she introduced herself, so it was nice to meet her in person. And the lime cookies were better this week than last week, I think. However, that claim wasn't enough to convince one woman to buy another pack. She went out of her way to come to my booth yesterday and tell me how horrible the lime cookies were from the week before. She asked what the inedible hard things were in those cookies (the lime cornmeal cookies), and I told her it was cornmeal. But I had used a coarser cornmeal last week, and I personally felt it was too coarse, so I switched and went with a much finer cornmeal this week. I told her she should try a pack this week, but she refused. I'm not sure what people expect from me (or anyone for that matter) when they complain like that. What was her point? If she wasn't willing to try it again after I fixed the problem, why did she feel the need to complain? I felt bad at first, but when she refused a new pack, I realized I just can't care about what every person thinks. I receive too many words of praise over my treats to let one sour apple spoil the fun.

So now my dilemma is predicting how much to make for next week. And I need to figure it out quick, because my baking schedule starts on Thursday. At this point, I must say that predicting sales is the hardest part of selling at the farmer's market. That and standing around for an hour with very few people stopping by to say hello. I don't even care if you don't want to buy anything; I just like to talk to people. Thank goodness Jack came to keep me company yesterday. I would have been pretty lonely there by myself.

Thanks, again, to all of our family and friends that stopped by to support us: Kelsey, Paige, Mikey, Molly, and all of our friends, new and old, from Whitehall and St. Gabe's.

Starting Out

Wow, what a whirlwind these past few days have been. Yesterday was my first day of sales at the farmer's market, and it was a huge success. But let me take you back to the beginning.

I started out last Thursday baking 4 batches of my chocolate chip cookies. I was only going to make 2 batches, but decided at the last minute that that might not be enough. Then on Saturday, I baked all day (about 9 hours between baking and keeping the kitchen clean) as I worked mostly on cookies. On Sunday, I made brownies in the morning, then focused on muffins, and ended the day with Super Apple HappyJacks and regular Apple HappyJacks. Sunday evening was filled with packaging all of the treats, which took a substantial amount of time. I was grateful to our friends, Mikey and Molly, who were kind enough to come over and help.

Then the big day arrived. I was excited, nervous, anxious, happy, scared, etc.—every emotion you could imagine all at one time. This was my creation, this whole bakery thing, and I didn't want it to fail. It couldn't fail. Failing was not an option. We arrived at the site at around 2:15 pm, and the market opened for business at 3:00. It took us a while to set up everything, but I suspect we'll get much faster as the weeks go on. The tent was probably the easiest part of the whole set up, believe it or not. In the end, I was very happy with the way the table looked. Our first customer was my friend, Jackie, which made that sale feel very special. Throughout the day, among the strangers that bought from us, a variety of family and friends came by. It was nice to see the familiar faces every now and then through the crowd. I saw people from church, my chiropractor, the lady from the bank, from the drug store, from Lila's daycare, etc. I must say, it was a wonderful and fulfilling experience.

I learned some things, too. My lime cornmeal cookies sold like hotcakes, selling out first, and in less than an hour. The muffins didn't move as quickly, so I don't think I'll make as many next week. Everyone loved my "Better Than Regular Old Chocolate Chip Cookies", so I'm going to make even more of those than I made this week. Some other minor adjustments will be made as well.

In the end, we sold everything but two Crumby Monkey Muffins, which my friend, Bill, was happy to gobble up this morning at work. I'm very happy that I started this adventure. It was rewarding, fun, and great to meet all kinds of new people at the market. If you're reading this, and you purchased one of my goodies, I hope you enjoyed what you purchased, and I hope you'll be back again to support HappyJack Bakery. We look forward to seeing you at our table!