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!