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...