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...