More Changes

Selling at the Lakes Area Farmers' Market in Detroit Lakes, MN has brought forth a whole new set of blessings and challenges.

Blessings:

-Uncle David and family, DL natives, make an instant connection to this active, lake country town. Not only do I get to see these relatives more often, but I am also meeting some of their friends. They have done a great job making me feel at home right away.

-50 plus loaves along with dozens of goodies fly off my table in just a few hours. This is the largest amount of baking I've ever done for a single market.

-A great group of vendors, averaging 15 during the peak season, have warmly welcomed me. New friendships are already forming both with vendors and shoppers.

-Sisters more than willing to give a chunk of their day to help me sell. I couldn't do it without them!

Challenges:

-Two long and tiring days of baking to try meet this market's demand. Not only does this mean a weary baker but a frazzled book keeper (one and the same person) trying to sneak her work in every spare minute.

-A work-out trying to keep the tables stocked with all baked goods.

Solutions to challenges:

-More sandwich loaves to "up" production. Six sandwich loaves fit in one oven at a time in contrast with two round loaves.

-Baking what I can handle and not worrying about selling out early.

-One complete week off to recuperate and catch up. Were you wondering what brought on this rash of blog posts?

-Dad's beautiful cedar crates. How do these help? Let me show you, but first, a short tour of what he did...

Dad, chief designer/craftsman, in his shop late into the evening.

That's an impressive pile of saw dust!

Dad's finished product loaded with my finished product.

Now for how these work out to be a solution. For one thing, no longer am I limited to hauling everything to market in our mini van. With the new, handy frames, I can slide eight trays, each loaded literally with pounds of bread, into our Forester. Neat, huh?

It's a pretty tight fit, but with Hannah, my travel loving family's chief packer of vehicles, set to the task, there's even room for my sister's stacks of books to study on the road. (No, not a student. A tutor!)

And my favorite solution. Look at all the bread that fits on my tables now! No more scrambling to restock. Thank you, Dad!

More refiguring is in order to manage this new venture, I'm sure, but with help from the whole family, I'm well on the way to a great, new market.