Tuesday May 11, 2011
Today we worked with more parts of the retail side of the bakery, fondant, and baking cookies. As the project continues, Eileen and I have been given more and more responsibility. One example of this is answering the phone or pricing items.
It is really surprising sometimes how much goes into the upkeep of the bakery. These jobs include taking out the trash, doing dishes, washing the floor, washing the display cases, and vacuuming the floor. On our first day, Eileen and I spent almost 2 hours washing dishes. It instantly increases your respect for the people who wash the dishes on a daily basis. Since that day, we've realized that in a bakery, you can never get ahead of dirty dishes. At the bakery, Sandy MacDonald, the owner of the bakery, has a person who is in charge of the retail side of the bakery. Her name is Diane, and she has extremely helpful in telling Eileen and I where things are and how to carry out certain tasks.
The two big baking tasks that Eileen and I did was to roll out bright pink fondant and then use a special cookie cutter to cut out stars from the rolled fondant. The cool thing about working with fondant is that it works almost exactly like play-doh. It dries faster then play-doh and of course it's edible as well. The next thing that Eileen and I did was to make peanut butter cookies.
I am deeply jealous of your project! Are you learning lots of skills beyond dish washing? Are you attempting to use your new baking skills at home or are you completely worn out and tired of baking by the time you get home? It's interesting how you commented on all the mundane and annoying tasks that go into keeping up something like a bakery. I've always wanted to work in a bakery, but I always just imagined my hands deep in dough, the wonderful smell permeating all my clothes. It's easy to forget that real bakeries involve real live messes that must be cleaned. Food that must be priced. I have had a similar "real life" awakening with my farm. While I love working at Snake Hill, walking through the woods to find veggies, sinking my hands in the dirt to replant flowers, petting goats to coax them back to their pen, I realized I never want to be a farmer. I love the idea of organic food and local sustainability, but I HATE cleaning up animal excrement. Literally there is nothing worse. I still love my project but I am now aware of the divide between my romantic ideals and reality. I hope that you still love working in the bakery, even now that you have seen the other side.
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