We are go!

Phew, it's been a while. I've been sooo busy!

I'm up and running!!! I'm operating my little community bakery 4 mornings a week from my kitchen and dining room under the name of The Rustic Kitchen. I make my tin loaves on weekdays and do my special loaves on a Saturday. It's early starts and early finishes, which suits me fine.

It's not all been plain sailing though. I started off well, managing to get a local farm shop to sell my bread a couple of days a week but that stopped over Christmas and hasn't started up again as they've said they're not trading enough at this time of year. That leaves me with the private orders, which although essential, aren't paying the bills.

So, what am I to do about this? One thing I've not mentioned before is that I am starting some studies as soon as the course material is sent. I'm certainly keeping busy. I'm aIso helping to run our church community cafe on a Tuesday and with a 1 year old (how did that happen?!) in the house there's not much spare time!

I do have a quite understanding husband, with a shiny new job, which has taken the pressure off somewhat, but if I want to keep putting diesel in the car I'm going to have to come up with something whilst I try to grow the business. That's where my Christmas present will hopefully be coming in. A fancy pants sewing machine. I've just taken delivery of a job lot of material and other bits so have plans to create a lovely range of babies toys. I will knit them up and embellish. Seems that handmade is hot currently so who am I to argue?

Hopefully I can try to update a bit more frequently now, so till next time x

www.therustickitchen.com

Getting cloer to being up and running!

It's been a busy few weeks since my first entry - time for an update!

Thanks to those who have commented on my humble beginings, I wasn't sure if I'd be interesting enough to read about! In response, We have several well established farmers' markets in our area, some more subscribed to by sellers than others. Some are of the type where produce must be made within 30 miles anbd others do seem to be more general. I have found a distinct lack of good bread being sold in the area and although there are those who sell some smoked products there is no charcurerie to speak of. After a recent article in Delicious magazine and on the Radio 4's Food Programme I do believe there is a nationwide gap in the charcuterie market with a handful of producers scattered around the UK. I know that with a few brief conversations with market traders so far they have showed great interest in what we intend to do, especially from home.

So, what have I been up to? Apart from being a mum to a 5 month old (a job in itself) I have been attempting to bake bread at every opportunity when he has let me. No fancy stuff yet but I am a perfectionist and want to do the basics brilliantly so as I can develop my reputation as soon as possible for quality and taste. This is crucial as real bread is enevitably more expensive to produce than Chorley-Wood pap so will cost more to sell. I'm using organic ingredients wherever possible and avoiding additives at all costs. So far I've had mainly yummy noises from those doing the eating, which is a good sign!

However, there have been some disasters. Some my fault - over proving as more loaves are ready at once than I can get in the oven, woops! Some the fault of my terrible oven. The underbaked sourdoughs at the Patronal lunch at church were embarassing.
Our initial inspection by environmental health was a success. We've been given a thumbs up for baking, once we're level 2 Health and Hygene approved and we've had the sign off visit. However, as meat is high risk we need to do a few things before we can get cracking with curing. Few jobs for the hubby then - like moving the shed into the veg garden and building a outhouse! So, we'll open for business with bread and a few bits and bobs like stocks and sauces and the meat will come in later.
I have been worrying however about one aspect. How on earth would I be able to bake enough in 1 day to sell?! So, being resourceful, google to the rescue. I had a shufty round and found a perfect day course. A company called Love Loaves who claim to have the smallest bakery in the world (2m x 2m) run a course called the mini bakery blueprint. You bake bread with the wonderfully named Dragan and soda bread with Penny and they provide help and resources to help you to set up you own business from home. And yes, they have solved the quantity issue. Simple - bread tins! 8 in at a time instead of just 2 and that'll do it. I'm not a huge fan of tin loaves but untill I've room for an extension to fit in a bank of ovens then it'll do fine. They helped refine my shaping and I came home with 4 loaves of beautiful bread, a folder of recipies and advice and the promise of future help at the end of the phone and e-mail.
So, with much more confidence than before I now have a new oven ordered (as recommended by Dragan) and a business name registered with Companies House. Introducing The Rustic Kitchen! With the Preserving and Smoking course next week at River Cottage HQ and the Health and Hygene course this weekend I'm sure that my next update will be just as packed :)

Begining a new life

For 8 years I have been running on the treadmill of corporate life. Being a medical rep means long hours, both on the road, waiting in doctors surgeries and next to consultants' offices and in front of the laptop. Last year I became pregnant with my first child and stoped working in September.
January saw the arrival of my son Charlie, both an angel and devil in equal amounts. Since then I have been evaluating my life and along with my husband have decided to take the plunge and try my hand at starting a food business.  I'll be hopefully baking artisan breads; think foccacia, sourdough, spelt etc as well as attempting charcuterie. I've already signed up for the smoking and preserving course at River Cottage HQ in June and the deep cleaning of the home kitchen is underway in preparation for the first Environmental Health inspection. We aim to start small at our local farmer's market and build up to eventually opening our own premesis in the future.
So, hopefully over the coming weeks and months I can keep a journal here which will chart our progress. I don't expect it all to be plain sailing and I know there'll be tears along the way. But, with time and effort I hope to leave the suits in the spare wardrobe and retire the breifcase. I hope I can inspire others to make the same leap of faith, or at least avoid my mistakes xx