A Slice of Life

Crooked Tree Breadworks founder/ head baker Greg Carpenter takes you through the ups and downs of running an artisan bakery in northern Michigan.

7:00 - I arrive at work grateful that, for the time being, I am not the guy who had to get here a 4:00AM to bake off the crusty breads. Jimmy, who is that guy, is just pulling out the last of the sourdough baguettes. As I pass by the cooling rack on the way to my office I grab one and feel its heft -- after this many years as a baker I can feel the crumb structure of a loaf just by picking it up. Today's baguettes are good, better than yesterday's which had lower volume due to a cold front. Despite strict time and temperature controls in our production methods, Mother Nature can still throw a curveball that will affect the bread. I'm glad to see the bread bakers were able to make the necessary process adjustments to get the baguettes back where they need to be. Once the cold front passes the bakers will adjust their process yet again.

7:15 - In my office I check my calendar and notice I have a meeting with my flour distributor mid morning. Flour prices are going through the roof this year, and he wants to make sure we are prepared. I make a note to contact the miller.

8:00- John, our Distribution Team Supervisor, has the van filled with fresh bread, pastries, pies and granola and is on his way down the road. Today there are 11 stops around Petoskey and Harbor Springs -- three fewer than usual. January weather has taken its toll. Later in the day John will hear from the missing accounts as they place hopeful orders for the upcoming 3-day ski weekend. I catch myself uttering a prayer for more skiers.

9:00 - The first tubs of dough are coming off the fermentation rack and onto the bench for dividing. Matt, the Bread Team Supervisor, started mixing dough at about 6:30 this morning. These batches of soft yeasted bread will go through a final rise after they have been shaped ("the Proof"). When they have reached the proper volume they will be baked off, cooled, sliced and packaged.

9:15 - Kasha, our Pastry Team Supervisor, comes into my office with some interesting cookies. "We need to use up those extra pistachios," she says as she hands me the tempting treat. "I thought these might be good." In my hand she places a round icebox cookie with a swirl pattern of raisins and roasted pistachios and the pungent aroma of orange zest. Although it's pretty early in the day to taste sweet goods, I take a bite and offer my opinion. We agree to put the next batch out for sale with some small changes.

9:30 - Jill, a member of our customer service team, asks me why the cash register terminal is showing a blank screen. I stroll up to the cash register and say Hi to the customers that are waiting to be cashed out. Reaching around the monitor I wiggle a cord. The monitor lights back up. I make a note to source a new chord. While I am up front I prepare a cappuccino for one of my long-time customers, ring it up and return to my office.

10:00 - I am half way through my stack of receipts when Matt comes in to the office. "Well, did you hear?" he asks. I inform him that I had indeed heard that, after working with me for 10 years, he would be moving to Traverse City, to follow his wife's new job. We chat a little about the the new job, about his moving plans, and about his own job search down there. He informs me that he's been talking about employment with bakery owners. I tell him I'll be expecting the inside scoop on every bake shop in TC. He promises to oblige.

10:15 - Ivan, my flour distributor, arrives for our morning meeting. Yes, he admits, our flour costs for the upcoming year will increase sharply. But he points out that the organic flours that we use will not be as affected by price increases as the conventionally farmed flours. I view this as a sort of backhanded victory for sustainable agriculture. Ivan and I spend the rest of the meeting discussing ways in which his company can expand their penetration into the organic market.

11:00 - Having finalized and mailed out the wholesale customer invoices and statements, I head out to the production floor to look at the order board. This time of year there isn't much to see, (in July the wall will be covered). I'm pleased to find a few orders for our Addictive Granola that will be shipping out to other areas of the state.

Over my shoulder Matt is just finishing the first of the sourdough refreshments. These batches of "starter" were culled from the remnants of today's ripe levain. They will go through several mixes before becoming loaves of bread, three days from now.

I wash my hands and head over to the bread bench where Sara has just started shaping our best selling bread, the Italian style. I grab a piece of the soft, tacky dough and give it a gentle fold. It's porous, but not overly so. It's fermenting at a controllable rate, not too gassy, not too acidic. The dough is just strong enough to hold a shape. Once I shape this loaf it will not be disturbed for 18 to 20 hours. During that time the sourdough cultures will slowly transform the starchy, dense dough into a rich, flavorful matrix of gas-filled cells. Early tomorrow morning the baker will load my loaf onto the stone hearth of our vintage deck oven. The direct heat of the stone hearths, with the help of a little steam injected into the chamber, will cause the internal gasses to expand, yielding "oven spring." The crust that forms in the oven will firm up just as the loaf reaches its peak volume and the loaf will hold that shape. The intense heat will drive out moisture, set proteins and caramelize the crust. Despite my 15 years as a baker I still love the elegance of this process.

I shape my loaf and get out of Sara's way. She's a much faster table hand than I am.

11:30 - I always eat an early lunch. As I dip my crust of Roasted Seed bread into my cup of soup, Jimmy peeks into the office to tell me he's done for the day. We block out some time for the next day to talk about his transition to Matt's job as Bread Team Supervisor. We also brainstorm a bit about the schedule changes and hiring required next month when we begin a new bread distribution route to Traverse City.

1:00 - Laurie, the Customer Service Team Supervisor, comes into my office with a look on her face that says "I don't want to tell you this, but...."

"Not again," I reply.

Not missing a beat, she deadpans, "The employees may mutiny."

I warily leave my office to go look for myself. Sure enough, all of the lights on the espresso machine are flashing simultaneously. A quick call to the service tech points to either the pump (pricey) or The Brain (recently replaced and pricey). Unwilling to go down the road to bankruptcy without a fight, I grab an apron, roll up my sleeves and open the tool box.

3:30 - Still at the espresso machine after 2 more phone calls to the tech. After testing the water flow from every accessible joint I take one more look at "The Brain." I trace the wiring harness from The Brain to The Pump for the 10th time, running my finger along its length. This time I notice a small amount of movement at the connector. It's loose. I tighten it and plug in the machine. It fires up. Cheers erupt from the bread bench.

4:00 - I meet with my banker. We have a good relationship. She has a vested interest in making sure I am still in business when spring rolls around so I can pay back all of the money she lent me to stay in business. We talk about the Traverse City route and how it could improve our cash flow in the low season. I leave feeling good about the route.

4:45 - Laurie informs me that one of the computers will not process the UPS shipments that are supposed to leave today. 10 minutes on the phone with tech support and the granola is on its way to Grand Rapids.

5:50 - Grabbing a loaf for home on my way out the door, I realize that I went through the entire day having handled only 3 loaves of bread. My day was spent under the hood of an espresso machine, punching keys in the office, talking on the phone and meeting with people. I ponder how I've changed since I started the bakery in 1996, going from Working Man to The Man. The early days were filled with the constant deadlines and rhythms of bread. I was enrobed in the sensual elements of artisan baking and I wore them like a medal; business concerns were handled whenever I could get to them. But such a level of immersion is unsustainable in the long run. To stay in this profession it is critical to share the long, early hours and hard physical work or you'll end up tired, poor and alone. After 15 years as a professional baker, my involvement with the daily bread is mostly supervisory. I still cover the shifts of sick or absent bakers. I still get my hands in the dough for new product development, high-end specialty products, baking classes and quality control. Sometimes I even play hooky from the office just to bake something cool. But my bakers have become skilled at ironing out the daily issues and they deserve the credit for the consistently high quality of our bread. I'm there to make sure they have the right tools, the right hands and the right mind set to make it happen.

I place my loaf of Sourdough Boule, unwrapped, in the back seat of the car, happy that its aroma will have permeated the interior by the time I pick up my hungry daughter from dance class.

Filed under A Day in the Life