Slow Rise

Two markets this Saturday 18th May 2013

Mam (Maureen) and Dad (Roger) are covering for us at Usk Farmer's Market and Natalie and I are at the Smallholder's Show in Builth Wells, both events are Saturday 18th May. Busy busy...

Usk Farmer's Market 4th May

If a bad workman blames his tools, what kind of workman praises his tools?

Had a nerd-tastic week experimenting with our new mixer.

Had some stonking results (amongst a few howlers).

The first spelt with the new mixer was the best we've ever made.

Bodes well . . . 

 

Gorseinon Food Festival Saturday 27th April 2013

Back in my home town this Saturday for Gorseinon Food Festival. This was the town where my grandfather, John Lewington Sweetman first started baking back in 1954. Almost 60 years later, I hope to do the spirit of "Sweetmans Bakery" proud.

Usk Farmer's Market 20th April

It's been one of those weeks. Elation when our new mixer arrived quickly followed by lots of frustration when it broke down. Twice. And then again.

Serves me right for buying Italian. . . but at least it looks beautiful. Arran the sparky came to the rescue so gonna do a few test bakes on Sunday to work out what's what.

It's almost like the manufacturer expected us to have a problem because when we opened it up it had a full set of spare fuses inside, you know, just in case. . . 

We have decided not to sell the old mixer.

Usk Farmer's Market 6th April

Our white sourdough has been going through lots of little improvements in the last few months and we're taking more than ever to Usk. If you haven't had it for a while, now's a good time to try it... 

Usk Farmer's Market 16th March

Last market before Easter this Saturday so it's the last outing for our lovely Hot Cross Buns

Usk Farmer's Market 2nd March

Another new boy for Usk is our Khorasan loaf, part of our  Alternative Grain range.

High in selenium, protein and complex carbs. A great alternative to modern wheat. Unique flavour.

 

The power of tweaking (cont)

Back in 1997 I worked for Dixons Group (owner of PC World, Currys, The Link and Dixons), a massive £5bn turnover, multi-national FTSE-100 mega-corp. I wanted the full-fat corporate experience and that's exactly what I got.

My job was to improve the business through identifying opportunites (easy and fun) and making them happen (bloody hard and very frustrating). Dixons started out as a true entrepreneurial business, with instinctive decision making and a bucanneering style of "JFDI". Sir Stanley Kalms makes Alan Sugar look like an intern.

As the 1990s ended, it had gone stale, and growth had stagnated. Most of the 2500 people working in head office (that is not a typo) were manager-mentality. Don't rock the boat, don't risk new things. Avoid failure at all costs.

I used to hear the phrase "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", an awful lot.

Why wait until something's broken to make it better?

Our Walnut sourdough is a great loaf (it won a True Taste award last year) but a few tweaks later, it's now it's even better. Tweak Tweak.

 

 

The power of tweaking

These passed the Usk Farmer's Market test and sold out in about an hour... We've had loads of great feedback from our shops too, with a few suggestions how to make them better. So I made a few tweaks, made another batch, tweaked again and made another batch... I made batch 8 on Friday and now they sing with fruity, spicy sweetness.

"In the valleys they are making magic"

Thank you Will Richards!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_richards/8455614872/