Everything's All Rye 😉

Earlier this week, I was walking out of the kitchen on my way to pick up some missing ingredients and ran into two lovely ladies who were lost in the parking lot looking for the bakery. They wanted to come visit C&C, sit down, and enjoy some goodies. But of course, sadly, I had to explain that our retail shop is not open yet, that I had nothing on hand to serve them with, and that I was so sorry they came all this way just to be disappointed. Soon, I said..."It's coming very soon!" (If you're reading this, HI MARIA!!!!)

This made me realize that it was high time I update you all on what's going on with our future home at the indoor Rockford City Market. Joe, my super awesome architect, and I have recently finalized the interior build-out design and it is now ready to be submitted for all the necessary permits. We are striving to make the space open, inviting, comfortable, and cozy...and I'm really loving the way it's coming together on paper right now. I know the construction folks are working non-stop on the overall building too and I'm so excited to see how everything will turn out.

In the meantime though, bread production for markets has been on the forefront of our minds as we enter the second half of the season. I'm glad to see some cooler weather on the forecast lately because our kitchen has been awfully hot and fermentation activity is in overdrive causing me some panic at times. This is one of the reasons we have yet to announce new baking class dates, for those of you wondering. Cooler weathers also have me envisioning more seasonal flavors for our menu...earthy beet bread or maybe some roasted squash loaves, anyone?

For this weekend, the new flavor on our menu is the Caraway Rye. It's made with organic dark rye flour and toasted caraway seeds...it is basically a "deli rye" bread but we are not calling it that because it's not a soft pan bread as it has all the crusty goodness of a full sourdough loaf. I hope someone will make a fantastic Reuben sandwich with this and sends me a picture (or just go ahead and send the sandwich...that's good too!) We will also have Baker & Brewer, Chocolate Porter, Everything Bagel, Olive Oil Semolina, Country White, Cranberry Walnut, and Seeded Whole Wheat. I think this is the most variety we've ever offered at the markets before so I hope everyone will get to take home their favorite :)