very very very hard to believe, but it's almost been a whole frikkin year since we opened, and i'll be damned if we're not gonna throw ourselves a hell of a birthday shindig.
thank you a zillion times over to all you who have helped and supported and loved us up so good along the way, we'd be lost without you.
so come on out and eat some pizza and drink some drink and listen to some sweet tunes and have yourselves a ball with us.
<3 josey
well, the holidays have come and gone, and by golly, looks like we're a good 3 weeks into 2014 already... holy crap! did you make any resolutions? i sure did - for 2014 i am finally going to stop eating so much bread. YEAH RIGHT I WILL NEVER DO THAT NOT EVER EVER EVER DON'T EVEN JOKE ABOUT THAT
but for real, i'm all in favor of January 1 being the motivation for folks to make changes to their lives that they've been wanting to make for a while and have needed that extra push to make it happen. so if you need less bread in your life, then please be my guest. we do make a handful of yummy goodies at The Mill that don't have any wheat in them, so treat yourself to some granola, or a breakfast bar, or very soon we will actually have a peanut butter cookie that's made without any gluten-filled ingredients too! but be warned - if you have a very serious allergy/sensitivity, everything is made in close proximity to wheat, so we cannot guarantee against it making you feel the way wheat/gluten makes you feel.
but while we are on the topic of wheat/bread/gluten, check this out - i have been doing an informal experiment for the last few years, and i would hereby like to publish my results, right frikkin here and now. (wow, i'm getting excited, i didn't know i was going to do this until just now, and now my heart is beating so nice and fast.) so here it is.
i know many people who have sensitivity to wheat/bread/gluten. their symptoms vary from getting queasy, to having rashes, to a very upset tummy. to each of them i have said this - if you wouldn't mind taking the risk, i would love for you to try a loaf of our dark mountain rye bread, and see how it makes you feel. this is what that loaf looks like, in case you were wondering:
obviously this is a big thing for them to do, as they are willfully engaging in behavior that may make them queasy/rashy/farty. so for this i thank them passionately. and i gift them a loaf, a meager expression of the deep gratitude i feel for the risk they're taking. and now you are wondering, oh curious reader, what has happened to them? queasiness for days? rashes covering every inch of their body? farts, farts, and more farts??!? no my friends, every single one of had the same result: nothing. they eat the bread and they don't have any symptoms and they go about their day as per usual. (a little fart here and there is perfectly normal, ok??)
so what the hell, let me be clear - i am NOT saying that our dark mountain rye bread is the silver bullet to our current epidemic of health issues related to wheat/bread/gluten. so don't let me catch any of you going around quoting me as saying such or i will furrow my brow at you and tell you how disappointed i am in your poor listening skills. but what i am saying is this - while many people have had health problems associated with eating bread, i do firmly believe that the vast majority of these problems have their roots in the way that that particular loaf of bread was made. to be specific, mass-produced bread made with mass-produced ingredients is maybe not the sweetest.
but if you take an organically grown grain (be it wheat or rye), mill it into flour while keeping it nice and cool, use that flour to make a loaf of bread in combination with a sourdough culture, properly ferment that sucker, then eat it fresh, i would hazard to guess that it would digest very easily for almost everybody reading this. (mind you, i specifically say *almost* everybody, undoubtedly it will be harmful for some of you, and i am not doubting that for one moment.) yes, it just might not cause you the same problems that you had with that loaf of bread that was wrapped in plastic and sitting on a grocery store shelf for weeks before you bought it. not to mention that it was made in a factory using ingredients that were raised with profitability as the one & only goal, not taste nor nutrition nor goodness for the Earth. so yes, i do think that small batch whole grain sourdough bread is good for you, and mass produced factory white bread is not.
but that's just me, you can do whatever the heck you want.
(phew, that was a bit of a rush, i really wasn't planning on doing that, please forgive me if you were just looking to get your fill of pretty pictures and silly jokes.)
anyhoo, enough of that, let me show you some pretty pictures and tell you some silly jokes.
i spent 2 weeks home in Vermont & New York, and it was so so so nice. first i went to my mama's house, and gave her a X mas gift, which she added to her collection. her collection of what, you ask?? well, maybe just maybe you will want to get it for someone you love so they can add to their collection as well:
AWWW YEAAAHHHHH the book is done!!! it's released April 15, and it is very hard for me to believe, so please pinch me and remind that i did in fact write a book and maybe just maybe people want to buy it. i may even do a little bit of traveling to promote this thing, so keep your eyes peeled cuz i may be coming to a party near you.
after mama checked out the book i made us some pizza:
then a nice hike with papa in the woods where we stumbled upon a sweet old maple sugar shack:
and plenty of other good good things, but come oooooon, i don't wanna bore ya, i'm sure you've got plenty of more valuable things to do with your time than read these here tales any longer... and i've got a mountain bike ride to go on!!
but one more thing, before i forget - The Mill turns 1 year old on February 13! cannot believe a whole year has gone by, but as the old folks say, "time flies when you're having fun." will keep you posted about festivities.
love & kisses & rainbows 4eva
j
it's that time of year again folks, and i do have to say, i like it more than i remember. this might be because last year i spent every waking moment in the construction site that was soon to be The Mill, trying to figure out what the hell i was doing, and mixing up the hundreds and hundreds of tiles that now cover our southern wall (and yes, that was me at work in the bathroom too, thank you very much).
yup, last year was the first year that i didn't spend the holidays at home in Vermont with my folks and aunts and uncles and cousins, and i did not like that very much. so i was thinking i'd most definitely head home this year to wake up Christmas morning in my childhood home and maybe even sneak a peak of Santa eating some of the cookies that i left out the night before... but you've gotta be kidding me, i've got frikkin bread to bake, Santa is going to need to wait.
and the truth is, i've got such a ridiculously awesome crew of friends & colleagues here that i am grateful as hell to get the spend the holidays with them. and $hit, it's the holiday season no matter where you are, and that mean's that it's time for all sorts of awesome stuff.
like what, you ask?
time to eat whatever you want for breakfast.
time to borrow super warm comfy clothes from your friends so that you don't freeze your little tushy off even when you're inside.
time to go for long walks in the woods with your beautiful lady and be reminded that one thing is for certain: ladybugs know how to party way harder than any of us humans.
time to remind your family that you love them the most ever.
(and please do me a favor if you could - send my mama some healing vibes if you can muster, she will feel and appreciate them.)
time to get free and let out your true creative genius to discover the next big thing.
time to take off to the woods for a night with your brother and mother nature and spend it staring into a wood burning stove roasting steak on a stick and hobo packing sweet potatoes.
time to be generous with the things you have and let them go even when you really really want to hold on to them.
speaking of which, i wanted to share something i'm proud of - we donate about 75 loaves a week to people in need. it feels good to be doing a small part to continue the tradition of bread being the most basic of sustenance, as i know that our goods are just too expensive for some people. we're doing the best we can.
any hoo - mostly this time of year provides us with a chance to slow down and (look out, i'm going to get a teensy sentimental here, but wtf i never do that, so just shut your whiny face and) be thankful. yup, good god, be frikkin thankful for everything. even the things that are hard and get you all worked up and make you say swear words. and especially the things that you take for granted, the stuff that make your life wonderful and rich and sexy.
because as my good buddy Burl likes to say, "life is full of wonder." oh how right Burl is.
happy holidays sweethearts, i am grateful for all of you.
<3 j
listen, it's not you, it's me.
oh stop it, i didn't even miss you, i've been soooooo busy with all sorts of super important and interesting stuff.
oh, well great... but maybe i missed you. did ya ever think of that?
well that is very sweet of you... okay, let's make out!!
that's not what i meant.
anyway - lots of rad stuff my friends!! first, many of you have seen this, i know, but just wanted to say it loud & proud - i'm famous.
oh stop it, i ain't famous!! but i am on a bunch of frikkin bus stops around the city, being a poster child for the rad rad folks at Good Eggs, who are kicking more and more ass by the day. if ya haven't checked em out, i'd suggest that you do.
but on another note - we've been having a blast with Josef Wagner, this very nice fellow baker who is spending November with us at The Mill. we've been working on some collaborative loaves together, and tomorrow we debut our sunflower rye. it's made of whole wheat & rye that we grind at The Mill, as well as a bunch of toasted sunflower seeds and some sprouted rye berries. check it out -
doesn't look too shabby does it?? Josef showed me formulas for a handful of breads that he makes at his bakery back in Bavaria, and i took this one and JJB-ified it.
the milling has been going totally awesome, and we've been getting great feedback from all of y'all about the bread - namely you just buy it all every frikkin day! and don't be fooled - it's not without its challenges. we work as hard as we can every damn day to make the bread better than the last, and it means the world to me that y'all are appreciating it. so - T H A N K Y O U.
but if you're not digging on it, instead of coming in and telling me how much the bread sucks, i have an even better idea, a very nice suggestion of sorts - take some of our flour home and make your own damn bread!
yup, we've gone and done it - we are now selling our stone ground whole grain flour at The Mill. we're not shipping it, nor selling it at any stores, so for the time being if ya wanna give it a try you're just gonna have to come by. we've got red wheat, white wheat and rye for now, and soon oh so soon we'll have corn meal, and country bread blend, and then one day (after i've done some more recipe testing and stuffing of mine face) we'll be offering up gramma's griddle cake mix -
it's shaping up real nice, a blend of wheat, rye, oats, corn meal, flax seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and i can't even tell you what else because i haven't figured it out. but don't you worry - i won't give it to ya unless it's good, real real real good.
Halloween was fun right?? i dressed up like this, what did you do?
our pizza party was crazy fun, thanks to all you crazy jerks who came and partied with us the night after Halloween, you are the wind beneath my wings. Sandy's & Kaisle Krisp crushed, especially that bass player who looked like this -
we'll do another one on Friday, Dec 6, so come hang if you're around and free. and sorry for running out of pizza, we will make more next time, and then you all can eat as much as your sweet hearts desire.
i had so many other nice photos but my iPhone up and died on me, and i lost em all. sorry. :(
loves yas darlings, talk with ya sooooooonly
<3 j
just a quick note to share my extraordinary excitement - today is the day my dogs, today is the frikkin day.
what do you mean??? today is the day for WHAT??!??
from here on out we shall be milling all of our whole grain flour in house. yup - rye, red wheat, white wheat, corn meal, einkorn, kamut, and what the hell ever else we feel like. as we like to say in the bakery -
what's the big deal baker boy, i figured you'd been doing that all along, i mean, the name of the place is The Mill, ya know?
listen jerk, milling your own flour is a big friggin deal, it's a total pain in the a$s, and it's not easy to just start doing it all yourself. we've been building towards this day for many months, and by god, i'll be damned if i'm not gonna toot our horn about it.
whoaaaa there stud, chill yourself right out, ok, i get it, congrats, yadda yadda yadda.
thank you.
no, thank you.
hey, you're pretty cute...
you're not too shabby yourself...
... ok. so it's on dudes. i'll be curious to hear from y'all whatcha think about the bread, if you notice a difference, if you think it sucks, etc. hopefully you'll grab a loaf some time soon and say out loud, "holy crap, i didn't know this bread could get any better, but this is some serious $hit."
oh yeah, thank you to all y'all that came our for rock n roll pizza #1.
it was a smashing success, we ran out of pizza at 8:30, and it's got us all super pumped to do it again on Friday, November 1. not sure what the pizza or tunes will be, you'll just come to come and see for yourself.
peace out loves
<3 j
get ready to party honey babies.
this friday night we's gonna be slangin slices of *P*I*Z*Z*A* and listening to The Beatles allllll night long at The Mill. and by allllll night long, i mean from 6-9pm. we're bakers, remember?
yup, it's the first installment of rock n roll pizza, and it's pretty frikkin simple: we make pizzas the best way we know how to, you come and hang out and eat a few slices (they'll prob be $3.50/slice), and we get all good and vibey to some good ol fashioned rock n roll. we're starting out with a band that only total a-holes don't like: The Beatles. i am very pumped to have my right hand man Rafi helping out with pizza on this fine night, so when you get here please shoot him a wink, maybe even pinch his bum.
and in case you're curious, we got some good news & some bad news on the milling front. what do you want first, the good or the bad?
good, gimme the good news first, cuz news is like food, and i always eat dessert first.
well i certainly don't agree with that type of approach, i am going to give you the bad news first, because i like to save the most delicious stuff for last. ok - bad news is that we got all our hopes all pumped up about some very nice grain that we were going to be sourcing from a farm not too far from here, and then it all fell through. i was very bummed out about it.
well that sucks baker, i'm sorry to hear that. but i see your point about that whole saving dessert for last... what's the good news??!?
the good news is that you can't stop us, we're masters of turning lemons into lemon bars, and we spoke with our grain guru Nicky Giusto up at Central Milling in Petaluma, and WTF, we bounced right back and are now milling ALL of the wheat for our whole wheat breads!! $HIT YES!!! this wheat is coming from a farm in Washington, grown at the hands of a man named Spud Brown. sorry for continually blabbing about how pumped i am on this, but i just can't overstate how excited it makes me to be at this point in the game. a very special thanks goes to viking baker extraordinaires Wendy and Ryan, who fearlessly took the plunge while i was gallivanting around Chico with this guy:
i spent a couple days last week out in Chico with Dave and it was so so so nice. it was my first trip out to visit him since we opened The Mill, and it was just as refreshing and relaxing as ever. it was also the first time that i'd actually gone to the Chico Farmer's Market with him, to see the breads get handed off to his customers in person. it was pretty crazy - in about 4 hours he sold just under 400 loaves of bread to a steady stream of regulars. and this isn't special, this is just what happens every week. watching the mutual appreciation expressed between him and all his customers was very special for me.
last week me and the whole JBB crew went out to Bolinas for our first overnight retreat. we spent the afternoon on the beach surfing and swimming and drinking micheladas, and then headed back to my good and generous buddy Kacey's home:
the evening was spent bbqing and playing ridiculously entertaining games such as 'spikenpuppen' and 'pomme bomb.' wish i could share images of these in action, but i'll just let your imagination work with this - one of the games involved picking up a crab apple with your butt cheeks. how bout them apples?
on a more professional note, as i am a man interested in mills and milling and all things related, last week i made a trip up to the Bale Grist Mill in St. Helena. what a spectacular glimpse into the past this thing is! i couldn't actually go inside, but i snapped some nice pics, take a looksee:
tomorrow ushers in October, and i am ready for it, i love autumn. hope you're ready for it too my dogs.
hearts & rainbows 4eva,
j
awwww yeahhhhhhhhh now it's really on.
this week we're gonna start milling about half of the whole wheat we use in the bakery (we're going through a whopping 6,000 lbs of whole wheat per month!!!), and by next week we are going to be milling ALL of our whole wheat flour. by the end of the month we should be offering up said flours for sale at The Mill to all you lovely bakers and soon-to-be-bakers. so get pumped please.
DUDES IT'S ABOUT TO HAPPEN THE MILL IS GOING TO BE THE MILL FOR REAL I CANNOT EVEN STAND IT.
ahem, i can, and will stand it. and you should too. cuz its gonna be very rad.
we've been talking with a lovely little farm very close to us here in SF, and we should be getting our first delivery of wheat within the next couple of weeks. will tell you all about them once we are stone milling up a storm. and i don't wanna speak too soon, but once we start stone milling all that flour, i think you're going to notice the difference in the bread. but you don't have to take my word for it - come get a loaf and let me know what you think.
while i am getting all excited and writing in ALL CAPS, i should let you know about a very sweet exchange that we're gonna do at The Mill in a couple of months... we're going to host a baker from Germany, Bavaria to be exact. i've been speaking with the folks at the German Consulate about this for weeks, but i just spoke with Mr. Josef Wagner himself the other day. we got along swimmingly, and i invited him to come along and spend November with us at The Mill. it's going to be awesome - we'll teach him how we do things at JBB, and he will teach us how he does things at his bakery back in Bavaria. during that time we will be trying out some new breads and goodies, but don't you worry, i will keep you abreast of all this excitement.
folks have been asking me a lot lately when my book is coming out - soon! i still can't really believe it - i wrote a book! and it's going to be real! like, a real, live, physical book about bread that i wrote!!! i think it's gonna be out in January, but i'll be yelling all about it from every roof top in town, so don't you worry, you'll know.
lastly, i wanted to let you all know that we will not be baking or delivering any bread on Wednesday, September 25. we will still have toast, and pastries, and coffee, and tea, and sweet sweet vibes at The Mill, just no bread for sale. why, you ask, why why WHY? because i'm taking the whole JBB team on a little retreat, a night up in Bolinas where we shall surf, barbecue, relax in a hot tub, and most definitely NOT bake any bread. since we opened The Mill back on February 13, i've been blown away by how much bread and pastries y'all have been eating up, and we've been working just as hard as we can to make enough. and so now i just can't help but give us all a little time away from the bakery, where we can just have ourselves a nice time. thanks for understanding sweeties.
love you sweethearts, and thanks for all the love letters, they make me feel so nice.
<3 josey
p.s. California river trips make me absolutely bonkers with glee. if you haven't been out there lately, please go soon.
well dudes, i dare say that things couldn't get any sweeter. why baker boy, why do you have that $hit-eating grin on your face, and you're just oh so happy about stuff???
cuz it's summer time, and summer time is time for doing stuff like this:
sheesh, do you always have to be showing off your butt??? and come on, i mean, that left foot is like, perfectly placed, otherwise this would be totally inappropriate...
don't be a prude, we're all human here.
anyhoo, i'm hanging out on my mom's porch in Vermont, on the tail end of a truly incredible week spent soaking up New England summer, and i am just so gosh darn stoked about it all. cuz check it out - my vacation here is over, and i am PUMPED to be coming back to SF. pumped to come back to work that i love, with people that i love, eating bread that i love. (i also am very lucky to be coming back to the woman that i love, whom i've got locked in... Cathy and i got engaged!).
summer time is the raddest, and we are so spoiled in California (and Vermont too) to have so much incredible wilderness to enjoy. but even for those of you who may not be inclined to "rough it" out to isolated wilderness spots, i have a suggestion for you - just put on that flannel (you know you have at least one that you can get dirty), pack that bag, and go sleep in Golden Gate Park:
for real - my dear buddy Shawn and I did just that. i'd been searching for someone to accompany me on this adventure for weeks, and of course Shawn was crazy/smart/stupid enough to join me. we left from my house and entered GGP, immediately making friends with a fella who had likely spent a few years getting to know the intricacies of the Park. we parted ways, and Shawn and I hiked all the way to the ocean, opting to slumber at Land's End, with Poseidon's whisperings lulling us to sleep.
the next week none other than my bread hero Dave Miller came to visit, and he even spent the morning at the bakery, imparting some of his wisdom directly into a few loaves:
it was a real joy to share The Mill with Dave, as he was a huge inspiration for the whole thing. and now that we've just started milling our own flour, it couldn't have been better timed. thanks again Dave, you are the man.
that was followed by one last day of photography for my book, which, aside from making a loaf of Adventure Bread (our new super seedy and also gluten-free bread) was really just mostly being silly with Mr. Charlie Hallowell, who is one of the most generous and fun-loving guys on Earth. i think this is gonna be the cover shot:
good god, after that i took off on another wilderness trip with my boyfriends Rafi & Marcus, and got lost in the Sierra foothills, diving and soaking in bright emerald pool after bright emerald pool, oohing and ahhing at scampering baby brown bears, realizing our life goal that wherever you are is the perfect place to be:
it was one of the best wilderness trips ever. we actually were pretty darn sure that we were lost for a good part of it. which is a hell of a feeling - like, you're L*O*S*T in the woods, you don't know where to go, you don't know where in the frik you are. turns out we weren't lost, we were exactly where we were supposed to be. (see, that hippie shit comes in handy now don't it?)
a day in SF, then i hopped a plane to VT to chill hard in the homeland. i was ridiculously excited about this, as it was my first time home in a year, since i spent the last 12 months obsessing about the bakery, not really able to think about anything else for more than 4 hours. but i hopped on that plane carefree, because the team at The Mill is just so gosh darn full of skill and dedication and spirit, i knew i could take off for a spell and they'd make that magic happen real nice without me.
over the past year my pops has totally fallen in love with mountain biking, and i was totally floored at how hard he can shred:
after ripping for 2 days with him, i took a day to just drive around these windy backroads without any plans, following my whimsy, sniffing out adventure. i had brunch in Hardwick, visited Mr. Robert Hunt out at Bohemian Bakery in East Calais, then ended up in a big grassy field where i found this man mellowly slicing up his wood-fired rye bread:
who is this righteous looking dude, you wonder? none other than Peter Schumann, the radical badass founder and director of Bread & Puppet Theater. i spent the afternoon in that field watching the theater and then ate that fresh baked rye bread dripping with aioli and drove home with the windows down and a big ol' $hit-eating grin on my face.
oh yeah, and yesterday me and pops went to our favorite woods waterfall, followed by a trip down the Alpine Slide:
Vermont, it's been a real lovely romp, but it's time for me to go back to SF.
til next time ol buddy,
<3 josey
ok ok ok, i am miiighty pumped about all of the grain milling we are about to do, but first i just gotta tell you about some of the sweet stuff i've seen over the past few weeks...
i mean, is this not the raddest little dude around??!? he is my new best bud.
jk, i wish he was, but he won't return my texts.
and what about that frikkin super moon the other night!!
(photo taken on a 2am wander walk along the coast of bolinas, i saw many things by the light of that moon, let me tell you.) my god man, i'm as much of a moon fan as the next guy, but that thing was really out of control. do you know what a super moon is?? i had no idea til my sweet lady cathy told me about it... it's when a full moon is the closest it can get to the Earth, and so WHAMMO, it's super, AKA the biggest looking moon we will ever know. read here if you got a few to kill.
meanwhile, we've been having a blast in the bakery, making the best bread we know how to, such as this adorable little fella that snuck out into our backyard before i caught him:
i LOVE it when the country bread comes out like this, with a powerful explosion in the oven, as well as a lovely ripple flutter to the slash. this takes finesse for sure, but it overjoys me when it fully transforms like this little beauty did.
speaking of the country bread, i wanted to let y'all know something about this bread about which i am rather pumped (and is a little bit of a secret). most "country bread," or "pain au levain," or "whatever you wanna call it," is a sourdough bread that is mostly white flour, with just a wee bit, say 5-15% whole grain flour (usually wheat and/or rye). our country bread has a naughty little secret - it's a whopping 50% whole grain. did you know that??!? if you didn't, i will take that as a compliment, because most people (except for you radical hippies, which i will address in a few moments) have some poopy stereotypes when it comes to "whole grain bread." you say things like, "wah wah wah, whole grain bread is dense and dry and it's like a brick and i like my bread to be more like cotton candy cuz i'm a wussy pants, wah wah wah." wellllll, we tricked you now didn't we!! YES!!
anywayyy, i like the taste, texture, and keeping qualities of a bread with more whole grain in it, and thus, we've settled on a nice 50/50 flour blend for our country bread, and i do sincerely hope that you like it, and that it won't turn you away if you are one of those whole grain hating cotton candy loving peoples.
another reason i am bringing this up is because it is very significant wrt all the M*I*L*L*I*N*G we're about to start doing. yuuuuuup, we are on the verge of milling all our whole grain flour and i may just need to start wearing a helmet all day everyday cuz i'm just gonna be doing backflips rip roaring about the whole thing.
what i mean is, we'll be able to mill half the flour we use for our country bread (it's half whole wheat, half bread flour [whole wheat flour that has had some of the bran & germ sifted out]), not to mention 100% of the flour we use for our dark mountain rye bread (which is all rye flour + sesame + sunflower + flax + corn meal, yes all organic), and 100% of the flour we use for our whole wheat, such as this little bomb right here:
(special thanks to Ms. Wendy for this spectacular photo)
what else is new? well, i had a really nice morning today hanging with my buddy Heidi, rapping about cookbooks and canadian honey and how to open wooden crates that are nailed shut. it got me all jazzed about my book, which is coming along very nicely, and should be out this winter. i wanna show it to you so bad, but it's not ready yet, so please just be patient and know that i will give you sneak peaks as soon as i can.
oh, and holy crap, i have new teeth! i cannot even tell you how nice it is to have working chompers - they have been severely effed since i fell on my face 2 months ago, but now they're better than ever, just look:
anyhoooooo, i love you! and we are gonna start milling more flour than we know what to do with pretty soon, then it will be all your turn to give it a shot, so please o please stay tuned and don't go fallin in love with any other miller bakers in the mean time, except of course for this guy, for which i would not have a hint of jealousy, only respect and understanding:
butterflies and rainbows and sexy slugs
<3 j
p.s. i have to share two secrets of life i have recently discovered: 1) if you ever have stressful mornings you should try waking up a half hour earlier and spend it quietly and gently stretching and coffee drinking while reading your favorite book (like 'Everything & More by Mr. David Foster Wallace), it improves the quality of life immeasurably, and 2) start your very own GDP - Grateful Dead Pandora station - and realize that it's okay to like things.
it's been a hell of a month. first of all, i have to apologize to all of you for posting that photo of myself where i look completely bruised up and crazy. i was in fact crazy for a spell (which is probably why it seemed like a good idea to post that photo), with all of you incredible folk tethering me to the ground, thank god. i whacked my head real good, and i am sure it would have been a lot tougher had it not been for the love that y'all showered upon me. so again, i just have to say: thanks, it meant the world to me that you were all there for me.
aaaaand onward we go!
we had such a nice little gathering with some buddies to celebrate the fact that we've tamed this crazy beast, opened up The Mill once and for all. it was a pizza party, and i had more fun than i even know how to describe here. after we baked and ate all the pizza we could, we decided to sing some songs, which looked a little bit like this:
this photo was snapped (by Nihal), and was moments before that handsome man i'm embracing decided to give my first experience in man-to-man tongue kissing. (it fit with the song we were singing, ok??) it wasn't an altogether unenjoyable experience, although not one i will be looking to repeat any time soon.
and if ya wanna know the truth, we're working on getting our ducks in a row so that we can do another pizza party, maybe even make pizza on the regular an evening or two a week. wouldn't that be so frikkin fun??!? i think so too! stay the ef tuned, sweethearts.
and just so noone is confused about anything, my dear brother Jed took this photo above. so if you like it, i can't take credit for it, but i will let him know that you think it's nice.
but i DID take this one! this is in The Mill, in a special spot that gets a beautiful and focused beam of light for only a few moments each day.
and hey i wanted to share some exciting news - for those of you who don't live near The Mill, you can now get my bread at a few different spots around the city, 7 days a week!
i wanna tell you all about the other folks that we're working with, but i'll save that for the next time.
and OH YEAH - i am looking to hire another person to help out with the JBB party! we need a bread delivery/errand/jack of all trades who can work Friday-Sunday mornings, beginning at 8:30am and ranging from 2-6 hours, depending on the needs of the day, and meets the following criteria:
e-mail jobs@joseybakerbread.com if you're into it.
have a lovely day you sexy thang
<3 josey
yo cats & dogs first of all, i need to share the deepest heartfelt gratitude that i am capable of: THANK YOU.
who am i thanking, you wonder?
i'm thanking everyone who has come out to support me over the last few days, since i fell off my bike and smashed up my face real good in Golden Gate Park. i've been totally floored by how many people have reached out to show me they care about me, and offer to support in whatever ways they can. i can't tell you how much it's meant to me dudes, so really, thank you thank you thank you.
for those of you who don't know what i am talking about -
i was rip roaring on my bike through Golden Gate Park on Monday, enjoying the last few hours of what had already been a tremendous couple of days, having spent the night at Fort Baker with my sweet lady, maxing and relaxing and riding around on golf carts. anyway, on Monday about 6pm i managed to snap the fork of my bike right in half as i was popping a totally sweet wheelie off the curb near the De Young Museum. now i've got a lot of stitches and some cracked teeth and it's difficult to eat and drink stuff, but i'm lookin on the bright side - it could have been a lot worse. in fact, the ER doctor told me that if i hadn't been wearing my bike helmet that i probably would have died. it's been quite the reminder dudes - appreciate everything you have while you have it, and treat that sweet body of yours with love and kindness. and for god's sake: wear your bike helmet.
which brings me to my next point - JBB IS LOOKING TO HIRE A BAKER for our work at The Mill! awwwwwww $hit. and you might be (or know) that special someone if:
please send your resume & cover letter to: jobs@joseybakerbread.com
don't worry if you don't have a ton of experience - i'm mostly looking for someone that we all enjoy spending time with who has a sufficient knowledge base and who can learn our ways quickly. so if you think that's you, then reach out any say so!
have a rad day my dogs, remember that helmet next time you're wheelie-poppin
<3 josey
when i was a kid i used to always say, "moooooooom, i'm bored, what should i do??? i'm boooooooooooored." i'd fiddle with my teenage mutant ninja turtles, go throw some sticks around in the woods, then dig a hole, or something, and whine about being bored again. cuz being bored sucks, ya know? i'm definitely not bored these days.
these awesome little dudes came by the bakery the other week. i tried to give them a tour and teach them a little about bread, but they knew more about bread than i did, cuz they've been baking bread at school, and even milling their own frikkin flour. so badass.
everything has been going great at the bakery, but every once in a while we get some suuuper weird people who come in and do stuff like this:
watch out for this guy, he's a wild one.
the past 2 months have been one hell of a ride. aside from opening The Mill, i also managed to sneak in a rad photo shoot with one Ms. Erin Kunkel, the talented young lady whose photographs will be featured in my cookbook. i wish i could show some of them to you, but i think that's against the law, and you know i don't like breaking the law... but here's a totally legal shot that she snapped with her cell phone during the shoot. (don't be fooled, i just posed for this photo, she's the brains behind this one)
everyday the bread gets a little better, and its got me freaking out in front of the oven every morning, saying stuff like, "I literally cannot believe that I just made this!!" so pumped, check it out:
we made sesame bread this week as our super special weekly bread. we're doing more experimenting and special breads lately, and it's very exciting, and there's only going to be more of it. so if you feel like being surprised come in and see what's new on the bread rack, then take a loaf home and eat it and tell us what you think.
wanna know a secret??? check this out:
this is a loaf of country bread before it's baked. look at all those awesome patterns on it!! crazy right?!? wanna know how we do that??? okay, so first you get out your compass and your calipers and your calculater... ummm, actually it's suuuuper complicated, i don't really have the time to explain, sorry, maybe next time.
but ya know what, i think it might be nice for me to let you in to the bakery a little bit more, to give you a more intimate sense of what the day to day is like *INSIDE* the JBB machine. ya see, we don't know what we're doing, so we have to make it up, and that includes making up our own terms for the stuff we do every day. in light of that, here is a little vocab lesson, so you can maybe understand the gibberish you hear coming out of the bakery the next time you're in.
playing with the pillows: get your mind outta the gutter you little perv, this is our fun way of saying "shaping bread loaves." ya see, when the bread is mixed just right, like it is most days, cuz my bakers are little badasses, it is blissful to shape, because it's so nice and soft and stretchy, and full of delicious gas. so instead of being boring and saying, "well, i guess it's time to shape the bread loaves now," we say, "quit your lollygaggin moss-pony, it's time to play with the pillows!" all while the grateful dead are playing in the background. too good.
chop it up: this isn't really that creative, and i think i'm the only one that says it. instead of saying, "well looky here, it appears to be time for me to scale the bread dough into loaves and pre-shape them," i say, "get outta my face man, i don't have time for that, i gotta chop it up." then chop it up i do, like a god damn teenage mutant ninja turtle, michelangelo* to be exact.
purple beauties: this was invented by Wendy, our resident viking baker, as a title for our whole wheat cranberry walnut bread. we were playing with the pillows (see above) one afternoon, and i was like, "yo we should name this bread something other than whole wheat cranberry walnut bread, that's so boring," to which she immediately replied, "well, we should probably call it cranberry walnut purple beauty." so we called them that from there on out, til the other week, when we stopped making that bread. RIP purple beauties.
all of your g*d d@mn seeds are on my f***in rack: this is what you hear if you knock over a tray of Cobi's breakfast bars which are on the cooling rack instead of the normal place they are, because you've filled up that normal place with trays of your toasted seeds, not totally where they're supposed to be.
we're just killing time on a rock that's floating around a ball of fire: take it easy man, it's just bread.
have a good day sweeties, i miss you, all of you.
<3 josey
we have our hearing at 9am this Wednesday, and we need folks to come and show their support! you have a few minutes to spare, i know you do, so please come and tell the planning department that you want us to build a parklet in front of The Mill.
meet us out front of City Hall at 8:45 Wednesday morning, and we'll make this thing happen.
City Hall, Room 400, Wednesday March 13, 9am
kisses
j
Hi Josey,
we did it, dudes, we finally opened our doors. we're open everyday, i'm here everyday, and it is totally, totally awesome.
if you haven't come in to say hey just yet, don't worry, just come on by when you have some time to drink a coffee & eat a slice of toast & soak up some good vibes. (yes, good vibes, you bet your ass i said that, and i mean it too.)
i am having so much friggin fun, i really cannot even believe that this is my life. i feel like i won the god damn lottery. i get to do the work that i love so much, with people that i love so much, in a space that i love so much. couldn't really get much better if ya ask me.
i don't mean to boast, rather, just to share my excitement, and to say thanks to everyone who helped make this thing happen. next time i see you i am going to hug you and lift you right up off the ground and laugh, and maybe i will even kiss you right on your face.
y'all have been going bonkers for the dark mountain rye, which makes me so so so excited, because it's my favorite bread too. i had no idea that folks would dig on it so hard, but i'm way down. its very different from all the other bread we make... its 100% rye, and its jam packed with sesame, sunflower, flax seeds & corn meal. it's dense as hell and it will nourish you on your mightiest of adventures. check it out here, about to go into the oven:
so many of you have been coming in, it's crazy, i had no idea that it was going to be this busy. we are making almost 1,000 slices of toast on the weekends, we've already broken two commercial toasters, and this past Sunday i sold almost 200 loaves. 200 LOAVES IN ONE DAY??!?!? it wasn't even a holiday!! man oh man oh man oh man.
phew. anyway, thanks again, and i cannot wait to keep partying with you all.
oh crap - we need your help! we are having a public hearing down at City Hall for the parklet that we wanna build out front of The Mill. we need as many people as possible to come to the hearing and speak up in support of the project. here are the details:
WHEN: Wednesday, March 13 at 9am
WHERE: Room 400 at City Hall
WHY: cuz we wanna build a parklet in front of The Mill, and we can't do it without folks coming and showing the powers-that-be that we have support from the people.
if you can make it that would be A M A Z I N G. thanks in advance my dogs.
<3 josey
take 1 minute to sign, please pretty please.
<3 j
in case the link doesn't work for ya, go here:
https://www.change.org/petitions/san-francisco-planning-department-allow-us-to-build-a-parklet-at-736-divisadero-st
heya dudes we're going as fast as we can, but we're not quite there yet. hold tight, we'll be ready for you to come and visit soon, so soon. we're shooting for Feb 12.
til then, here's a sneak peak into some of our experiments as of late...
cornbread w crumble top
we made baguettes and they were awesome and then decided that we're not going to make baguettes. don't worry, we'll make something very similar to baguettes, they just won't be such a pain in the a$s (for us).
i've spent some time sticking my head into dark corners like this one. i'm happy i'm not doing that anymore.
apple pecan coffee cake that made me sick because i couldn't stop eating it.
stay tuned kiddos, i will let y'all know when the party has begun.
<3 josey
my my my
today was a special day - it was our last day serving coffee & toast out of our little tent inside of the construction site that is soon to be The Mill. we heard from many of our regular customers that they didn't want the tent to go, that they'd come to love the tent vibe, where they'd eat their toast & coffee while leaning next to a sack of concrete, all to the soundtrack of chainsaws in the backyard. but friends, all things must pass, and so today we said goodbye to the tent. hopefully this wonderful little lady will keep coming to visit us, even though we'll be tent-less.
but why why why, why is the tent going away?
because we've got a frikkin cafe bakery to open dudes, and we can't do it with a tent plopped right down in the middle of the space.
so here we go, for real this time - we're closed to finish the build out, and we're gonna open up that whole sucker at the end of the month.
but since i have you here, i'd love to share a bit with you about what i've been doing for the last month or so. mostly i've been at The Mill, test baking up a storm, but also setting a loooooooot of tile on the walls and counters. mind you, i had no idea how to set tile a few weeks ago, but truth is, you can do anything if you put your mind to it. check it out! ain't it purty?
but make no mistake, i haven't completely given up adventuring outside of the bakery, oh no. just last weekend i had the pleasure of going on a moonlit trip to a secret lake, where me and my man love Rafi had ourselves an extremely brief night swim. i even did a front flip off a rock into the water, which made me very proud of myself. check out our cute little butts:
i hope Rafi doesn't mind that i'm showing you his bum.
i've had to stop delivering bread for the time being, as i am just too darn busy with the build out. regardless, i got a glimpse of what it's like to be one of those lucky bread loaves, as i did find time to give my good friend Ben Hardy a ride around the Mission in my bread trailer.
i've also really been exploring my hippie roots, making breads like this one, which was a 100% whole grain sourdough loaf, made with a blend of red wheat, white wheat, and spelt, then covered in wheat bran and oatmeal. i mean, come on, it doesn't get much more crunchy than that, but what can i say, i LOVE it.
expect a lot more of that stuff once we get rolling. and baguettes! i've fallen in love with making baguettes. and people tell me that they taste pretty fine. expect to see a lot of these once we've opened up, too.
and, well, a picture is worth a thousand words, so i will let you figure out what the heck is going on here:
soooo, i'll see you on January 30? i hope so. just a quick sneak peak about what we've got in store beyond the bread: toast out the wazoo, a few cookies for you to munch on with your afternoon cup of joe, perhaps a brownie or two spiked with some FourBarrel espresso, oven-baked oatmeal w/ maple syrup, house-made granola w/ yogurt, cornbread w/ crumble top, and maybe just maybe we'll have some afternoon *P*I*E* for ya. only time will tell now won't it.
really cannot wait y'all, so pumped to share this with all of you.
loves yas
<3 j
listen up kiddos - we are gonna open this frikkin bakery in a few weeks, and i am looking for that special someone to round out the JBB team. specifically, i'm looking for a part-time baker (20-25 hrs/week) to help out with the pastries for the cafe. are you that special someone???
only one way to find out... you just might be a good fit if:
so quit prancing around and reach out - send an e-mail with resume to:
jobs@joseybakerbread.com
thanks dudes, talk soon
j
holy crap, the last few weeks blew my mind:
let's unpack each of these just a little bit... but first check out my homeboy Max, getting wayyy down on some toast w/ almond butter:
so rad.
cookbook. i've been working on this with every little bit of free time i've had over the past year. i am most definitely NOT one of those people that can procrastinate and then spend the week before something is due just staying up all night to get it done. no way. instead i have been steadily chipping away on this puppy since i first got the book deal last fall. and by golly, when November 8 rolled around i had 50 recipes, 50,000 words, and a big weight off my chest. we will be photographing the book in the Spring, and it should be out by next Fall. i still can't really believe it, but it is TRUE.
thanksgiving. 500 loaves in 3 days.
first of all - T H A N K Y O U to all of you wonderful folks that chose to spend your Thanksgiving with me, i was beside myself with joy that so many people wanted my bread. makes me even more pumped for what's to come. but 500 loaves!!! now i know that this is child's play for most "bakeries," but dudes, i ain't most bakeries. silly (or stupid) enough, i had actually planned on doing it all by myself. i woulda been fully effed if i'd stayed the course, so thank the almighty bread gods that my main man Ryan (one of the handsome and talented bakers who will be on the starting JBB crew at The Mill) and main lady Wendy (our ridiculously hard-working and talented head baker) came to the rescue. you're probably all like, "what's the big deal, 500 loaves, stop whining baker boy." i'm not whining, i'm just sharing... we hand mixed it all. so ha! yeah, we hand mixed it all in little tubs and then shaped it into breads and then i baked those suckers. i heard people liked em, and that warms my heart.
i turned 30. these say it all...
oh yeah, The Mill will be open December 30. get ready to party.
<3 josey
