How Did All of This Start?
The unlikely origins of my baker’s journey. . .
How did this start? Why do you do this? Where did that name come from anyway? And on and on it goes as friends and customers ask. Why on earth would someone my age work this hard, spend so much time, resources and energy chasing this unknown destination? And for that matter, dragging one’s wife into it! à couper le souffle (breathtaking)! just where on earth is that destination anyway?
We love Paris, New York and Delhi (though we have never actually been to Delhi). We are particularly fond of Dayton and our 120 year old farmhouse.
Still, it’s not the destination - WARNING! well-worn cliché ahead-> it’s the journey, not the destination. Interestingly enough, it’s very similar to my bicycling obsession. Yes, it’s lovely to have a destination that will somehow justify the trip, but it’s the journey, it’s always the journey. Don’t kid yourself, the sights, the sounds, the smells, everything that makes up our lives happen along the way and not suddenly at our arrival.
Okay so Blue Bike Bakery - where on earth did that come from? The original Blue Bike was an abstract painting based on my love of all things bicycle, artistic textures and my inability to draw.
That said, I did enter the painting in ARTPRIZE and it hung on display for 2 weeks in downtown Grand Rapids. It was a thrill just to participate. If you’ve never heard of Artprize I would encourage you to look into it. Artist or tourist it’s a fabulous event!
So how many bicycle themed paintings can my lovely wife tolerate? Let’s put it this way, if they need to escape my office to hang somewhere outside of my office, red flag and buzzer, that’s the limit!
Back to the genesis of the name of this adventure. One day I’m sitting next to a friend in a monotonously, typical, dry as the bleaching bones of a the last antelope somewhere in the Mojave seminar and I mentioned, in passing, that I had a painting accepted into the Artprize art show. And then, as I exhaled, “I cannot keep doing this!” leaps from my throat well ahead of my brains ability to filter the words. “There must be more!” I sputtered grasping for another torturous cliché for your, at the time unknown, future reading pleasure.
As if answering a willful child my friend took my rubik’s cube work-life-tedium and smoothly solved the puzzle with; Blue Bike Bakery. The alliteration being a Jeopardy, bonus round, grand slam! It combines two things I have been rather passionate about, baking and biking, rolled in the latest art at the time; Blue Bike and voilà!
Turning this into at least a self-supporting venture, well that would be my job. Oddly enough however, I did not launch into a litany of the usual feeble excuses why it would never work in real life and how it might be a lovely daydream but and but and but what? But nothing! I bought the bluebikebakery.com domain before the aforementioned bleaching antelope bones could muster the wherewithal to stagger to their ghostly feet and gallop out the seminar door. I was in. All in.
So from the abstract to the real rustic, handcrafted art I create today is just a hop, skip and a jump away and we arrive at EDIBLE. Yes, disappearing art that requires no wall space, no shelves, just a palate for Euro style pastries, artisan breads, an appetite and an appreciation for handmade anythings.
So then what happened Mike? Glad you asked, that is the purpose of this little essay, is it not? I jumped into the social media pool with both feet and began posting and baking and posting and wow my lovely wife wasn’t overly thrilled about me being in her kitchen quite so much! Still, I continued and in almost no time (measured in eons by Peggy) I had an email from a local coffee shop wanting to talk me about baking for them!
And so it began, my lovely wife threatening to murder me in my sleep if I didn’t find another place to bake and my introduction into the commercial side of the baking business. This was not exactly the picture I had of following my, until now undefined dream, but it was a start and if I could overcome the rapid onset of the doldrums of commercial coffee shop baking and the ever present threat of suffocation by My Pillow™ in my sleep, this could be the passion project of a lifetime.
As luck? Fate? Devine intervention? would have it, I stumbled upon a culinary business incubator, Spark Fairborn just 7 miles from our house. A call, a text and a few emails and I biked on over to sign up, much to my wife’s relief! With what I thought was half the battle won (my God will the kitchen mess ever clean itself up? Will the expenses ever track themselves? Why doesn’t this art deliver itself? What? another health department certification required? The insurance premiums are due again?) We continued to refine our retailer outlet side of the business (our model absolutely depends on them). Don’t get me wrong, we love coffee and my day always includes a French press but coffee shop drudgery is not art. Buy a donut Mr. Coffeeshop and please leave me alone.
Interestingly, we have identified our customer base and it is made up of people similar to ourselves. They appreciate the craft, the quality of ingredients and the restraint when it comes to sugar and ooye gooye concoctions that help support the stent industry and other cardio endeavors. They seem to be very health conscious but do splurge in moderation. They are savvy and seek out the exclusivity that small, handcrafted operations often provide. You’ll find them at upscale farmer’s markets such as the Oakwood Farmer’s Market and various other seasonal organic market events.
The trip (no magic mushrooms harmed or involved) since that day has had many ups, downs and unexpected turns and there have been absolutely exhausting moments but it’s hard to imagine a more rewarding effort than the joint effort of my wife’s artistic flair for packaging and display and seeing our friends/customers enjoying our Blue Bike creations. Thank you.
How about we craft some pâte feuilletée (puff pastry by it’s pedestrian name) next time? Why? The quick method is easy, uses simple clean ingredients, based on ratios and a beautiful base for all kinds of delicious fun! And, it doesn’t look anything like this abomination:
Commercial Puff Pastry Ingredients: enriched wheat flour (flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, vegetable oils (palm, soybean, hydrogenated cottonseed), contains 2% or less of: high fructose corn syrup, salt, mono and diglycerides, soy lecithin, malted barley flour, turmeric and annatto extracts for color.
contains: wheat, soy.
BLUE BIKE BAKERY Ingredients:
Organic all-purpose flour, butter, water, sea salt. (cane sugar optional)
