Cracked Cauldron Spillings

We may not be trend-setters, but apparently we've tapped into the flow of the trends when it comes to baking. According to information on Baking Business, "The two biggest trends dominating the current bread industry are the rise of premium breads and the importance of manufacturing breads that cater to specific dietary needs."

And what have we been discussing all along?

Premium breads and breads that recognize specific diets, such as Celiac Disease, diabetes, and assorted low fat, low calorie, and/or low carbohydrate diets, not to mention allergies such as soy, nut, wheat.

The big trends are:
Low carbohydrate. We've dealt with that by creating new recipes that have naturally fewer carbohydrates than the common white bread. by using wheat gluten and wheat protein, we can lower those carbohydrates further. We won't market them as low carbohydrate because the FDA hasn't yet made a ruling on what constitutes "low carbohydrate", but our nutritional labels will list the total and net carbs per serving.

Ethnic. Heh. We've got that one well handled, with our rotation of focus on the breadsd of different continents each month. There's more to Chinese bread than the fried biscuits served on the Chinese buffet!

Organics. Since we plan to ourchase as many of our ingredients locally as we can, and to use organics where feasible, we pretty much have this covered, too.

Cookies. Have we got cookies covered! We plan to bake fresh cookies in small batches so we have a constant source of hot-from-the-oven fresh cookies, both for sampling and purchasing. We have many, many cookie recipes, some collected from friends (one baker friend gave us a book with over 1,000 cookie recipes he uses in it!), some found in historical documents (the King's Cookies that are such a hit where-ever we go), and some we created ourselves (the chocolate swirl chocolate chip cookies and the Hot Drops, among others). Cookies - covered!

Individual portions. Since we started out thinking small portions, we have already purchased many individual sized bread, cake, and tart pans, our cookies will be bite-sized, and all the pastries will be individual portioned, we have "individual portions" well covered. Our savory handpies will be meal-sized individual portions.

Not mentioned, but a trend we see locally, is the desire of customers to know where their food comes from. Food origins. People want to know where we get our flour, where we buy our beef and chicken, where the cheese and milk come from, where the coffee beans are grown, and because we plan to buy as much from the original source as possible, we'll be able to tell them this. With recent scares in Mad Cow Disease and Chicken Flu, we can honestly tell our customers we know where our beef and chicken originate, we know the ranchers who breed and raise them, we know the conditions under which they were raised and what they were fed. We'll do the same with our mushrooms, cheese, cream, butter, pecans, shortenings, flours, sugars, assorted vegetables, and whatever else we can. Not only will it benefit our neighbors, it will reassure our customers.

All of this - our dedication to local foods, local artists, and our cusotmers - is symbolized by the color we chose and the logo of the cracked cauldron.

That cauldron is cracked because it overflows with the bounty we offer.