My grandma baked bread in Martinton, IL (pop. at the time about 200) in her home for the community. She was so good that the local grocer sued her to stop. It was impacting his business. She continued for her boys. When my brother and I were little in Houston, and grandma and grandpa came for a visit,the first words out of our mouths wasn't , Hi but, when are you going to make bread! She baked very good yeast bread with mashed potatoes.
When I went to college in the mid 1960's, at Southwestern University,in Georgetown,Texas, breakfast was best at the SUB. Hot sweet rolls from the kitchen came out pan after pan and we the students, ate them with big grins on our faces with coffee. They were an excellent way to began our day. In the seventies when the people who ran the Sub retried, they printed the sweet roll recipe in the school magazine. A lot of alumni, still bake these and have grins on our faces when we eat and share them with friends. I made them for church and for people I worked with and it got so bad that they'd ask me when I was going to make them again.
I worked for the Coca-Cola Company for over 20 years, and one of the greatest things about the job, was to be able to go to different parts of the country to work. One time I got to go to San Francisco and there was exposed to sour dough bread. It was real bread, not the white bread you get in the grocery store that's only good for fish bait. I was hooked and had to try to make my own. So off and on for over fifteen years I played with sour dough and gave away the excess to friends. Baking was therapy, one moth I went through nearly 50 lbs of bread and whole wheat flour.
When we moved to New Mexico, the bread bug had subsided, I just baked occasionally for Jan and I. Two years ago, when I became a member of the Governing Council for the Cottonwood Valley Charter School. The bug returned. I friend helped me believe that I could do anything that I set my mind too. I returned to baking. In the fall of 2009, I took grapes from our one champagne grape vine, put them in flour and water and developed a native Socorro sour dough and started baking. I began selling my bread at the school to the staff. As I made more, bread I looked for other venues to sell. Socorro has an active farmers market and so I started to sell bread there. I was allowed to do it under the radar until I could get me State license. I now bake in the community kitchen. From six to eight loaves a week out of my home kitchen, to over thirty loaves, three to four dozen sour dough English muffins and over three dozen sweet rolls a week, the passion or madness has continued to grow. I now have a Tech student to help, only time will tell where it will in.
Jon
