Rose's Bread

09/25/2023

Hello beautiful fall people,

Please send me your order for Wednesday's bread by Tuesday evening. You can collect your bread between 5:30 and 8. Your choices this week are:
Sourdough seed bread $7
Hedgehog loaf $8 (this apricot spelt flour loaf is stuck all over with almond spines)
Pizza dough $5
Focaccia $8 1/2 per pan

I'm noticing a lot of beauty this past while. Folks are so good looking this month. Maybe it's the angle of the golden light, but I think people are at their best glowing from months of outdoor living and exercise. While you're out and about in the sunshine this week get a good look at your friends and try to create images of your people to save. Please come by and take a mental picture of me, so sometime in the next six months, when I'm not looking my best, you'll remember the preferred image me.

Looking forward to seeing you in the backyard on Wednesday

Rose

09/10/2023

Bread Day this week will be on Wednesday, September 13. I'm giving you plenty of notice to eat up last week's bread and sculpt your menu plan around the bread offerings. It's been a long time since I've made cornmeal molasses bread and it's definitely the time of year to gorge on corn, so I'll make cranberry orange anadama bread. My favourite anadama bread is sweetened with molasses and orange juice, tangy with cranberries, and beautifully caramel coloured with a tinge of sunset pinky-orange. Please message or email me your bread order by Tuesday evening. Your choices for Wednesday September 13 are
- sourdough seed bread $7
- cranberry orange anadama bread $8
- pizza dough $5
- focaccia $5 per 1/2 pan

While I've got the sourdough started and all the bowls and surfaces mucked up with bread dough, I will make some focaccia to give us something to sog up juices from our tomato salads, and for fat triangular sandwiches for lunchboxes. If you need a portion of focaccia let me know.

See you on Wednesday between 5:30 and 8pm.

07/11/2023

Hedging my bets on the weather, I will bake on Thursday this week. Please send me your order by Wednesday evening. I will ride up to the bulk food store to get nuts during the day on Wednesday. Your bread choices this week are:
- Sourdough seed bread $7
- Nomadic nut bread $8 (In this excellent bread, I use a hearty selection of nuts in the same basic dough as the sourdough seed bread.)
- Pizza dough $5

The lettuce in the garden is going into genetic survival mode - it's starting to focus energy on making seeds. However, we're still in the time of plentiful lettuce. So, before the lettuce truly bolts, come pick a salad when you come for bread.

07/03/2023

This week I'll be braving the heat and baking on Wednesday. I will have to adapt my system a little and race to stay on top of the yeast action - I can't let the cells eat up all their fuel before I rotate the loaves through the oven. Please send me your bread order by Tuesday evening. You can pick up your bread on Wednesday afternoon. Your choices this week are:
- Sourdough with seeds $7
- Robert's bread (a solid multi grain (rye, millet and wholewheat) and seed (sunflower, sesame, poppy and caraway), sold by 1/2 loaves) $8
- Pizza dough $5
- Soft salted Pretzels $2 each. Pretzels are a first time experiment for me but it will be cool if I manage it. Please let me know if you are interested (how manyish?) and I will try to have some really good ones for everyone to try. Maybe I'll be able to lure a dough-loving kid into helping me roll and twist.

Now that the National Holidays have passed, I think it's fair to say we are in the height of summer. The essential elements of summer are being ticked off. Last week, when I wasn't baking bread or taking care of business on St. Urbain, we spent a few nights at a woodsy lakeside cottage. I plowed my way swimming through a forest of beautiful, mysterious, slimy weeds and proved myself worthy of my Canadian salt by steering a canoe. This week, Francesca is doing lifeguard training at the Laurier pool and Sol is running a half-day summer camp for two neighbours. I too am industrious today: I picked a brown-bin full of weeds before the sun hit the backyard.

I thought today might be the day I give my family a break from eating the garden but the mustard is growing huge and going to flower so we'll have to eat garlic fried greens with our cold fish and rice. Please help out with my tons of prime lettuce situation, and get yourself some rhubarb when you come for bread too.

06/19/2023

This week I will make bread on Tuesday. The special of the week is Borodinsky bread, which is 100% rye loaf risen with rye sourdough. Borodinsky is a dark and dense brick sweetened with molasses and studded with coriander seeds. Please send me your order by Monday evening. You can pick up your bread on Tuesday evening. Your options this week are:
- sourdough seed bread $7
- borodinsky bread $7
- pizza dough $5

I hope you've had a Happy Fathers' Day. Even if you were not actually being celebrated today I hope all of you benefited vicariously from some good treatment: either by being with someone who got treats for having a Y chromosome or by sharing good vibes with a Y guy who contributed to you. I spoke with both of the Ys who help make and raise me and I had a double fun fathers' day with Louigi and his dad.

I had a very rewarding day today. On my way back from an early morning jaunt up the mountain, I scored a handy little Ikea bench with a seat of woven rope that I was able to give to Louigi as fathers' day gift. I made a big batch of crepes for breakfast. Louigi's dad scored with me by buying us all chocolate bars at lunchtime. Louigi went around even more handsome than ever today. He did his singing warm ups, and then made us a whack of sushi for supper.

I hope to see you soon.

Rose

06/19/2023

06/12/2023

This week I'll bake on Wednesday. Your choices are:
- sourdough with seeds, $7
- pizza dough, $5
- buns 6 for $8
(I will be reattempting the poppy seed onion buns. My goal is to make them the right size and texture for burgers and burger-like sandwiches.)

I hope you're enjoying the Mont Royal and St. Laurent street closures. I love having long pedestrianized paths near my house and the festival feel is great for ramping up the summer feel. We have enjoyed some promenading and snacking our way down the Main drag. Solomon has had a couple of shifts running the cotton candy machine for Mr. Ripples' ice cream shop. When Louigi passed by to see him on Saturday night he was feathered with pink spun sugar from head to hind. I feel a bit guilty about choosing a more predictable and maybe less chaotic trip to the Jean Talon this afternoon - Fran and I are going to pick up some basil plants for the garden and hopefully a crate of mangoes.

Highschoolers are now in exam-period. Life here is all about making sure the kids study. I'm getting a sneak-preview of what the summer could look like: kids lounging on their devices and me trying to curve their dietary and entertainment/media intake. I'm going to have to give up cleaning up after everyone. I wonder what project would consume me enough that I could ignore what the family members are or aren't doing in the moment and still have my finger on the household pulse enough that I can provide for them periodically.

Please send me your bread order by Tuesday evening. You're welcome to come sit with us for a beer when you come for your bread on Wednesday. And, be sure to treat yourself to a view of the hops and peonies thriving in the alley garden.

05/08/2023

This week I'm baking twice because we need fresh bread; because an old friend just arrived in town hungry and needing a reason to lounge at my place; and because I want to give you options for when you come see me. Your bread options for this week are:

Tuesday May 9, streamline bakery:
- sourdough seed bread $7 (regular, mini and free standing loaves on offer)

Thursday May 11:
- sourdough seed bread again
- Robert's bread, a multi-grain and seed rye bread baked in 13 inch long square cornered tins and sold by half loaves for $8
- pizza dough $5

Please send me your order by the evening before you want bread. Pick up your bread in the backyard on Tuesday or Thursday.

The good times are truly rolling now. Louigi is home now, there are two new beers on tap, there are red tulips welcoming at our backgate and the days getting longer and evenings are warm, so you have lots of reasons to come in the backyard and visit.

Francesca's birthday week is always a proper kick-out to shivery days and a kick-off to spring/summer. This year, we had a kids' luncheon on Thursday (burgers and cake and a gang of 7th graders goofing around for the afternoon), and yesterday we went down to the old port to climb on the pirate ship rigging, and had a tasty family supper with two cakes to celebrate. Fran got a pogo stick for her birthday so beware the Tigger child in the alley and the park.

Please mess age me via facebook to order bread or email me directly. I'm looking forward to meeting the food eating, sociable neighbourhood folk.

05/01/2023

Hi Folks,

I'm heading into the spring brewing hustle. I want to fill all the kegs and carboys before the tap water gets too warm to cool beer wort and yeast goes crazy in the heat. On Wednesday, I'll brew a new batch of stout. Be in touch with me if you want to join me for brewing - More brewers, more beer, more fun! With a view to gender parity in the ye**ty arts, I'm especially encouraging women to get on board.

The other big push I'm winding up for is Birthday Month. Francesca's birthday is next weekend and Sol's and Louigi's are at the end of the month. If you've heard of any good gifts please let me know. Perhaps I am an ungenerous person by nature because I find gifts getting, especially for adults, challenging. On Thursday, I'll be making cake and lunch for Francesca and her pals so I'll bake bread on Wednesday May 3.

Your bread choices for Wednesday May 3 are:
- sourdough seed bread $7
- sunshine bread $8 (round, golden olive olive oil and citrus brioche that will make great french toast or bostock (orange flower syrup soaked, almond paste topped desert))
- pizza dough $5

Please send me your order by Tuesday evening and pick up your bread on Wednesday.

04/22/2023

Since, without Louigi (and his running appetite) helping out, I still have some of last week's bread to chew on, I'll bake Bread on Thursday, April 27. However, to celebrate the first herbs poking through in the garden, I'm offering mini-bake, on Tuesday, April 25.

This week on Thursday your bread choices are:
- sourdough with seeds (regular or mini) $7
- focaccia $8 per thick puffy half round
- pizza dough $5

Mini bake on Tuesday: pull-apart chive milk buns (good for little sandwiches and eating with soup) $8 per half dozen

Please send me your order by the evening before baking day. Your bread will be ready for collection between 5 and 8pm.

04/17/2023

Hi folks,

The next bread upload is Tuesday April 18. I've had two sorts of rye bread requested this week: potato onion rye, a soft and zippy rye/wheat round loaf; and seeded rye, a dense 100% rye loaf packed with many powerbars worth of seeds. Your choices this week are
- sourdough seed $7
- Seeded rye $8
- Potato onion rye $8
- Pizza dough $5

Please send me your order by Monday evening. Your bread will be available for download between 5:30 and 8 on Tuesday.

You sure missed out yesterday on visiting in my backyard. The day was drop-dead gorgeous to begin with and then some useful fellows came along and helped me in the garden and seriously multiplied the beautiful view. Let me tell you, everyone's good looks are ramped up when they pick up tools and start getting work done. There's lots of yard and alley work that needs doing here - I'll be glad to lend a rake and bucket if you want to boost your eye appeal.

While the other people where forking the soil, I took the chance to plant some peas and a few lettuce seeds, and to check in on some established plants. Good news is: thyme, oregano, and rhubarb are for sure coming up. Louigi carried out our biggest house plants to make room for our big chatty kids. Our yard now has tropical trees with full glossy leaves to keep us company while drinking beer and coffee.

See you soon.