🎁 Just In Time For Christmas 🎁

We're kicking off our holiday baking craze at C&C today...for the next ten days, it'll be nothing but bottomless pots of coffee, Christmas radio, and larger-than-life loaves that get decorated to the max! If you're anything like me, you've probably got some serious gift shopping still left to do for your loved ones...here's how we can help you with that:

1. HOLIDAY MICHE

Every year, during Thanksgiving and Christmas only, we make our miches available for purchase. These large traditional French style loaves are made with organic high extraction wheat flour as well as a touch of dark rye, span over a foot in diameter, and weigh in at about 1.6-1.8 kilograms. We naturally leaven them with our sourdough culture, slow ferment them for a couple of days, and hand score each bread to produce a beautiful design on the crust. You can pre-order these until next Thursday through our website for pick up on either 12/22nd or 12/23rd at Artale & Co.

2. BAKING CLASSES

During this past year, we've had the pleasure of welcoming folks from near and far into our kitchen to learn the art of bread baking. Our classes focus on the fundamentals of sourdough and on how to recreate the effects of a commercial oven in the home environment. We teach the process from beginning to end and provide a "bread baking essentials" starter kit for all the participants. Currently, we are offering one class in January and one in February of 2019. 

3. BLIND DATE WITH A BAKER

While this is isn't an actual blind date with one of us (sorry!), it's our version of a Community Supported Bakery program. Our weekly bread shares feature baker's choice loaves and so members never know which type of bread they're going to get. Our CSB has pick up locations on both East and West sides of Rockford. If you have someone who loves good bread and might enjoy the surprise element, this is a good one for them! You'll find more details on how the CSB works at the link above.

Holidays with C&C 🎅

Although the year is coming to an end, it has felt like a time of new beginnings around the bakery. After a long search for the perfect person to add to our production team, I'm glad to say that we have found her. Cecile has started her training as our new baker a couple of weeks ago and she is doing really great. What's really interesting about this story is that I met Cecile exactly one year ago when she became a CSB bread share member and then signed up to attend my very first sourdough baking class...talk about serendipity.

Our retail bakery cafe at the indoor market is going to open its doors this coming spring, so we are all anxiously preparing for the start of that - planning out construction, planning out the interior design, planning our menu, and testing recipes. I'm equally excited and nervous about this move...it's definitely my biggest undertaking yet! This past weekend, our friends at The Norwegian opened their doors to the public and we were so thrilled for them because they have come such a long way for this momentous occasion. We are also thrilled because C&C will be providing the bread for service there moving forward. When I delivered fresh loaves to the restaurant on the eve of their opening day, I was so inspired and thought to myself..."that'll be us soon too."

Anyway, with all that said, the show must go on in the meantime. With the holidays around the corner, I'm happy to say that we have put together our Christmas offerings and made them available for purchase in our online shop. We are now taking pre-orders for holiday miches to be picked up at Artale & Co. on the weekend before Christmas. We have also posted baking class dates for December, January, and February. This is also a great time to sign up for a CSB bread share membership for 2019. I hope that you'll make us a part of your holiday season and that one of these options will be the perfect gift for the bread lovers in your life!

Bread for Thanksgiving 💛

All summer, all I wanted was for it to cool down because our bakery gets overwhelmingly hot during the height of market season. And, of course, as soon as it does get cold outside...I long for the opposite because our workload eases and so does the kitchen temperature. I will say though that my favorite thing about this time of year is being able to keep toasty in front of the fireplace at home and eating up all the food that accompanies the holidays.

One of my favorite meals of the year is coming up in a couple of days...and I'm so excited for it! Five Forks Market is having its annual Beaujolais Nouveau Party this week where bottles of this year's wine are uncorked at everyone's table and bottomless bowls of special peasant stew are served. No joke, this stew is SO ridiculously good! I look forward to not only gathering with friends to attend this dinner, but also to be baking for it...this is the third year that C&C will be baking all the bread for the event. If you don't have plans for Thursday night, you should definitely come join! Call the restaurant to make reservations.

For Thanksgiving and Christmas, we'll be baking up our miches again (pictured above). These enormous loaves are perfect for family gatherings as they span over a foot across and weigh in at about 1.8 kilos. We have made it available for purchase in our online shop today and will be taking pre-orders from now through midnight Sunday. The miches will all be delivered to our friends at Artale & Co. the day before Thanksgiving for pick-up. We sold out of these loaves fairly quickly last year so I encourage you to get in your order soon - here's the link to our SHOP.

Lastly, we are holding our second bread class for November at the bakery this coming weekend. There are a couple of openings still left if you're interested in joining and learning about working with natural leavening. You can sign up for it HERE.

🔥 L E G A C Y 🔥

Years ago, I got an excited phone call from a friend who said, "Hey Jojo, I got a new oven...come over!!!" It was the summer that Alchemy was going to open at Giovanni's and Al had just installed a beautiful Bongard deck oven back in the kitchen. House made breads, hand-cut pastas, and woodfired pizzas were going to be on the menu. It had been some time since I'd stepped away from baking so I was thrilled to get back into it and lend a hand in setting up the bread portion of it.

It was a really fun summer and just the energy buzzing through the entire place on opening day was unmatched. I imagine Al and his team are feeling the same thing right now with getting ready for the highly anticipated opening of their new steakhouse featuring Argentinian Asado cooking, Legacy. While I may not be there as part of the crew this time around, I'm still feeling that same thrill because Crust & Crumbles will be providing bread for the restaurant! I've been tweaking some of our formulas in preparation of opening day so it can be a perfect addition to the dining experience. Legacy will open doors on October 22nd.

In other news, there are just a handful of market days left till the season is completely done. Tomorrow morning we will be at the North End City Market and the Beloit Farmer's Market with fresh loaves for ya. On the menu, we will have Organic Country White, Seeded Whole Wheat, Olive Oil Semolina, Cranberry Walnut, and Baker & Brewer. We look forward to seeing you there :)

Oh and P.S. - Don't forget to sign up for a bread baking class!

Back To (Baking) School 🎓

Last Friday we wrapped up the 9th season of the Rockford City Market...and over the course of 20 weeks, nearly 100,000 visitors came to downtown Rockford. Isn't that just something else?! I think it's really amazing and all of us at C&C are grateful to have been part of another successful season. We can't wait till the indoor market opens up in early 2019 so that our bread can be available to the community year-round. To help the outdoor market keep improving and providing a fabulous experience for all its visitors, please consider filling out the Annual Patron Survey - you can find it HERE.

Through the end of October, we are still setting up at Edgebrook Farmers Market on Wednesday mornings as well as at the North End Market and Beloit Farmers Market on Saturday mornings. Unfortunately though, we will not be at the markets this weekend due to some equipment maintenance work going on at the bakery. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and know that we are very much looking forward to seeing you all next week.

In the meantime, I'm excited to announce that BREAD BAKING CLASSES ARE BACK!!! We have finalized Oct/Nov class dates at this time and registration is now available on our website. The first one is coming up in just 2 weeks and there are 2 dates available next month. I love teaching folks how to bake sourdough at home and am so happy that we are again able to offer classes! If you've taken a class with us in the past, I hope you will recommend the experience to your friends and family by sharing this newsletter with them :)

Last Market of 2018 💔

Today is the last Rockford City Market of the 2018 season. These past 20 weeks honestly just flew by and we are so happy to have had the opportunity to bake for all of you these last few months! There will be a lot of fun activities going on at the market including a scavenger hunt organized by the Rock Valley Pub Trivia group as well as the annual pumpkin contest where patrons get to vote on vendors' pumpkins affording the winner of the contest a sizable discount on next year's booth fees. Last year's final market had spectacular attendance and we hope you all will join in again tonight to close out the season with us.

Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to decorate the BEST.PUMPKIN.EVER for people to vote on this week....however we do have a special menu for you guys. We decided not to make any of our usual staples in order to make room for all the loaves that aren't offered on a regular basis so that you can stock up on your favorites one last time. We will have Drunken Hog (bacon bourbon bread), Roasted Garlic & Cracked Peppercorn, Blue Cheese Olive, Jalapeño Cheddar, Oktoberfest Laugenbrot, and Everything Bagel Bread at Rockford City Market tonight as well as at North End and Beloit Farmers Market tomorrow.

We are still continuing on with both Saturday morning markets and the Edgebrook Farmers Market on Wednesday mornings through the end of October. You can also purchase our Country White and Cranberry Walnut loaves at Choices Natural Market at any time now and beyond the farmer's market season - we are currently doing our deliveries there on Wednesdays.

Besides it being the last City Market day, it is also the last day to sign up for Fall/Winter CSB shares for weekly bread deliveries from October through December! HERE is the link where you can sign up. And finally, I'm happy to say that we will be restarting our baking classes shortly now that markets are winding down and we have more availability...I anticipate posting a class schedule by this time next week.

Prost! 🍻

We will be celebrating Oktoberfest at the markets this weekend by bringing a batch of our full size lye-dipped pretzel loaves...otherwise known as Laugenbrots. Around this time last year, we were up to our eyeballs rolling pretzels for some Oktoberfest celebrations that our friends around town were putting on. But when we had extra dough left over, we thought, well we can't make pretzels and we can't make pretzel buns for the market since we are "the bread people"...so we rolled the extra dough into boules, dunked them into the lye solution, baked them off, and the rest is history.

I also paid a visit to the brewery earlier this week to pick up a couple different batches of spent grain for our Oktoberfest menu. Alongside the Laugenbrots, we will have our regular Baker & Brewer loaves as well as the Chocolate Porter variety made with mash that has crushed coffee beans in it. We mix and ferment our dough with coffee water and then add the grains as well as non-dairy chocolate chips later on to complement the flavors of this bread. Country White, Cranberry Walnut, Olive Oil Semolina, and Castelvetrano Olive loaves will be available this weekend at all three markets as well.

A note to our current and future share members: This coming Wednesday is the last CSB distribution for the Summer/Fall rotation! We will be starting a new round in the first week of October. This one goes till the end of the year, so I encourage you to sign up for a weekly bread share now as there are very few days left in the farmer's market season. The deadline is next Friday, September 28th, and HERE is the link where you can sign up.

Livin' For The Weekend ❤

The weather this weekend looks beautiful...with it being cooler in the evenings and early mornings, our markets are held at a perfect time of day for strolling outside and stocking up on weekly groceries. I also love this time of year at the farmer's market in general because many of my favorite vegetables and fruits come into season in late summer/early fall.

One downfall though has been that the indoor temperature has not let up inside our space. It is still running hot in the kitchen...way too hot for me to hold a baking class for the public. I know some of you have been asking and waiting for class dates to be released and I am getting anxious to get back to teaching as well. As soon as we post a schedule, I promise you'll be the first to know.

There are only a handful of market days left in the season. We will be starting a new round of CSB distributions in just a couple of weeks. Since we do not accept sign-ups for the longer term bread shares once the rotation starts, now is the time to get your orders in for weekly bread deliveries from October through the end of December. The deadline is September 28th and HERE is the link where you can sign up.

On the menu today and tomorrow - we will have Country White, Cranberry Walnut, Olive Oil Semolina, Everything Bagel, Black Sage, Seeded Whole Wheat, and a small batch of Honey Rye sourdough baguettes that I decided to try out last minute. The baguettes are made with organic dark rye flour and pure clover honey...the bread is versatile with any topping and there is a subtle sweetness to it imparted by its main ingredients. I'm still working out this formula to achieve more volume like in a traditional baguette...but despite its slight flatness, I think the flavor is on point. Hope you like it!

Hello, F A L L 👋

Hello friends,

Just a reminder that fall hours begin at the Rockford City Market tonight - we'll be there for ya from 3:30-7:30pm. Only four more Friday markets left till we close out the 2018 season so I hope you'll be coming downtown to enjoy the rest of it with us. For the folks that normally patron Edgebrook, North End, or Beloit, we will still be at those markets through the end of October.

Our Fall/Winter CSB bread share sign ups are starting to pick up steam...this Sunday is the deadline to purchase shares at a discount. Registration is still open through the end of the month for the distributions starting in October, though it'll go back to regular pricing after this weekend.

On the menu today and tomorrow - we will have Country White, Cranberry Walnut, Olive Oil Semolina, Baker & Brewer, Roasted Garlic & Cracked Peppercorn as well as some Caraway Rye.

The Last Hurrah 🍂

At long last, Labor Day weekend is here...and most everyone associates this holiday with the official end of summer marked by its last out-of-town getaways, family gatherings, cookouts, parades, and, yes, even shopping sprees too.

There is something to be said though about celebrating the worker and the importance of contribution. On some mornings when I walk into the bakery, the last thing on earth I want to do is bake! I think we all have days like this... Without those, I wouldn't have ones where I feel so fortunate to even have work to do and where the end result of our entire team's effort does make a lot of people happy. How lucky are we to end most days then with a sense of accomplishment, purpose, and contribution to our community!? Pretty damn lucky, I'd say...and that's something really worth celebrating.

The sun is starting to set earlier and with that comes an earlier closing time for the market as well. Starting next Friday, Rockford City Market will close down an hour earlier at 7:30pm. While all our other markets (Edgebrook, North End, and Beloit) will continue at their regular hours through the end of October, we will finish the downtown market season at the end of September. Moving into fall, the weather can be touch and go...so please check out our Facebook / Instagram pages to keep updated on our market status in cases of severe weather where we might have to cancel.

On the menu today and tomorrow, we will have Country White, Cranberry Walnut, Baker & Brewer, Seeded Whole Wheat, Olive Oil Semolina, Jalapeño Cheddar, and Blue Olive. We are also dropping off a fresh batch of mini spent grain boules at the brewery today so if you haven't yet tried the bread board on their seasonal menu, visit Prairie Street Brewing Co. soon and check it out.

And lastly, not to sound like a broken record but our anniversary special is still going on through September 9th on all Fall/Winter CSB bread shares :)  Don't forget to sign up!