Mr. Mustache and His Assistants

Lots of people ask me, “Do you run your business all by yourself?”  My answer, “Of course not, I’m only twelve-years-old!”   I have lots of help from my parents.  My dad is my number one driver.  He comes home from his office at noontime and takes me around town so I can deliver my bread.  He also carries all the bread. This week Dad has been gone and I miss him.

 My bread dough is made at night after my little brother and sisters go to bed.  My mom and I do it together.  I do ninety percent of the kneading and most of the mixing.  Mom usually does the dishes for me while I work and she keeps me organized.  In the morning, it is time to shape the bread.  Both my mom and I are learning how to do this.  We are improving every time we do it.  The other day, Mom was reading history to me and I was playing with play dough with my sister.  My mom looks up and says, “You just formed a perfect baguette!”  Shaping the bread is fun, but after that, I go do my schoolwork and my mom bakes the bread.  She temps every loaf to make sure it is just right.    When the bread cools, we wrap it.  It is an awesome feeling to have a dozen loaves of beautifully wrapped bread sitting on the table ready to sell.

Creating new breads is a team effort.  We look through cookbooks and try new recipes.  My mom has a good feel for what will work.  I care about taste.  I don’t want to make bread that I don’t like.  We are working on a 100% whole wheat bread and we haven’t found anything that works for me.  It might just be because ALL whole wheat is a little too healthy for Mr. Mustahce.  When we have a good recipe, we come up with a name and packaging.  This is fun to do.  It is nice to give each type of bread its own personality.  I really like the Cowboy Cheddar theme.  My mom usually looks on-line to find the right packaging. 

My mom is also my Red Plum.  She designed my blog and lots of my labels. On my blog, I do the writing like what I am doing right now.  Sometimes it is based on school assigments I am given.  Mom reads what I write and always makes suggestions.  We type it on the computer, my dad reads it, and then we publish it.

There is a lot of work involved in running a business.  There is a lot of work involved in baking bread.  I work hard, and my mom and dad help.