Check out The Wall of Mustaches.  
This week I feature Erica, Chris, and Brady.

Garfield Was Assassinated

  Apparently it is bad luck to name your mixer after a guy who got assassinated.  My mixer is dead.  The assassin was probably Classic Whole Wheat.  After mourning the loss of our dear friend, it was time to get to work.  My mom and I hand-kneaded over 40 loaves last week.  It was horrific.  I needed a new machine, one nothing like Garfield.

Garfield was a professional-style mixer with high wattage and large flour capacity, but right away we noticed that Garfield wasn’t much better than my mom’s old little mixer.  Why?  Poor gears.  The gears strip out with heavy usage.  The motor overheating was a problem.  Mr. Mustache needed something that could grind the grain, not some pretty boy that was all talk. 

Meet the Norris.

Norris never gets overheated.  He is so calm people look him and immediately forget what anger is.  Norris has better torque.  He can do a 360 backspin that can blow your socks off.   Norris means business.   Nobody messes with the Norris, not even Classic Whole Wheat.

How to Order Mr. Mustache Bread

Mr. Mustache make one type of bread a day.  It is much easier to make a lot of the same rather than making a variety of breads.   Making one type of bread a day keeps me from going crazy.  How do I decide what type of bread to make?  The first few people to order for the week get to decide.   When all my days are planned, I send out a weekly email that tells my customers my baking schedule.  If you would like to be on my weekly email list, let me know.

This is my weekly chart my mom and I make so I know where all of my bread is going.

Order ahead to get the bread you want on the day you want it.

Things You Should Know About Mr. Mustache Bread:

1.     It freezes well.  If you get a loaf of Sourdough on Wednesday and want to wait and eat it on Saturday, you have a lot more self-control than Mr. Mustache!   If you do have this kind of self-control, unwrap the loaf, put it in a freezer bag, and freeze it.  My family does this all the time.  On the day you want to use it, thaw it out.  Then right before your meal, pop it into a hot oven for a few minutes and it is just like getting it fresh from Mr. Mustache.

2.     The reason I bake my bread the morning I give it to you is because then it tastes fresh and warm and good.  After day two, be creative with your leftover bread.  Sourdough Sam is good for tuna melts.  Cowboy bread makes excellent panini sandwiches.  We slice it and add hard salami and prosciutto and a tiny bit of mozzarella to hold it together.  Then we put in in our press.  This is my dad’s favorite sandwich.   My friend, Tonya, makes amazing french toast with her leftover Imperial bread.  Think outside the box and be sure to email me your great ideas!

Cowboy Bread Panini 

3.  Always know that it is possible for me to make an exception for an important event, like President’s Day or Groundhog’s Day.  If you really need a particular bread on a particular day, email me.  If you or members of your family have facial hair, consider it done!

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.  

   

My Week

At the beginning of the week, baking this much bread felt like carrying a rock up a mountain.  It was hard work, but I seem to like it.  I love the look I get from my customers when I deliver my bread.  

“Bread is the king of the table and all else is merely the court that surrounds the king."

Louis Bromfield, American novelist

Bread is Universal

Last night my little sister wanted something to do.  I gave her a little piece of dough and said, "Stare at it.  Whoever blinks first is the the loser. "  She got tired of that after awhile.  According to Em, it was too hard.  So I said to Em, "Poke the bread. "  Every time she did, it sprang back and made her smile.

I wonder if an ancient Egyptian boy told his sister to do the same thing that I told my sister to do.  That's the thing about bread.  It's been around for a long time and it is everywhere.  No matter where you travel in this world, you will always find bread.  In Ethiopia, bread is called injera.  Injera is flat, spongy, and sour.  In India, bread is called naan.  This is a Persian word.  Indian naan is also round and flat, but it tastes nothing like injera.

I'm reading a book right now called Six Thousand Years of Bread.  The author tells the history of bread.  It is the story of happy tummies.  I will be reporting on what I am reading so that you can learn along with me.  When you put a slice of Mr. Mustache bread in your mouth, you are doing something common to people all over the world and throughout history.  I'm not saying Mr. Mustache is humdrum, but only that bread is universal.  I'm glad about that.

My sister and I ate ice cream together after I finished working.

Support Local Producers

I have decided to buy my eggs for Mr. Mustache Bread from a local farmer. Chickens who are raised on small family farms have eggs that are different from those you buy at the grocery store. When a chicken is allowed to roam and peck at the ground, it eats things like bugs and grains that help produce nutritious eggs. Farm eggs are low in fat and high in beta-carotene and omega-3.

Another reason I have decided to buy local eggs is because I want to support local businesses. Wal-mart eggs are shipped all the way from Minnesota (just be glad it isn’t Texas).  We waste energy and resources when we transport eggs long distances.  Isn't it better to save resources and at the same time  support local businesses?  After all, I am a local business.

I wasn’t just thinking about people when I made my decision. I really like chickens. They’re funny when they baulk around moving their necks back and fourth, wattle shaking. They are social with each other, but very timid around people. My friend and I like to stomp our feet and watch them scatter. When they try to fly, they wave their wings and then plummet to the ground. They seem like nice birds and I think they have a better life on a small family farm than they do in the factories.

Whitney's chickens
Don't they look happy?

But here’s the catch. My egg supplier, Whitney, can’t produce eggs as inexpensively as Wal-mart. If I commit to buying local eggs, I will spend ten cents more per loaf on ingredients. Is it worth it? I think so.