wow

it’s been a hell of a month.

first of all, i have to apologize to all of you for posting that photo of myself where i look completely bruised up and crazy. i was in fact crazy for a spell (which is probably why it seemed like a good idea to post that photo), with all of you incredible folk tethering me to the ground, thank god. i whacked my head real good, and i am sure it would have been a lot tougher had it not been for the love that y’all showered upon me. so again, i just have to say: thanks, it meant the world to me that you were all there for me.

aaaaand onward we go!

we had such a nice little gathering with some buddies to celebrate the fact that we’ve tamed this crazy beast, opened up The Mill once and for all. it was a pizza party, and i had more fun than i even know how to describe here. after we baked and ate all the pizza we could, we decided to sing some songs, which looked a little bit like this:

this photo was snapped (by Nihal), and was moments before that handsome man i’m embracing decided to give my first experience in man-to-man tongue kissing. (it fit with the song we were singing, ok??) it wasn’t an altogether unenjoyable experience, although not one i will be looking to repeat any time soon.

and if ya wanna know the truth, we’re working on getting our ducks in a row so that we can do another pizza party, maybe even make pizza on the regular an evening or two a week. wouldn’t that be so frikkin fun??!? i think so too! stay the ef tuned, sweethearts.

and just so noone is confused about anything, my dear brother Jed took this photo above. so if you like it, i can’t take credit for it, but i will let him know that you think it’s nice.

but i DID take this one! this is in The Mill, in a special spot that gets a beautiful and focused beam of light for only a few moments each day.

and hey i wanted to share some exciting news – for those of you who don’t live near The Mill, you can now get my bread at a few different spots around the city, 7 days a week!

Bi Rite Market 18th St – this was the first store that ever carried my bread (aside from Gravel & Gold, in the good ol days), and i couldn’t be more proud to be working with them.
Bi Rite Market Divis – they’re right down the street from The Mill, so i swing by almost everyday to get something delicious on which to munch. you should too.
Rainbow Grocery – we juuust started delivering to Rainbow about a week ago, and it makes me giggle with glee.

i wanna tell you all about the other folks that we’re working with, but i’ll save that for the next time.

and OH YEAH – i am looking to hire another person to help out with the JBB party! we need a bread delivery/errand/jack of all trades who can work Friday-Sunday mornings, beginning at 8:30am and ranging from 2-6 hours, depending on the needs of the day, and meets the following criteria:

clean driving record & CA driver’s license
loves driving around the city with a car full of bread
is excited to help do unbelievably exciting things, such as stamp and sticker bread bags (lose yourself in it, it’s awesome)
able to lift a buuunch of bread

e-mail jobs@joseybakerbread.com if you’re into it.

have a lovely day you sexy thang

<3 josey

always wanted to be a baker? now’s your chance sweetie pie

Apr18

yo cats & dogs

first of all, i need to share the deepest heartfelt gratitude that i am capable of: THANK YOU.

who am i thanking, you wonder?

i’m thanking everyone who has come out to support me over the last few days, since i fell off my bike and smashed up my face real good in Golden Gate Park. i’ve been totally floored by how many people have reached out to show me they care about me, and offer to support in whatever ways they can. i can’t tell you how much it’s meant to me dudes, so really, thank you thank you thank you.

for those of you who don’t know what i am talking about -

i was rip roaring on my bike through Golden Gate Park on Monday, enjoying the last few hours of what had already been a tremendous couple of days, having spent the night at Fort Baker with my sweet lady, maxing and relaxing and riding around on golf carts. anyway, on Monday about 6pm i managed to snap the fork of my bike right in half as i was popping a totally sweet wheelie off the curb near the De Young Museum. now i’ve got a lot of stitches and some cracked teeth and it’s difficult to eat and drink stuff, but i’m lookin on the bright side – it could have been a lot worse. in fact, the ER doctor told me that if i hadn’t been wearing my bike helmet that i probably would have died. it’s been quite the reminder dudes – appreciate everything you have while you have it, and treat that sweet body of yours with love and kindness. and for god’s sake: wear your bike helmet.

which brings me to my next point – JBB IS LOOKING TO HIRE A BAKER for our work at The Mill! awwwwwww $hit. and you might be (or know) that special someone if:

you love baking cookies, coffee cake, lemon bars, granola, farmer’s market fruit preserves, that type of hippie $hit
you ALSO love baking loaves of sourdough bread
you can hang in an open kitchen, with curious customers always asking you things like, “what are you doing?” and then not listening to your answers
you can take on a position that is 16-24 hrs / week to start
you have your opinions about how to do things, but you’re open to learning how to do stuff better, quicker, and in a variety of ways
you like working in a tight little bakery where you’re never more than 3 feet away from another person

please send your resume & cover letter to: jobs@joseybakerbread.com

don’t worry if you don’t have a ton of experience – i’m mostly looking for someone that we all enjoy spending time with who has a sufficient knowledge base and who can learn our ways quickly. so if you think that’s you, then reach out any say so!

have a rad day my dogs, remember that helmet next time you’re wheelie-poppin

<3 josey

definitely not bored; JBB vocab lesson

Apr10

when i was a kid i used to always say, “moooooooom, i’m bored, what should i do??? i’m boooooooooooored.” i’d fiddle with my teenage mutant ninja turtles, go throw some sticks around in the woods, then dig a hole, or something, and whine about being bored again. cuz being bored sucks, ya know?

i’m definitely not bored these days.

these awesome little dudes came by the bakery the other week. i tried to give them a tour and teach them a little about bread, but they knew more about bread than i did, cuz they’ve been baking bread at school, and even milling their own frikkin flour. so badass.

everything has been going great at the bakery, but every once in a while we get some suuuper weird people who come in and do stuff like this:

watch out for this guy, he’s a wild one.

the past 2 months have been one hell of a ride. aside from opening The Mill, i also managed to sneak in a rad photo shoot with one Ms. Erin Kunkel, the talented young lady whose photographs will be featured in my cookbook. i wish i could show some of them to you, but i think that’s against the law, and you know i don’t like breaking the law… but here’s a totally legal shot that she snapped with her cell phone during the shoot. (don’t be fooled, i just posed for this photo, she’s the brains behind this one)

everyday the bread gets a little better, and its got me freaking out in front of the oven every morning, saying stuff like, “I literally cannot believe that I just made this!!” so pumped, check it out:

we made sesame bread this week as our super special weekly bread. we’re doing more experimenting and special breads lately, and it’s very exciting, and there’s only going to be more of it. so if you feel like being surprised come in and see what’s new on the bread rack, then take a loaf home and eat it and tell us what you think.

wanna know a secret??? check this out:

this is a loaf of country bread before it’s baked. look at all those awesome patterns on it!! crazy right?!? wanna know how we do that??? okay, so first you get out your compass and your calipers and your calculater… ummm, actually it’s suuuuper complicated, i don’t really have the time to explain, sorry, maybe next time.

but ya know what, i think it might be nice for me to let you in to the bakery a little bit more, to give you a more intimate sense of what the day to day is like *INSIDE* the JBB machine. ya see, we don’t know what we’re doing, so we have to make it up, and that includes making up our own terms for the stuff we do every day. in light of that, here is a little vocab lesson, so you can maybe understand the gibberish you hear coming out of the bakery the next time you’re in.

playing with the pillows: get your mind outta the gutter you little perv, this is our fun way of saying “shaping bread loaves.” ya see, when the bread is mixed just right, like it is most days, cuz my bakers are little badasses, it is blissful to shape, because it’s so nice and soft and stretchy, and full of delicious gas. so instead of being boring and saying, “well, i guess it’s time to shape the bread loaves now,” we say, “quit your lollygaggin moss-pony, it’s time to play with the pillows!” all while the grateful dead are playing in the background. too good.

chop it up: this isn’t really that creative, and i think i’m the only one that says it. instead of saying, “well looky here, it appears to be time for me to scale the bread dough into loaves and pre-shape them,” i say, “get outta my face man, i don’t have time for that, i gotta chop it up.” then chop it up i do, like a god damn teenage mutant ninja turtle, michelangelo* to be exact.

*yes yes, i am well aware the michelangelo is not able to do any chopping, as his weapon of choice is the nunchucks, or Nunchaku, which do not chop so much as beat. but michelangelo is a party dude, and orange is my favorite color, and this is MY breadblog, so, as my father always said, if you don’t like it, lump it.

purple beauties: this was invented by Wendy, our resident viking baker, as a title for our whole wheat cranberry walnut bread. we were playing with the pillows (see above) one afternoon, and i was like, “yo we should name this bread something other than whole wheat cranberry walnut bread, that’s so boring,” to which she immediately replied, “well, we should probably call it cranberry walnut purple beauty.” so we called them that from there on out, til the other week, when we stopped making that bread. RIP purple beauties.

all of your g*d d@mn seeds are on my f***in rack: this is what you hear if you knock over a tray of Cobi’s breakfast bars which are on the cooling rack instead of the normal place they are, because you’ve filled up that normal place with trays of your toasted seeds, not totally where they’re supposed to be.

we’re just killing time on a rock that’s floating around a ball of fire: take it easy man, it’s just bread.

have a good day sweeties, i miss you, all of you.

<3 josey

come to City Hall tomorrow morning dudes – Wednesday, March 13, 9am, Room 400

Mar12

we have our hearing at 9am this Wednesday, and we need folks to come and show their support! you have a few minutes to spare, i know you do, so please come and tell the planning department that you want us to build a parklet in front of The Mill.

meet us out front of City Hall at 8:45 Wednesday morning, and we’ll make this thing happen.

City Hall, Room 400, Wednesday March 13, 9am

kisses

small dog loves your bread

Mar3

Hi Josey,

I was in late this morning and you helped me decide on loaves of bread for me and my neighbor. I got two loaves, your rye and the cranberry walnut. Anyhow… After I left The Mill, I had to go buy some toilet paper so I went to the grocery store and left the loaves I bought in the car with my little nine pound pooch, Louie. He’s not the type to get into stuff. He’s not allowed to eat ANY human food and never begs. He’s a good dog. Most of the time. Then today happened… Your warm loaves of bread were just too much for him and left alone with the yeasty aroma, he just couldn’t resist himself. He pulled the bag with the warm loaf of cranberry walnut bread, up onto the seat (I had placed it on the floor) and like the dog of good Hungarian mom, ate the end off. End of story.

Sending on a picture of him in complete bliss after the fact.

Loving having you in the neighborhood!

hugs & licks

D & L

i cannot believe this is my life

Feb26

we did it, dudes, we finally opened our doors. we’re open everyday, i’m here everyday, and it is totally, totally awesome.

if you haven’t come in to say hey just yet, don’t worry, just come on by when you have some time to drink a coffee & eat a slice of toast & soak up some good vibes. (yes, good vibes, you bet your ass i said that, and i mean it too.)

i am having so much friggin fun, i really cannot even believe that this is my life. i feel like i won the god damn lottery. i get to do the work that i love so much, with people that i love so much, in a space that i love so much. couldn’t really get much better if ya ask me.

i don’t mean to boast, rather, just to share my excitement, and to say thanks to everyone who helped make this thing happen. next time i see you i am going to hug you and lift you right up off the ground and laugh, and maybe i will even kiss you right on your face.

y’all have been going bonkers for the dark mountain rye, which makes me so so so excited, because it’s my favorite bread too. i had no idea that folks would dig on it so hard, but i’m way down. its very different from all the other bread we make… its 100% rye, and its jam packed with sesame, sunflower, flax seeds & corn meal. it’s dense as hell and it will nourish you on your mightiest of adventures. check it out here, about to go into the oven:

so many of you have been coming in, it’s crazy, i had no idea that it was going to be this busy. we are making almost 1,000 slices of toast on the weekends, we’ve already broken two commercial toasters, and this past Sunday i sold almost 200 loaves. 200 LOAVES IN ONE DAY??!?!? it wasn’t even a holiday!! man oh man oh man oh man.

phew. anyway, thanks again, and i cannot wait to keep partying with you all.

oh crap – we need your help! we are having a public hearing down at City Hall for the parklet that we wanna build out front of The Mill. we need as many people as possible to come to the hearing and speak up in support of the project. here are the details:

WHEN: Wednesday, March 13 at 9am

WHERE: Room 400 at City Hall

WHY: cuz we wanna build a parklet in front of The Mill, and we can’t do it without folks coming and showing the powers-that-be that we have support from the people.

if you can make it that would be A M A Z I N G. thanks in advance my dogs.

<3 josey