help help i am trapped in a bread bin!

ahhhhh this bread bin fell on top of my head and i can’t get out!!!

how can i bake bread for you if i am stuck in the frikkin bread bin?!?

maybe i can push my way out with my face!!

no, i’ve got it, i will lick my way out!!!

have a wonderful weekend.

❤ josey

p.s. don’t worry, this bread bin was thoroughly washed after this photoshoot.

p.p.s where did i do this? at Google! i do a bread subscription there for employees, and i get to ride over on my bike, and i am jazzed like a muhfuh.

i heart bakers

holy god, i just took a trip out to Chico to hang with the raddest dude, my main man Dave Miller. i visited him back in November, and i had such an amazing time that i decided it was time for another hang.

i don’t mean to get all lovey dovey on you, but i just think this guy is the coolest.

he lives out on a nice big plot of land with not a neighbor to be seen, has some goats and llamas, and he just does his thing. what is his thing? freshly milled whole grain bread, baked in a wood fired oven, in a bakery attached to his house. he sells all the bread at a farmer’s market, once a week.

are you kidding me???

nope. no kids here. just bakers. badass motherfrikkin bakers.

so if he made awesome bread from locally grown, freshly milled flour, that would be enough for me. super rad maverick style, hell yes. (see my previous post on this fella if you’re thinking, “what the hell is josey talking about?”) but there’s a lot more going on.

the man just has awesome focus and clarity of vision. being in that space, and watching someone who is so clear in their intention and so skilled at their craft is just such a mighty inspiration. it reminds me of all the things i talked about in my last post, the things that i’m scared of losing as i embark on the next chapter of this funny little breadventure i’m on – HOLY CRAP ARE YOU KIDDING ME – BREADVENTURE!!! i can’t believe i never thought of that before!!! have you ever heard that?!? i just made up a totally totally awesome word! i need to trademark that shit quick, don’t go stealing it from me and skipping town with fat stacks of cash that coulda been mine if i’d actually trademarked the coolest word i’ve ever made up: breadventure.

ummmmmm, anyway……… look at these adorable little wheat berries falling to their doom between two humongous stones.

they kinda look like lemmings, right?

(that’s my first animated gif in a post and it makes me very very happy of myself.)

and you don’t need to be a baker to know that anybody who rocks a pink Artofex mixer is hella badass:

but back to what i was saying before i got distracted by my accidental fully genius word invention (that’s breadventure, bitch) and the pink artofex, it really was re-centering to spend time with him. made me feel more sure than ever that i am on the right track with this whole thing. that is an excellent feeling.

and not to mention these other facts that made the trip god damn amazing: the newest member of the Josey Baker Bread Brigade, sir Nicholaus Aives III, accompanied me on this breadventure, manning the ship for the long journey out, and generally lifting my weary spirits. i feel very fortunate to have him on the team, and you’ll all be seeing more of him as the days go by (he’s a real looker, and i’m gonna make sure i get some pics of him in his undies, just for you). check out Nick behind this meat truck we found on 24th St on our regular Thursday morning breakfast stroll:

and another stellar baker was on the scene as well – Julie, a rad freshly milled whole grain wood fire oven baker, who runs 600 Degrees up on Vancouver Island. Jules was on a trip all over the states with her kind and talented partnerman Andrew, visiting the little bakers that are doing their thing the right way. turns out she’d just spent a bunch of time in Vermont (my homeland), hanging with folks like Blaire and Andrew at Elmore Mountain Bread, and Gerard Rubaud, and Adam and folks at Bread & Butter Farm. also, she hung with William Davenport of Turtlerock Masonry, whom i haven’t yet had the pleasure to meet, but who is based in the Green Mountain state, and is making amazing wood fire brick ovens left and right. small world. i asked if i could come visit up Jules and Andrew up north, and they said i could! stay tuned – if i go, you’ll hear all about it.

in parting – rye bread dough is kind of gross looking, isn’t it?

but it tastes so good.

❤ josey

directions: pee your pants. get pensive.

listen – if you’re looking to pee your pants (by excessive chuckling), you might want to just check this out. actually, check it even if you don’t like peeing your pants, cuz it is totally totally amazing.

…

and now that you’re done with the whole pee thing (you sicko), i’d like to sit down for a little heart to heart.

ya see, the thing is, i’ve been thinking a lot about this bread business i’ve landed in, and how exactly i want to move forward with everything, and what it all means to me. heavy shit, yes ma’am.

but don’t be scared, i promise everything will be just fine. i just wanna let you know some of the things i’ve been thinking about. no big changes or rugs-pulled-out-from-underneath-you. just some good old fashioned sharing, like they taught us to do in kindergarten.

i’ve got a nice thing going – i fell in love with baking bread, and somehow, rather magically, i’ve figured out a way to do it all the time. and i can honestly say that for the foreseeable future i can only see the bread getting better. this feels totally frikkin amazing, cuz one of the most important things to me right now is engaging in the act of bread baking, and continuing to refine my skills, and ultimately, making the best bread that i can. so opening my own bakery and hiring a select few fine bakers to help on this mission is right in line with this goal. i am clear in this.

but this is also taking a big step into the unknown, and i, like most people, have some trepidation about that. why is it a big step? a few reasons: right now i basically rent everything i need to bake bread, i don’t have any employees, and i decide how much and what kinds of bread to bake. so if i wanted to up and become a mountain top monk, i could, with very little repercussions. (other than hopefully taking a few baby steps towards enlightenment.)

but that’s all about to change. i am buying all of my own equipment, signing a lease, hiring employees (badass they will be, just you watch), and entering into some serious business relationships. basically, i’m gettin hitched to bread. and i am pumped to get hitched to bread, don’t get me wrong, i loooooooove it. but it’s also a little scary, ya know?

and so i’m wanting to do everything i can to keep the fire alive, and keep my shit straight. one of the things that made me swoon about bread right away was that it was playful, and dynamic, and always changing – it never got boring. and i can take some credit for this – every single time i make bread i am trying out some new thing – a little more water, a slightly hotter oven, a different way of folding the dough… all in an attempt to push the bread further towards this perfect loaf i have in my mind. and ya know what? it’s never there. and the beautiful and sometimes sad thing is, it probably never will be. but i’ll tell you what, i’m grateful for this. because if there’s one thing i hate more than being disappointed, it’s being bored.

but while i’m at it, here’s another thing i’ve absolutely adored about bread – the people. i have an unbelievably radical community of folks that has been built around bread, and i cannot even tell you how grateful i am for this. YOU, curious reader, YOU are part of this community. so please, accept my heartfelt thanks for being a part of this.

so what? what to make of all this? oh nothing, really, just lettin ya’ll in to the softer side of josey baker bread.

love you the most pretty babies

❤ josey

look sexier

now you too can look like this:

please don’t worry mom, that gun may look real and totally bada$s, but it only shoots BBs.

my radical man Wiley over at Bluxome St has carefully crafted some sexy tanks and tees, just for you to prance about town and show what good taste you have.

but josey baker, what if i don’t wanna look bada$s, i just wanna look super duper sexy?

no problem:

my god, that girl is so H*O*T !!!

if you practice real hard, you might get to look like this as well…

again – just a BB gun kiddos.

those guns most definitely are as real as they get.

and that cigaratte is most definitely just a prop – nag champa style.

***limited quantities available for purchase at Mission Pie, W & Th, 3-9pm.

$10 tanks

$12 tees

heart hard 4 eva

josey