very very very hard to believe, but it’s almost been a whole frikkin year since we opened, and i’ll be damned if we’re not gonna throw ourselves a hell of a birthday shindig.
thank you a zillion times over to all you who have helped and supported and loved us up so good along the way, we’d be lost without you.
so come on out and eat some pizza and drink some drink and listen to some sweet tunes and have yourselves a ball with us.
❤ josey
well, the holidays have come and gone, and by golly, looks like we’re a good 3 weeks into 2014 already… holy crap! did you make any resolutions? i sure did – for 2014 i am finally going to stop eating so much bread.
YEAH RIGHT I WILL NEVER DO THAT NOT EVER EVER EVER DON’T EVEN JOKE ABOUT THAT
but for real, i’m all in favor of January 1 being the motivation for folks to make changes to their lives that they’ve been wanting to make for a while and have needed that extra push to make it happen. so if you need less bread in your life, then please be my guest. we do make a handful of yummy goodies at The Mill that don’t have any wheat in them, so treat yourself to some granola, or a breakfast bar, or very soon we will actually have a peanut butter cookie that’s made without any gluten-filled ingredients too! but be warned – if you have a very serious allergy/sensitivity, everything is made in close proximity to wheat, so we cannot guarantee against it making you feel the way wheat/gluten makes you feel.
but while we are on the topic of wheat/bread/gluten, check this out – i have been doing an informal experiment for the last few years, and i would hereby like to publish my results, right frikkin here and now. (wow, i’m getting excited, i didn’t know i was going to do this until just now, and now my heart is beating so nice and fast.) so here it is.
i know many people who have sensitivity to wheat/bread/gluten. their symptoms vary from getting queasy, to having rashes, to a very upset tummy. to each of them i have said this – if you wouldn’t mind taking the risk, i would love for you to try a loaf of our dark mountain rye bread, and see how it makes you feel. this is what that loaf looks like, in case you were wondering:
obviously this is a big thing for them to do, as they are willfully engaging in behavior that may make them queasy/rashy/farty. so for this i thank them passionately. and i gift them a loaf, a meager expression of the deep gratitude i feel for the risk they’re taking. and now you are wondering, oh curious reader, what has happened to them? queasiness for days? rashes covering every inch of their body? farts, farts, and more farts??!? no my friends, every single one of had the same result: nothing. they eat the bread and they don’t have any symptoms and they go about their day as per usual. (a little fart here and there is perfectly normal, ok??)
so what the hell, let me be clear – i am NOT saying that our dark mountain rye bread is the silver bullet to our current epidemic of health issues related to wheat/bread/gluten. so don’t let me catch any of you going around quoting me as saying such or i will furrow my brow at you and tell you how disappointed i am in your poor listening skills. but what i am saying is this – while many people have had health problems associated with eating bread, i do firmly believe that the vast majority of these problems have their roots in the way that that particular loaf of bread was made. to be specific, mass-produced bread made with mass-produced ingredients is maybe not the sweetest.
but if you take an organically grown grain (be it wheat or rye), mill it into flour while keeping it nice and cool, use that flour to make a loaf of bread in combination with a sourdough culture, properly ferment that sucker, then eat it fresh, i would hazard to guess that it would digest very easily for almost everybody reading this. (mind you, i specifically say *almost* everybody, undoubtedly it will be harmful for some of you, and i am not doubting that for one moment.) yes, it just might not cause you the same problems that you had with that loaf of bread that was wrapped in plastic and sitting on a grocery store shelf for weeks before you bought it. not to mention that it was made in a factory using ingredients that were raised with profitability as the one & only goal, not taste nor nutrition nor goodness for the Earth. so yes, i do think that small batch whole grain sourdough bread is good for you, and mass produced factory white bread is not.
but that’s just me, you can do whatever the heck you want.
(phew, that was a bit of a rush, i really wasn’t planning on doing that, please forgive me if you were just looking to get your fill of pretty pictures and silly jokes.)
anyhoo, enough of that, let me show you some pretty pictures and tell you some silly jokes.
i spent 2 weeks home in Vermont & New York, and it was so so so nice. first i went to my mama’s house, and gave her a X mas gift, which she added to her collection. her collection of what, you ask?? well, maybe just maybe you will want to get it for someone you love so they can add to their collection as well:
AWWW YEAAAHHHHH the book is done!!! it’s released April 15, and it is very hard for me to believe, so please pinch me and remind that i did in fact write a book and maybe just maybe people want to buy it. i may even do a little bit of traveling to promote this thing, so keep your eyes peeled cuz i may be coming to a party near you.
after mama checked out the book i made us some pizza:
then a nice hike with papa in the woods where we stumbled upon a sweet old maple sugar shack:
and plenty of other good good things, but come oooooon, i don’t wanna bore ya, i’m sure you’ve got plenty of more valuable things to do with your time than read these here tales any longer… and i’ve got a mountain bike ride to go on!!
but one more thing, before i forget – The Mill turns 1 year old on February 13! cannot believe a whole year has gone by, but as the old folks say, “time flies when you’re having fun.” will keep you posted about festivities.
love & kisses & rainbows 4eva
j
joseybakerbread 