20th January 2020
Photo credit: Frances Moxham
Hello
So after days and days with THE FEAR of returning to work last week, the reality was far from what I'd imagined. The week ran pretty smoothly, we felt well rested (resulting in no burnt loaves, no dagger eyes across the dough and certainly no bun fights, excuse the pun). And of course it was lovely to see the MMB tribe again. We feel very fortunate to have such great customers who now feel more like friends. And there's something very special when people feel comfortable to stop for a while, have a natter, chat to each other and only then buy a loaf of bread. We saw lots of new faces too, which is brilliant. It's great to think that there are still locals that haven't yet given MMB a try so if last week was your first visit, thank you. We hope you feel inclined to return. Thank you all for making our return so positive.
Introducing Our New Tote Bag Scheme
As mentioned last week we are keen to continue making changes to our habits in order to make MMB more sustainable. In line with this we want to introduce you to our new scheme to encourage the reuse of bags when buying sourdough at MMB.
At the moment we offer paper bags. A number of you are brilliant at bringing these with you on your next visit and some of you already have an MMB tote bag that you use. And this is what we want to encourage more of, whilst also trying to persuade as many of you to use our totes to help spread the MMB message far and wide! SO, from this week onwards if you reuse either an MMB paper bag or an MMB tote when you shop with us you will get a 5% discount on your bread (whether that's one loaf or three) . And if you don't have an MMB tote then we want you to get one so buy a tote and we will fill it with a free loaf of Walden White as a thank you. Win, win.
An Evening with Mini Miss Bread - sold out
Thank you so much to those of you that have purchased tickets to this event at Bicicletta next month. The event has now sold out, which is amazing. I am humbled. I'm really looking forward to taking my first step into the world of public speaking. Obviously I'm having the night terrors about tripping up (both physically and mentally) and if I let myself overthink it too much - usually at around 1.30am when everything seems far more life-threatening than it is - I create whole scenarios that literally fill me with dread. Something along the lines of:
'Any questions for Megan?'
Awkward silence.
More awkward silence.
'Anyone? Don't be shy'.
A single hand goes up.
'Megan can you explain for me the pros and cons of using a flour with a higher protein percentage versus a lower percentage and what, in your experience, you can do to counteract dough that has a higher percentage than you realised, half way through your bulk fermentation?'
All faces turn to me. Some full of pity. I look to Jeff and he gives me a sympathetic grimace.
The ground, unfortunately, does not open up and swallow me whole.
Oh gaaaaawd. Please, if you have a ticket, don't ask me anything about flour protein percentages. I don't have the answers and this area of expertise is my ultimate imposter syndrome trigger. I may start welling up, even worse blubbing out loud. And that's not comfortable for anyone is it?
If you missed out on a ticket and this faux-scenario hasn't completely put you off, Bicicletta has got a waiting list for any returns, so just drop them a line at info@biciclettavelo.com. Equally there is talk of another, similar event so you can use this address to register your interest. To witness a blubbing Mini Miss.
This Week's Sourdough
Let's move on promptly shall we? Three deep breaths.
This week's special is going to be the Fennel & Raisin Sourdough. This was probably in our top three most popular loaves from last year and many of you have been asking when it'll be back. So this is your week. It'll be on the shelves on Friday and Saturday.
Also on Friday and Saturday we will have both White and Wild Tins (the Wild is a white sourdough with soaked seeds mixed into the dough) along with plenty of our Rugbrøds.
Our brown sourdough will be the Seeded Worthy (think wholemeal, but better as the flavours of the soaked seeds take it to a whole new level) and available on Thursday, Friday and Saturday along with Walden Whites (free with the purchase of an MMB tote bag, wink) and Super Sours.
And don't forget we will have a few Walden Whites on the shelves on Wednesday for those of you that need your bread bins topped up sooner.
And I think that's it! See you later in the week.
Megan