Back in the day, many twists and turns ago, there was a member of this forum who was quite generous with his time and knowledge. His name was Eric, aka ehanner.
Some of us knew him personally as a friend and communicated with him through this forum, emails and phone calls.
During that time period, the most popular post on this forum was his own, in which he shared his recipe for a Jewish/deli rye, known as "Eric's favorite rye". I think everyone active on this forum tried it at least once.
He and I spoke about it and as all bakers do, I made a few minor changes to suit my style and equipment and to make the recipe my own.
It was at that time in 2008 that I started my own bakery, to which I added the rye to my menu. It became very popular with those who were nostalgic for bread they had had long ago, and also quite popular with people who had never had 'a good rye'.
A few years later as a result of many life changes, I decided to close the bakery and begin a new one in another part of the Montana. This time, it was going to be a mobile bakery that I designed myself. Unique and challenging in every way, I was quite nervous about this gigantic leap that I was about to make, seeing as a mobile bakery of this sort existed nowhere else in the world. There were so many questions about timing, workflow and production, not to mention the actual baking, that had never been answered.
Eric called me one day, right before I left on this journey to encourage me with words I'll never forget, "Mark. This new bakery of yours will succeed beyond your wildest dreams. It will be better than The Back Home Bakery ever was. If anyone can do it, you can."
And just like that, two days later, Eric passed away.
That was it.
I began my new life with his words in my head, and they are still here. He was right.
He was a great man, and this is his Rye.
-Mark
