August 24, 2014 - 7:11am
Market Day - video
It was a cold and rainy morning...but it was market day and the people needed their bread and pastries...
Shot between 1:00 AM and 1:30 PM yesterday, August 23, 2014. Enjoy.
-Mark
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It was a cold and rainy morning...but it was market day and the people needed their bread and pastries...
Shot between 1:00 AM and 1:30 PM yesterday, August 23, 2014. Enjoy.
-Mark
Comments
Mark,
I feel like a real slacker when I see the amount of goods that you produce. Did you move the camera for all those shots or did you have a "video assistant" ?
Nice job,
Jeff
Glad you like the video. I did a lot of camera moving and adjusting the tripod work for all of the different shots, no video assistant. I did some of the early morning shots from outside the trailer looking in so people could see what it's like for a customer to watch me working.
-Mark
I should add that I loved the final shot of the video.
Jeff
Hoku: Are we going on our walk now?
Me: Not now. I'm going to take a short nap, then we'll go.
Hoku: Well, OK.
:)
This is so inspiring, Mark! Impressive work, And videography. And to think that you alone are behind all this work of art is just plain awesome. I feel i'll be watching this video many times.
Thanks for sharing, and best Wishes,
Khalid
I haven't been very active on this site for a while, so I thought I'd put a video up so people could see why I've been so busy :) Thanks and keep up the great baking.
-Mark
3 Marks! What a busy schedule. Well done and hope the business goes well and the customers are happy.
Happy baking
Thanks dabrownman. Business is going well and the customers are very loyal and happy, so that makes it all worthwhile!
-Mark
Great video. Thanks for taking the time to shoot and edit.
Regards,
Ian
It was fun making the video and I'm happy you enjoyed it!
-Mark
So many individual breads and pastries, all looked spectacular, and you've organized your activities to make it all come together efficiently. Thank you for sharing and continued success in business!
Cathy
Thank you for the well wishes and for the compliments too! :)
-Mark
Dear Mark,
I don't know how you manage to fit all that in one shift. It's mindboggling - to bake so many varieties at once! And then to do dishwashing, driving, videorecording, sales, cleaning up the premises and closing the shop. I admire you endlessly.
I have learned a couple of new methods from that video, thank you very much - shaping baguettes, for example, and the way you fold the dough 'under' in the bins. And beautiful scoring.
How do you laminate your dough for croissants and danishes? Do you refrigerate it and freeze it in between turns? Where did you squeeze in the sheeter in that trailer?
mariana
To tell you the truth, the dishwashing didn't get done on Saturday, that was done on Sunday after I slept for a while.
As for the laminating, for croissants I do three tri-folds total (27 layers). The lock in and first two turns I do back-to-back, then it gets refrigerated for about an hour, then I do the third turn. For puff, I do five tri-folds (243 layers). The lock in and first three turns I do back-to-back, then it gets refrigerated for about an hour, then I do the fourth and fifth turns. The sheeter isn't in the trailer, some of the equipment from the Back Home Bakery didn't quite fit.
Thanks for your kind words.
-Mark
Hi Mark,
Loved the video. You make it all look so easy.
How many different doughs were you working with? Obvious ones I caught were your multi grain, rye and a basic white dough that were all shown in the video. From the pastries I know you had to have a laminated dough on hand too. I am thinking that the baguette dough was different from the basic white dough but couldn't tell.
Did I see 2 ovens? By the way, I love your steaming method. Does the water warp the bottom of your oven?
On hot days I can't help but wonder about the temp. in your bakery. It must get very hot in there when the ovens are cranking at baking temps…(I hate heat so my Cadco goes into our garage in the summer so our kitchen doesn't turn into a sauna….) On cool days, such as the one you just had, I imagine it is nice and cosy.
Do you do this all on a daily basis or only on the weekends?
How do people know what type of breads you offer since you are inside and they are outside?
In any event, I am very impressed with your precision and your photography skills too. Loved your closing shot!
Thanks for the post. I always love taking a peek into your kitchen. Very inspiring.
Take Care,
Janet
For the sake of brevity, of course I cut out steps of some of the different doughs. There are 6 different doughs and this is when they were introduced in the video:
:20 Buckwheat Flax is mixed (about 1:20 AM)
:50 Potato Rolls are shaped (around 1:50 AM) They were mixed and scaled on Friday afternoon, then fridge retarded
1:10 Rustic White stretch and fold 1 (it was mixed at 1:30 AM directly after the Buckwheat Flax, but not shown in the video)
2:00 Sour Rye is mixed (about 2:20 AM)
3:20 Cocktail Rye is baked (around 3:00 AM) It was mixed and shaped Friday afternoon, the same time as the bigas/pate fermentees for the Rustic White and Buckwheat Flax, and the sponge for the Sour Rye
5:05 the Baguette dough is scaled and preshaped (around 4:45 AM) It was mixed and fridge retarded 36 hours earlier.
I have 2 different laminated doughs, croissant and puff, and from them I make 10 different pastries.
I have 3 ovens, but only 2 were used in the video. The one with the window (that the baguettes are baking in) is electric and the one without the window is propane. That one is a double stack, with another propane oven directly below it. They are all Blodgett ovens with angle iron frames and thick metal floors so they don't warp.
Yes it gets very hot inside the trailer.
I do this two days a week, on Wednesday nights in Big Sky and Saturday mornings in Bozeman. Both are equally busy, but with different favorites for each.
I have a sandwich board with all of the selections written on it with a chalk marker, right in front of the platform and a removable menu board (like you'd read on the outside a restaurant in a city) screwed to the flip-up serving shelf on the outside of the trailer (10:17 in the video).
Thanks a lot Janet and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
-Mark
Thanks for the explanation of who you pull this all off with such style. I am impressed by the amount of work involved and that you pull it all off with such apparent ease. And that you do it 2 times a week. I know refrigeration and oven space makes a big difference but it still is a lot of work!!!!
I bake daily for friends and neighbors but NOT on your scale so I have some what of a sense of the work involved BUT I don't have to hitch up and drive a large trailer to my customers - they come to my door nor do I loose any sleep we in the wee morning hours tending to doughs. At most I mix and bake only 2 different doughs on any given day so I am totally NOT in your league but because of what I do do I have GREAT appreciation and admiration for what you are doing.
Thanks for answering all of my questions. My curiosity has been satisfied. :)
Take Care,
Janet
Really amazing...how you manage to do all of this alone.
It's a bit of a six ring circus, but it keeps me busy and that's a good thing. :)
Well, Mark, if you for some unthinkable reason you wanted to change careers, you could certainly make a go of cinematography. You have an eye for a good shot and excellent editing skills for a baker. It is hard to believe you did that all by yourself. You had my attention throughout the entire video and I was intrigued by the story it told. That certainly was a huge amount of work. Are you that busy everyday?
You breads look stunning. Awesome attention to detail and each one so perfect. Top notch!
Thanks for the compliments about the video. Funny, I planned to make this video for a while, and as the season was winding down I thought to myself, "It better be soon." I wanted a typical market day where the weather is pretty nice. There's usually a long line of people for most of the market and I thought it would be cool to put the camera outside for a bit to show everybody waiting for their baked goods and hustling along. Two days before the market, I got a call from the market manager telling me that the forecast was for nasty weather and wondering if I was going to be there. I said, "Of course".
Anyway, several vendors backed out and I decided to shoot the video despite the weather. I thought it would show the reality of a baker's life and how despite the ups and downs of the weather, the same amount of care, preparation and work goes into each product. Towards the end when the crowd was thinning out and people were bustling by, all I could hear was, "Drip, drip, drip..." and I thought, "There you go."
As I was packing up in the rain, my last two customers came around the corner and asked if I had anything left. I grabbed the camera and invited them in the trailer. I gave them a tour and they got a couple of bear claws and pains au chocolat. Then I packed up and headed home.
I'm that busy twice a week, the other days I'm prepping for the markets.
Thanks.
-Mark
Beautiful doughs! Love the way you handle them. I think the community is lucky to have a baker in action right in their midst!
Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to share with us your market day! I thought not only I saw 3 Marks, I felt there were 48 hours in a day ;)
Michelle
Thanks and I hope you and the other M are doing well. It's fun to stop and make a video every once in a while and I figured I better before the market season was over with. Sometimes it feels like I've been working 48 hours in a 24 hour day :)
-Mark
I really enjoyed watching how you handle the dough. Watching these videos makes me more and more secure in my decision to abandon the dream of baking for a living! I would need to develop some mad skills that I just don't feel up to at this point in my life. :)
Well then I guess I've served my purpose. Sometimes the decision to not do something is just as important as the decision to do something :)
-Mark
“He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.” c
Thank you very much for that quote and I hope all is well with you and your family :)
-Mark
My husband and I rode 2000 miles in Europe this Summer. He did great ! It was a once in a life time experience. We are now in VA with our son and his family and are thinking of making a very big change in our lives. Will have to make sure I have a good oven :) It is truly like music/choreography to watch you in action. I regret never having the chance to participate but take great joy in your success. Caroline
I'm very glad to hear that your trip was a success and you did the bicycle trip like you had planned. Thanks again for your kind comments and tell your husband I said, "Hi."
-Mark
The joys of handling large amounts of dough and turning out a lot of product! I reflect on it often.
You are younger and stronger than I, Gunga Din!
:-)
Continued success...
Pat
Thanks Pat, the gluten is treating me well. I hope all is well with you and take care.
-Mark
Mark,
What a great video. A whole lot in it. I just got back from vacation and glad I didn't miss it. Your breads and pastries all look fantastic. DId you teach yourself how to make pastry or did you get training? I have more questions - hope you see this.
Did I see you throwing water in your oven, or do you have a steam hookup? Is that the only way you steam, or do you have more steaming going on? (I'm interested because some of the shared kitchens I'm looking at don't have steam ovens. I notice you are mixing with mixer guard open. I assume you managed to turn off the safety switch? Looks like you have a fairly small mixer in your trailer. Do you have a larger one that you are making dough with in advance before you get to the site?
Anyhow, I shut down for a week, and went away, and handed my starters over to a friend to maintain for the week. They are in great shape, and I got a good rest away from baking - first in a year. Now I'm back at it.
Thanks so much for posting!
-Varda
Glad to hear you took a break. My season is just about to wrap up, then I'll take some sort of break. :)
Yes, I taught myself how to make pastries. I started out making just croissant dough, when I felt I had that figured out well enough, then I added puff.
That's the only way I steam. I have a cast iron griddle that I place on the lowest rack of the oven, then I pour 1/2 can of water on it when I load the bread.
Yes, I disabled the safety switch on the mixer so that I could use it with the guard open. I've done it on a few different mixers and I think this one involved just completing the wiring circuit to bypass the switch.
It's a 20qt mixer in the trailer, which is in the video, then I also have a 60qt Hobart that is not in the trailer or video. I use that one for large batches of dough. Although technically I'm supposed to exclusively use the equipment in the trailer for my production, after an extensive discussion with the health dept, they allow me to occasionally use equipment out of the trailer as long as the area complies with health guidelines. When I eventually build my own place, I'll have a place for the trailer and also a separately licensed bakery like I did for The Back Home Bakery.
Glad to hear you got a break and your starters are good-to-go. I'm planning on shooting another video on Wednesday at the other market I do, we'll see.
-Mark