Barefoot Dilettante- Baking For the Farmer's Market: Part 3

Ok...school is out for the year, every summer I think I will have more time.
No. One huge project merges into the next. I had no idea that there would be so many tree roots to clean out of the new garden spot, and it isn't done yet. I might get to plant the rest of the garden this week.

So before I completely loose my train of thought and before market starts up again, here is part 3 of my baking my butt off story! You can read part 2 here.

My equipment list when we started our baking was just what I already had in the kitchen. That isn't really fair, I have a big family so I did have a pile of cookie sheets and bread pans already collected.

I didn't want to spend any money, not being sure of my market or what I would be capable of coming out with. So we just made do with what I already had.
5 loaf pans
6 cookie sheets
1 pizza stone and 1 roasting pan lid (used for baking batard shaped loaves)

several 5 gal. food grade buckets (for dough proofing)
2 cast iron dutch ovens ( for artisan bread )
large stainless steel mixing bowls
3 small cookie racks 
sturdy wooden spoons and rubber scrappers
 kitchen scales (grams, oz, and lbs)
hand mixer ( the Kitchen Aid mixer broke down a few months before so Abigail squeaked by with this)
1 large spatula (aka pancake flipper I used this as a baked bread peal)
1 wooden peal (mine looks like a cutting board but has a perfect shape and thin edge for transporting  dough onto the baking stone)
 meat thermometer (internal bread temperature is very important!)
1 oven

What I ended up getting, seeing that I am fortunate to have a sympathetic experienced in commercial baking mother in law was a huge black metal shelf rack. This was an absolute must! Before this addition I was balancing oven racks between chairs to cool my bread. Nightmare disorganization that resulted in my constant beflumuxed state. That nice MIL also loaned me her cooling rack which was great for parking trays of granola to cool out of the way. But it was too crowded in my kitchen by then to appreciate it very much.

The borrowed cooling rack

Over the weeks into months I developed my style. This is a personal thing that just happened, I'm sure every one develops this sort of thing when they put themselves under duress. Necessity is the mother of invention and all that good stuff. A person makes do with what they have and learns to do without. I find really that the more equipment in some cases tends to get in the way!
 During this time of finding myself as a baker I did splurged and buy:

1 bowl scraper (just a hard rectangular piece of plastic and definitely over priced)
2 -15 quart stainless steel bowls (LOVE these)
rubber scrappers (broke handles off old ones)
6 more cookie sheets
box knives, cheap (for slashing tops of bread)
2 loaf pans

All of these things incorporated themselves into my regular kitchen and weren't all that expensive. I did not go with the heavy expensive cookie sheets nor settle for the cheapest, I found some at thrift stores and caught a sale when I had the cash. Importantly they are all the same size and stack well together.

The important thing with equipment is that you have what you need to do the job efficiently, without tripping and knocking stuff over. You'll have to know that I didn't all at once go out and purchase these new things. I went without to try and save money but also until you know how you are going to manage 75lbs of bread dough, then you find out real quick of what you absolutely need.

A double oven for instance! That sounds like a must, we'll see.
 Oh, when we first got this going I had dreams of an outside oven. You know that would just be ideal, and really that's how artisan bread should be baked! That may happen yet, but other projects have become more important to our sustainability. I imagine all that heat out side, baking 5 to 10 loaves at a time, getting to use a real peal (I'll feel totally professional then!) what luxury...
until I picture burning 10 loaves at a time learning how to use it!

Moral of the story: use what you have and learn how you bake and how you dash about your kitchen and what you are willing to trip over on the way to the oven. If you've ever made pita bread you'll know what I'm talking about. Then collect a few goodies to get you organized and efficient.

I'll elaborate more on dashing and tripping through the kitchen in:
Method to The Madness or How To Not Over-proof 40 Loaves of Bread