A Week at The Flour Barn Bakery

When we started our Microbakery, The Flour Barn, 5 years ago I had no idea what it would become. The excitement from our community has caused us to grow in ways we never could have imagined. This post will take you through some of the behind the scenes tasks we perform at our bakery, as well as give you a clear picture to all we offer.

Running Our Homestead

To start the week, most of us have Mondays off. We use this time to reset our homes and attempt to get organized for the week. Whether that is catching up on laundry, weeding the garden or just spending some quality time with our families. I love to use this day to make my Whole Wheat Sandwich bread, start a batch of homemade Greek Yogurt and if I am feeling extra motivated, some muffins.

Not everyone has the day off though. My dad, who is also my business partner, takes this day to go bulk ingredient shopping at our local restaurant depot. We used to get weekly shipments from our local GFS, but it proved to be much more affordable to go to this bulk foods store. This is where we source our bread flour, AP flour, butter, cream cheese and eggs. Later in the week another grocery store trip will be made for fresh produce and other specialty items.

Classes at The Bakery

Tuesdays are one of my favorite days of the week! They are often a slower paced day that ends with one of our classes. We offer a variety of classes to our community including: Milling Your Own Grains, Artisan Sourdough, Artisan Pizza, The Art of Focaccia, The Art of Brioche, Soup and Bread Bowls and so much more. These classes change depending on the season. Recently we hosted a biscuits and jam class where we made my favorite biscuit recipe and freezer jam from freshly picked strawberries.

I am always so honored when someone comes back and tells us they are still using the skills they learned in one of our classes. To go from completely buying your own bread to making a loaf every week is such an amazing accomplishment, and we truly have seen many students make this change.

Blogging

The joy I get from sharing the recipes and skills that have deeply impacted my life has been so fulfilling. After seeing the impact our classes were having on our community, we looked into starting a blog that shares these skills with even more people. Each week we add a couple new recipes or pieces of advice to our blog. We hope that we will inspire bakers, encourage homesteaders and leave something that even our children can reference.

Content Creation

Everyone rolls their eyes when they see me coming with my camera! Although sometimes it feels like I am constantly on Facebook and Instagram, those platforms have really helped me build my business. We are located of town in a barn on our family farm. We have very few people who drive by inadvertently. Social media has been so important to us to be able to share our business.

I use social media to share with future customers what it is like to come to the Flour Barn. I want to share photos of delicious food, but also of smiling faces and steaming coffee. That is the most difficult and time consuming part of creating content, but I want my content to be special and share the vibe I am trying to create.

Prep, Prep, and more Prep!

When we first started we had my sister, my dad and me. Now we have two full time employees, my sister Paige and cousin Lizzie, and several part time employees who help us from time to time.

Things really start to kick into high gear on Wednesdays. All the doughs including brioche, focaccia, croissant, and sourdough are started. We want our dough to have a long, cold fermentation period for added flavors and amazing texture. We also prepare bulk scones (which go in the freezer until they’re baked on Friday and Saturday), fillings and glazes on Wednesday. Did I mention we also make Cheesecake, Key Lime Pie Bars and Brownies?

Thursday is devoted to shaping our dough. This means rolling our Cinnamon rolls, Blackberry Cobbler Rolls, Honey buns and any specialty rolls. It also is the day our dad laminates all the danish and croissant dough. Then that dough gets shaped into danishes, croissants, bear claws, jalapeno popper croissants and more. We also start steeping our Vietnamese Cold Brew for Saturday.

There is even more that gets done during these days, but this should give you a good idea of the layer of tasks we do throughout the week. We are lucky to have the best team out there!

Fridays

We are now open to the public on Fridays from 8-11. This is typically a more laid back day where the line is shorter and the porch is peaceful. During these days Lizzie runs the case while everyone else is continuing to prep for Saturdays. This means decorating cookies, topping brownies, baking and cutting focaccia for our breakfast sandwiches, baking cookies for cookie sandwiches and so much more.

Game Day

All week long we are thinking about Saturday. I still get butterflies on Saturday morning, will people come? So far they are still showing up and I am so thankful.

the early shift

Saturday mornings begin at 3 am when the first batch of cinnamon rolls go into the oven. Some items like cookies, muffins and brownies are baked on Friday, but most of our items are baked fresh Saturday Morning. This includes ovens and ovens of flaky danishes, crumbly scones, loaves of Sourdough Bread, Jumbo Cinnamon Rolls, Bear Claws, Jalapeno Popper Croissants, Ham and Cheese Croissants and more.

As items come out of the oven we are filling them with cream, topping them with frosting, glazing them and packaging any preorders. Saturday mornings used to be so much more hectic, but I am proud to say we are becoming a well oiled machine. Egg souffles come out of the oven and are assembled into our delicious Focaccia Breakfast Sandwiches. I used to dream of a bakery filled with freshly baked product, but what our case fills up with is beyond any of my dreams.

Opening the doors

As the line forms I am half relieved that we have customers and half worried that we will not have enough product. But quickly my stress is gone as customers flood through the door. The smell of espresso and sounds of milk steaming fills the room. We are in a whirlwind of filling boxes with warm pastry and quickly swiping cards and exchanging money. Its a rhythm I enjoy every week. We wave to familiar faces and enjoy the hum of people visiting and examining today’s case.

As the case slowly empties and the cars start to exit the parking lot, the week comes to a close. We gather any leftovers we have to take to our families and start to clean up. Often we’re visited by the least helpful little helpers, our children wanting a sweet treat…Once cleaned up we talk about the day, what product we need more of or what we need less of. Then we go and enjoy the rest of our weekend, and if we are lucky, a nap!

Momming…

At the end of the day, the most important job I have is being a mom. I love that through my business my kids get to see me enjoying what I do while also being able to spend quality time with them. In addition, we are so lucky to have a mom who can watch our kids when we are hard at work and husbands who always make their Saturday mornings fun.

The Flour Barn Bakery

So this is what a week at our little bakery looks like! For more baking style content check out our post through Behind the Business. Also be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram. If you are in the Ohio area or want to take a road trip, check out our preorder menu and class schedule. Have you been to visit us? Let us know about your experience in the comments below…