At this point this little, itty-bitty piece of dough is just beginning to rise.

Is that my oven? What is that? Well, any way, this is a once in a loaf time opportunity. As you well know, I am about to be baked. I wonder what it is like, to be in an oven. Hmm, I have heard that the climate is quite high. I wonder if that is true. I personally like high temperatures. What is the ambiance like?

Oh, I feel very strange. I am destined to be baked. I am sort of excited. Although it is every doughs dream. I am not sure that I really am very enthusiastic about it. Ok, I have to choose! How do I feel? Lets see, when I get warm I rise, and bake, I think. If I get cold I would probably flop, that would be sad. Ha, I’ve got it, EXCITED yup, EXCITED. That’s the one. I am not letting anything or anybody get me down.

By: Livia.G

Monday, November 2–The First Idea Seed is Planted 

The beginning of November started the beginning of our unsteady journey to focaccia nirvana. Paolo, the Spanish teacher our primary classes, volunteered to help make focaccia since he’d grown up in Italy and so had fantastic experience. Our middle school Spanish teacher agreed, and a date was set for the first cooking.

Wednesday, November 4–An Introduction to Focaccia-Making

On the afternoon of November 4, our class went down to the kitchen to learn how to make focaccia. It was amazing. We watched Paolo complete every task with pristine experience, and tried to take all the info in as he made two plates of focaccia, which both turned out scrumptious. We ended the day with a recipe in our hands and the taste of the wonderful bread in our minds. The combination was enough to give anyone ideas, even if they’re not wise ones. 

I’m not sure who first had the focaccia selling idea. It could have been our main teacher Miss Lynne, or our Spanish teacher, or Paolo, or even one of the members of our class. Whatever the case, everyone agreed that having a focaccia business was a great idea. It would help fund our Middle School spring trip, and it would likely be fun, too. 

Tuesday, November 10–Practice, Practice, Practice

We figured that if we even wanted a semi-successful focaccia business, we’d have to see if we could make a halfway decent recipe ourselves. So on the appointed day, our class went down to the kitchen and gave it a try. It wasn’t great. The bread had been cooked too long, and halfway through we figured out we’d left out half the ingredients. It was no wonder the focaccia tasted like salty cardboard. 

Our next attempt was no better, so on Friday, we decided to ask Paolo if he could give us another demonstration. His cooking was amazing, of course, and made us feel much more on track. Sure enough, the next time our class tried making focaccia ourselves, it wasn’t half bad. We decided since we were getting there, it was time for the next step. 

Monday, November 16–The Commencement of The Plan

We had an idea for our business. We had a recipe. We had a relative grasp on how to put it together. Now all we needed were some steps:

1. Get the word out that we were taking orders. 
2. Purchase the ingredients. 
3. Accept each order and determine cost, profit, and workload that would be needed.

We followed these steps like footprints in the snow. We printed fliers, we made stickers, we went to the grocery store, and we elected a ‘tech-person’, who worked hard making a spreadsheet to so we could stay organized. By the time we neared the day before Thanksgiving Break (which was the day orders were due) we were sick of hearing about focaccia and anything related to it. However, we had 12 orders as well as about 15 for pies (learn more later), and we were ready to start cooking.

Monday, November 23–Manufacturing Day

It’s no joke. We spent all seven hours of the school day (and well into the next day) raising yeast, mixing dough, and taking things in and out of the oven. By the end of Tuesday, which was the day we got off for Thanksgiving, we’d managed to make every single focaccia we needed, although we were exhausted, covered in flour, and had no real idea how the focaccia was going to turn out. As the customers exited with each of their focaccias, we were hoping things would turn out well, but honestly, we were mainly just glad to see that bread walk out the door.

The butter was marvelous with the french bread and the pumpkin bread. YUM!

They spend two days planning for Pi day…..it was a wonderful experience creating pie crusts, peeling apples, assembling and baking pies. They also made pumpkin pie and focaccia. In all, over $ 175.00 was raised toward their spring trip. They have a great appreciation for the work involved in creating pies. Golden Brown  Bakery can relax…we are out of the pie business.

The Brookview Middle Schoolers recently learned to make Focaccia from one of Brookview’s Spanish teachers, Paulo. They had a great time in the kitchen cooking and learning the Italian recipe! And used onions from Brookview’s garden!

Thank you to Paulo from all of the Middle Schoolers!

We want to thank the slow snack group for letting us use this blog to get to know what it’s like! thank you so much! this is amazing and easy to use and fun too!

Thanks!

~♥The Middle School Girls♥~

Please come join us in the Gardens on Thursday nights.  We *always* have things to do, especially now that weeds grow as fast as our seeds!

Unless it’s raining, we would love to see you and your children between 5:30-7:30 every (every!) Thursday night from now through the first frost next fall.  Our barbecue will be hot and waiting for your grillables; bring food and utensils and drinks for your family, but we usually have extra food to share.

Our intrepid Ms Tanya and her lovely daughter shovel sheep poop and bedding to the garden beds

The wheelbarrow holds more than topsoil, of course

Some wonderful parents, teachers and students got dirty on our first Weed and Feed event on April 2nd.  It was kind of chilly that day, but there was enough heavy lifting to be done so we were all quite warm.  Three yards of sheep bedding and five cubic yards of great topsoil magically was shoveled into all 16 garden beds!   We also barbecued some lovely Slow Meat from Providence Farms.

Lettuces and perennial onion-family plants (Egyptian Walking onions, chives, and Everbearing Scallions) were planted, as were about 80 set onions.

Lower and Upper Elementary students will be starting some seeds both in the garden and in their classrooms.  Primary students will be chitting potatoes and planting them in the garden soon too.

We would love to see you this Thursday, April 16th, in the gardens!  Bring a picnic dinner and wear some work clothes; the barbecue will be hot and the gardens will be waiting to be planted.

Little hands love dirt