Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Sweetwater Bakery Day 1

My name is Julia Lipkowitz, and for my Artisan Practicum, I decided to work in a bakery. I picked Sweetwater Bakery as my host site. They make many types of breads, cookies, and granola. These products can be bought locally at the Kimberton Whole Foods, and the bread is served with lunch every Wednesday at Kimberton Waldorf School. Sweetwater Bakery is located on the campus of  Camphill Kimberton Hills. A large amount of the workforce at the bakery is made up of the villagers who live there. The two main bakers are Saul and Dane. There are also a few others that come at different times of the day.


Here is Dane (right).

Last night, I came in from 7:30pm to 9pm to see the mixing of the bread dough. Before we came, tubs had been already filled with different amounts of water, depending on the type of bread. Also, different amounts of bread starter were placed in the tubs. Jonathan Liss (who also decided to do his practicum at the Bakery) and I were instructed to fill each tub with the correct amount of flour. Then, we mixed the dough by hand, starting at the bottom then incorporating everything together. After a little while, we stretched the dough to activate the gluten, again by hand. After cleaning up, we went home for the night.

The next morning we arrived at 8:30am, and started rolling cookies and putting them on to pans to bake.

 Cookie dough on the trays ready to be baked.

I also spread granola into pans and rolled formed dough into flour and put them into baskets. The bread dough had risen over night and was formed into different shapes depending on the type of bread. Then, after being put into baskets and pans, they were rolled away to another room to sit. The cookies were baked. Then, after they cooled, we packaged them using a scale to weigh the right amount. We had a lunch break from noon until 2:30pm. In the afternoon, we cleaned the windows and racks and mopped the floor. We worked until 5pm.

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