It is so good to be back!

my home smells like a bakery again & life is good :)

Good morning bread friends!

I’m so very glad to have bread listed on the website for pre-order again! You know that saying, “You never know what you have until it’s gone”? That expression really captures how I felt these past couple of weeks. Having two weeks of unplanned vacation wasn’t the worst thing, but I really enjoy getting to bake for my community! It feels great to be back in business today.

I’ve had plenty of mornings where it felt really good to get up at 4 am to bake bread. Truthfully though, today was towards the top of the list of those good days. Having my oven break down earlier this month was a nuisance, but it really was a great reminder of all of the blessings that I have. It is a privilege to be able to have the savings to easily replace our home oven. And even beyond that, it has been incredibly encouraging to hear from some of you with ideas for ovens, ideas for places to bake, offers to help cover costs if needed, and just an abundance of patience while I’m unable to fulfill my weekly bakes.

Thank you!

And thanks especially to my amazing wife for not only joining me in the exhaustive research for a new home oven, but also cooking so many cool homemade meals while we were limited to the use of just the stovetop. Among other things, the naan bread and stovetop cornbread were both awesome uses of our skillet.

This brief window was an opportunity for our family to reflect on how to do more with less. While I wasn’t able to bake sourdough for you, we did stretch ourselves and got creative with our family cooking. (I even finally tried making pizza on the grill.)

Two lessons that I’m taking away from this time period are:

1. A community can have your back in unexpected ways if you are willing to be a part of a community

2. Even though constraints can be unfun, you can use constraints as unique opportunities to grow and learn

Great! Let’s get back to donating money to fight racism!

As many of you know, each month we select a different social justice nonprofit to donate 100% of our profits to. Last month, together we donated $701 to Asian Americans Advancing Justice as part of the #doughsomething fundraiser to increase awareness about anti-Asian hate, and encourage people to fight racism. And building off of this community’s giving, I want to thank the ongoing generosity of the Ryan family (Britt and Adam) and the Foxwell family (Gracie & Andrew) for each matching that contribution. In the end, the Bread & Justice community has supported Asian Americans Advancing Justice with contributions totaling $2,103 for the month of May! 

Finally, if you didn’t catch the link in the first sentence of this email… here is a link to pre-order sourdough loaves for pick-up this Thursday! Special thanks to my Bread Club members for your patience while I was down these past two weeks. Your bread is coming out of the oven as I write this, and your loaves will be ready today at 2 pm.

Happy Tuesday! I love you all.

Cheers,
Mo Cheeks
the baker