We're Coming Back. You Won't Believe How.

Announcement & Thank You.

It has been too long since I last emailed you, but I have some exciting news to share.

More than a year ago I started devising a plan for the future of Bread & Justice. I thought the planning process would take a few months. It didn't. It has taken until today to finalize everything. 

Before I jump straight to the exciting news about the future of our cottage bakery on a mission... allow me to share a little backstory.

Two summers ago I burned out on baking ~50 loaves a week. The twice-per-week 4AM - 9AM bake schedule was exciting... until it became overwhelming. With the encouragement of many of you, I decided to take a temporary break to make more space for my family and my day job. 

When I was baking weekly, a normal part of the process was taking over my family's kitchen for 3 or 4 days. All of our counter space would be sacrificed to the process each week. Also, the night before each bake, most of our fridge space would be required to be available so that I could cold-ferment the dough overnight. 

After my hiatus, I struggled to figure out how to get back into a rhythm. Once we got accustomed to the kitchen being for our family again – it felt like a huge hassle to ask everyone to be patient with my messes every time I'd get ready to bake. So for much longer than expected, I've only been selling bread occasionally. Meanwhile, I've been working on putting a new plan in place.  

What if I had a dedicated space for the bakery?

That was the question that I kept asking myself all this time. 

That question led me down several roads. Someday I'll unpack for you the various options that I weighed as I worked to chart a path for the future of this business. 

However, for now, I'm delighted to share some huge news with you all. 

Bread & Justice is coming back! 😎

Our family is embarking on the project of finishing our basement... and I'm overjoyed to share that a key component of the basement remodel project involves investing in building out a dedicated space for our micro-bakery to live!  

It has taken quite some time to find the right contractor for this work, and then even longer to finalize a design for the project. When I started exploring this option last year, I naively thought that I'd be able to share news like this with you all in a matter of weeks. The road to get here had plenty of twists and turns. Thankfully, there were many sources of encouragement along the way too. 

One of the greatest individual points of encouragement came when my friend Trevor texted me out of the blue last fall to ask if I would be willing to take his old Rofco B40 (bread oven) from him and put it to good use. You might remember that I've written about Trevor before. He's the person who first taught me to bake sourdough in 2017. He is also the cottage baker who opened a storefront bakery in 2022 and I flew in to be at his grand opening in Onalaska, WI.

If you've been subscribed to this newsletter for a few years now, you may also recall that I've written about how a dedicated bread oven would allow me to substantially increase my bread production. The dilemma has long been that ovens of this nature tend to cost between $4,000 - $8,000. There are a lot of costs that come with expanding any bakery, but an oven tends to be the single largest cost. I couldn't believe that Trevor texted me unprompted to offer me one for free. Not only was this a reminder of how awesome it is to share your dreams with your friends... but it was an incredible source of encouragement for me to keep working to find a path forward for this construction project that we had been dreaming about. 

I have so much more that I look forward to sharing with you all as this construction process unfolds. 

This is day one. All the paperwork is signed, and the project manager is coming over tomorrow to walk me through what to expect. I won't get ahead of myself by telling you all exactly when they say to expect the project to be finished. Hopefully it is reasonable to believe that this summer we'll be back to sharing bread together again though. 

This feels surprisingly poetic. Fermentation is a natural process that happens at its own pace and then produces results that are worth the wait. Similarly, the next chapter in the life of Bread & Justice has been coming together naturally in its own time. And just like the bread... I'm confident that this whole process will be worth the wait. 

Thanks for being a patient community. Thanks for all your support. Even if you’re new here, or you’ve never had my bread before… I’m still so thankful to you for being a part of this journey.

I can't wait to check in with you soon with more updates. 

In the meantime, I'll be looking forward to reading any replies that come in. 

Happy Monday! 

Mo Cheeks
- a baker