Dirt & Drive
Turning a small homestead into a real business.
Dirt & Drive
2: Selling Sourdough in a Saturated Market (How She's Growing)
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In this episode of the Dirt & Drive podcast, we’re talking about a question a lot of small business owners are quietly asking right now… is sourdough too saturated to sell anymore?
I’m joined by Joane Moran, founder of Breaking Bread and Company, to have an honest conversation about what it really looks like to build and grow a sourdough business in today’s market. We dive into the realities of competition, and what’s actually working right now.
If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s still possible to turn sourdough into a profitable business, or how to pivot when things feel crowded, this episode is for you.
Connect with Joane Moran: Breaking Bread and Company
Website: https://breakingbreadandcompany.com
Follow along with Dragon Creek Ranch: Website: https://dragoncreek.org
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who’s building something from the ground up.
— Dirt & Drive Podcast Real conversations about building a business, working the land, and creating something that lasts.
Before you head out to pasture, remember, this is just people sharing opinions not medical, legal, or business advice. The opinions expressed here don't necessarily reflect the views of the host, Dragon Creek Ranch, or the Dirt & Drive Podcast. Always remember to do your own research. It's ok to get your hands a little dirty, but keep your rap sheet clean. Thanks for listening!
This is Dirt and Drive, the podcast all about turning a small homestead into a real business. Thank you for coming. I'm so excited.
SPEAKER_00I'm excited. I see your beautiful home. Oh my gosh. Out in the country.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. We love it out here. We're really excited. So, first official episode. Yay! Thank you for picking me. I'm so excited you're here.
SPEAKER_00I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to sh share whatever you want me to share.
SPEAKER_01Welcome to Dirt and Drive. We're out here on the homestead with Joanne Moran from Breaking Bread and Company. And she is a wonderful friend who has started her business baking sourdough right out of her home. Bread, lots of it. So I want to know about you, how you got started. Tell us how you started and decided to choose bread.
SPEAKER_00I I don't know if there's this magic, crazy answer. It is simply uh talking about it at work, been in healthcare since I was 18 years old. I turned 55 this year. Um so healthcare since I was 18, last couple years, talked about bread at work, talked about different things. I have a friend at work who has a home and has chickens and all that stuff, and bread came up making, you know, making bread came into it, and ended up crossing paths again with a um with a different friend that I had worked with once, and she started doing sourdough. I said, Oh my God, we've been talking about bread, blah, blah, blah. End up having lunch, go in her home, getting a big dollop of active starter to get home and FaceTimed her a couple times, get making sure I get that correct. And it had moved on from there, making a loaf for our home and sharing loaves, lots of loaves with the neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01Which can get expensive.
SPEAKER_00It did, but it was, you know, believe it or not. I mean, if you've ever heard anybody say sourdough is therapy, it 100% is therapy. I just felt like I was in uh just a crazy time in my life and needed to slow down and get simple. And I did. And then a neighbor said, Why don't you sell this? And it just who's gonna buy it? Who's gonna buy it? And I've always felt that there was a lot of things in my life that I wasn't good enough to do. And believe it or not, it has turned out to be something I'm good enough to do. And I I it has it has opened many, many doors to many, many people in all aspects of life, all different businesses. We have done a lot. We did open doors to donate in the community. It is it's just been good. And last year, uh my son got married to a beautiful girl, and on the day he was to marry, my brother who came, ended up um being killed on a motorcycle the the morning of his wedding. And uh the last words out of my brother's mouth out of when he left my home to head to my sister's was don't forget to bake my bread. So it has this year taken on such a different meaning for us. And my husband, who is not, I don't want to say the other half of me, he is me. We are one, and it is overwhelming because he drives for a living. He's a truck driver, so I know he works really hard at making sure that I'm able to pump this spread out for our community. We're doing about um 125 loaves a week. So it's it's a lot, and it certainly is still therapy, even though we have our moments, but it's therapy. You know, as you know, having a business out of your home, there's kind of not a place to move away from business. Work doesn't stop, it's always there. So we are certainly a couple years later still working on things, but pumping bread out like crazy and loving every minute of it. That's amazing.
SPEAKER_01And that's such a beautiful story about your brother. And thank you for sharing that. So breaking bread, what what made you decide on that name? Because obviously the first thing I think of is breaking bad.
SPEAKER_00We want to be the bread dealers, we want to be the local dealers. Um it has a um, I'm a Christian, so when you think of breaking bread, it just it's what we do. And for us, you know, Jesus is is bread of life.
SPEAKER_01Sound sounds like um a deeper meaning for you for something for our community, your family, but also for just like the community and breaking bread together, bringing people together. It's beautiful. Well, putting your something into food, like you're putting not just like your time and your energy, but like I've seen you like in your muscles, like moving into the dough, and it's like you're you're giving those guns. You're putting yourself into your product, and that's pretty incredible. So I know the community loves your bread. Everybody, I I mean I had your bread multiple times. I make sourdough and I still buy your bread because it is. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00They certainly make us feel good, they make us feel really good.
SPEAKER_01So tell me about your day-to-day in your business. Like, what does a day look like making bread and selling bread? What take me through the process of it of a day for you.
SPEAKER_00So, sourdough is a couple of days to make a loaf of bread. We don't we don't do it quickly. We know use no commercial yeast. We use um our starter, which is flour and water that you know, we continue to to feed it like back in the old days. You're not old enough to remember Farmville, where you online on AOL, you gotta feed this thing on your computer. Um so I get up at four in the morning and uh well let me go backwards. At night before I go to bed, I feed my starter, which is um, it was originally star. Wasn't it? And we have changed star completely over. We've made our own organic uh flower starter, which is um Orlando. And so we feed Orlando Bloom. Orlando blooms, our Orlando blooms well. Um, so we feed Orlando, go to bed at night, get up at four o'clock in the morning. Orlando is just about bubbling over. We make lots of um buckets of uh starter on our dough days. Uh, today was a dough day as well. So we get up at four, we start mixing big tubs of flour and salt and water with our starter, and we mix and we mix and we mix over about a three-hour period. Uh, and then we get to just let it sit in bulk ferment for a while on the counter. So depending on the temperature in our home, um during the summer it can heat up pretty. We like it hot and it stays hot on dough days. So we're at about 77 degrees indoors today, and we have um, so we get a good, you know, anywhere from six to ten hours of bulk fermenting on the counter, depending on again the temperature. When our dough is nice and airy and we can touch it without sticking all over the place and it pulls off the sides really easy, then we know that it's done. We just don't watch a clock. I mean, we take time to touch it and look at it. And uh then we get it tipped over onto big tables and we weigh it all out. We do about our average sick loaf of bread is about 930 grams. You get a couple in there that are about 950, but we average about 930. We get them rolled up, we let them sit for about 20 minutes, and then we reshape them again, get them in a in our bannotins. We let our bannatins sit on the racks for about another 15-20 minutes, just in a constant round, and then we get them all wrapped up and get them in refrigerators. We have three refrigerators in our garage that can hold all the dough that we do at one time. And um, we let it stay there for a day and a half, and then uh That's a long at about midnight we turn the oven on and start baking on a Friday for our Saturday market days.
SPEAKER_01Wait, when do you sleep? Because you just told me 4 a.m. now it's a good one.
SPEAKER_00Friday night Friday. On Friday, I get up at four o'clock in the morning to get ready and I leave the house at about 4:30 to go to work. So I work up in Cherokee, go to work. Me and my husband both work on Fridays. Uh, we get home and we don't go to bed until after the market on Saturday. So we snooze, we can snooze on the couch for about a half hour, 20 minutes in between things. But we have a wonderful helper that comes and helps us on either Thursdays or Friday, depending on the demand. And she takes a lot of load off of us. She is mixes all our beautiful chocolate chip cookies and brownies, and I gotta thank Emily for that because she does a lot of hard work when she's there.
SPEAKER_01That's amazing.
SPEAKER_00And then we and then after in the middle of the night, when things are still happening, things are ready to sit on racks to cool. We are tagging and bagging and getting everything ready.
SPEAKER_01So are you mainly just working the one or two nights and then selling on the weekends? Like, how does that work with selling?
SPEAKER_00We do market days on Saturdays. We are at um Dixie Delight Produce Market in Hyram. And we also sell our bread at Peace of Heaven Bakery in Dallas. So we do Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday deliveries for them. So we are constantly there's bread happening every single day. So you're never sleeping is what we can go, we can go to about about 10 o'clock on a non-dough day. It's that dough day and that final bake day is the big day.
SPEAKER_01So is this how helping your mortgage at all? Is this like something they're using so you can eventually leave your job? Like, what's the plan here long term for you?
SPEAKER_00Well, we would love to have a small place, you know, in the community to call our own, a place that people could walk up and sit and and and have, you know, meet somebody, you know, for coffee or you know, some some muffins, whatever, come in and buy a a a loaf of bread. I don't think we have a uh an actual real bakery, running bakery in Paulding. We have people who sell, wonderful people are out there selling and doing things. So it's it's been beautiful, but that's our goal one day is to get into a little place to call our own.
SPEAKER_01That's beautiful. So, what steps are you taking in order to try to reach that goal? There's certain things that you're doing and strategizing.
SPEAKER_00Our strategy has been a lot of bootstrapping. We've had our wonderful friends. We have some some wonderful, wonderful friends who don't like to talk about themselves too much, but they are beyond wonderful who have um certainly helped us um upgrade to our double oven. And they have been there in the middle of the night when we have panicked and haven't did things in a timely fashion, who have they been up in our home and they have come to help us in a market day. They certainly have did their fair share. So we have wonderful people who help. We have people who support, we are saving money the best we can. We are both currently working part-time jobs to pump out enough bread. So are you hoping to go full-time with the bread? I hope so. That's the plan me go first. We are um trying to definitely live within our means. We are just as you know, it's it takes a lot. We are, you know, with us upgrading from a small kitchen aid to, you know, maybe a Bosch to maybe a bigger mixer one day. It's a lot of dough to mix. It takes its toll on your body.
SPEAKER_01It does.
SPEAKER_00So it's it's things, just some bootstrapping along the way. We're not being funded by by anybody or anything. So we are definitely putting money here, putting money to bills, putting money here. And we have officially started putting money back into our business where there is a real life bank account and things flowing properly. We've got license and insurance and all the stuff you're supposed to do. We are completely handling everything as a legal business.
SPEAKER_01Well, let's talk a little bit about that. So you mentioned licensing and insurance. So if somebody wanted to start their own, say, bakery or sourdough business out of their home, what would they need to do, like the bare minimum to get started as far as the legal stuff?
SPEAKER_00I think legally we do go through in uh we've just got online. We made sure that our um business name isn't technically taken over by somebody. So it's a it's a legal name that we can have. So we we've made it ours. Went through the county to get a business license to the county. And if you're outside of the county or part of the city or any other, you know, kind of spot legally, you have to do what the county says. But um, so we are cleared and free to operate a business, which you have to pay in Pauldine County. I believe it's a hundred dollars for a business license. You just go into the courthouse and take care of that. Uh, we've got insurance. So there's a couple of them that are catered toward bakers. Um, there's flip and next, and then of course, if your own, but I wouldn't attach it to my home insurance at all.
SPEAKER_01That's a separate one.
SPEAKER_00Um, and that's uh maybe $400 a year, maybe. It's not bad. Depending on where you are now. Articles that you have to go through the state of Georgia. I believe that's $50 a year. So there's uh we have an LLC, that's the limit limited liability. So it you know covers your liability.
SPEAKER_01Your liability.
SPEAKER_00Um, so we have that. Um, and we're not ready financially in in what we make, what bread brings in. We are not ready to up that at this point. So we are still, but then you go into different you tack to your tax people and see where you go. So with our LLC, I know for anyone who's gonna start, we still attach, we pay a business tax, but it's also kind of funneled through our own income tax. So we kind of pay more at that point, but we're covered a little different, and and people aren't coming over after your home. We deal with we're one of the small businesses that deal with food you're consuming, so we don't want to make you sick. So we didn't want things attached to our home that way. And we have, we do, we went through another wonderful small business person that we have, and we have um we have you know an attorney retained, so you know, they'll help out with paperwork and the legal end of all the things to make sure we're running properly and that we don't get ourselves in any trouble or home and into any trouble. Yeah, that part. So, and you just start selling, just yeah, start what it is.
SPEAKER_01So, how did you start? Like, how did you make your first sale? Was it you were already kind of giving it away to people?
SPEAKER_00Or giving it away, so whoever was giving it away said, Hey, why don't I pay you for this? I'm like, I have no idea what to even charge you for some bread. She goes, Well, I could tell you what bread cost. So she gave me 10 bucks for my bread, and I decided just to leave it there. I've never raised that, even though things are getting high, groceries are getting high.
SPEAKER_01So, do you know about what your cost is per loaf as far as like actual money put into the loaf? So that helps you with your product?
SPEAKER_00Um, the yes, with um the bread and the packaging, we're doing very basic packaging, very, you know, we're trying to keep costs low so we can profit and to make up for what's donated every single month. So our bread is probably about a dollar seventy-five. We're putting into it, so just under two.
SPEAKER_01And that doesn't count your labor, though.
SPEAKER_00That does not count labor, it does not count my electricity or the water bills. Correct, it does not. So but I we're making enough volume a month that we balance out very, very nicely.
SPEAKER_01So do you feel like there's any um bottleneck in your business as far as um what you're able to do capacity-wise? Because it's just you and your husband, and you said Emily's helping you now.
SPEAKER_00Emily, we have Emily. Uh bottleneck is the laws uh that cottage bakers have here in the state of Georgia.
SPEAKER_01Do do tell, please.
SPEAKER_00So legally in the state of Georgia, we cannot have farm stands. Farm stands are against the law in Georgia, though we see many of them, and you know, I think people gotta feel their families.
SPEAKER_01On agricultural land, you can't.
SPEAKER_00But what I'm talking is what we have on our roads. We can't. It that's crazy. Yeah. It it is. I mean, especially if you're gonna insure your business and you're gonna protect yourself on your end so that you're protecting your customer, you should be able to sell on your property.
SPEAKER_01I agree.
SPEAKER_00Um, it's so that's a real shame. Those are um things like uh cream cheese. Can't have cream cheese in the state, you know, where we live here in Georgia. And just the next state over, a couple miles into Alabama, you can have cream cheese. You might be able to have meat products. You could put bacon in your jalapeno and cheddar loaf. We can't do that. And yes, you will find people doing that. Um, and it works for them.
SPEAKER_01Um that sounds like a good way to open them up to some liability issues.
SPEAKER_00Correct. It is, but I mean, you can't be mad at people for you know wanting to serve what their community is asking them for. So it's bottlenecking like that. Bottlenecking is there's uh I'm gonna use the word saturation. That's what we say on the Facebook gossip site right now. Is it saturated with sourdough? Oh goodness. And and we are, we have a lot of people, but I don't think into competition. I don't mind helping people. Matter of fact, I teach a sourdough class, I'm teaching one tomorrow. We we are all able to help each other and do the same thing. There's however many people on this planet, nine billion people on the planet or something. There's definitely enough people to sell bread to. It is a labor of love that some people don't want to do on a full-time basis, anyway. Um, and it it's all about personalities. And at the end of the day, what's for me is mine and what's for you is yours.
SPEAKER_01So well, it's interesting. Oh, my almost my entire life I've heard, oh, it's oversaturated, no matter what it is. It's like you're gonna hear that no matter what, unless you're inventing something completely new. But it but at that point, like who who now is inventing anything new? There's probably not too much new left. Yeah. So I mean, I've heard the oversaturated thing when I started doing the soap. Like, I mean, everybody was like, Oh, it's oversaturated.
SPEAKER_00I mean, and you are like a rock star, you are famous. Not quite. You are famous. Oh my gosh, I love seeing your stuff.
SPEAKER_01I'm just, you know, I'm determined to help us pay for this property. Um, and I was like, I need to do something, and that was something I was already making. So, but like, I mean, I heard it, I still hear it. You know, it's oversaturated. Uh, and why would anybody do this? And I was like, you you as an individual bring something to your business that I think a lot of people don't realize. Like, they feel like they they see all these people doing it this way. And it's like, you should just be yourself because at the end of the day, yes, you should have a good product, but people are buying and investing in you. We gotta talk about good products.
SPEAKER_00Sometimes it's not good product. Yeah. And I would tell you product from two years ago. I want to go back to those people and load them up on bread, real bread, because what I served them looking backwards in pictures, I'm like, oh my God, I'm so sorry. And and people have stuck with me all this time. We have we still have the very first people. They ask questions, people are not afraid to say, I want to, I want to make bread. How do you do it? And I'm like, hey, we're having a class. Come come on. I mean, it's not taking away from me. Those people that have taken classes still purchase bread from me.
SPEAKER_01So let's get into the class conversation because that's an interesting aspect of a business. So I've had a lot of people say, Will you teach a soap class or will you, you know, teach courses or things like this? And I haven't really gotten into that because I'm like, I'm just here to make soap. Like, so what transitioned you from selling a product to actually deciding, okay, I'm gonna teach a class, and is this a good revenue stream for you?
SPEAKER_00It is a good revenue stream. Two ways that I do it. I teach a $99 class where I'm giving you tools to do it, and it's about a three-hour, three and a half hour class where you are going elbows deep. You're getting full, I tell you, bring an apron because you're gonna get dirty, where you're learning stuff. That's for the people who are really interested in going in. And then I'm teaching a much smaller class, less expensive class for for the mom who wants to be home and just make bread for her family. Just say, hey, I want to do one loaf a week. The other ones, people are probably wanting to, you know, go scale up eventually. Um, and they're not getting so many uh tools, but they're getting exactly what they need to get them going. Everybody, they they still call me. I still my phone is filled with pictures of things. When they branch out and do something besides bread, I get a picture and I share that with them. I'm so excited by that. What made me do it is I think in the time period in the last couple years that somehow. Making bread, I'm telling you, bread is therapy. Sourdough is therapy. But I have felt since learning that it has just changed me. There's a change, and I want to hear other people's stories, and I want to see people succeed. Sometimes sourdough is not the easiest thing to make, and it's not the quickest thing. So it teaches some patience and some understanding. And I just got to a point that I felt like God, learn to do this. Learn, learn this. When I have people saying, Can you teach me? Yes, I can. Do you want to come over right now? You know, I just I think everybody should know how to do something that takes time. It's not instant gratification, just taking you back. And you're soap, you build you told me your soap takes weeks to to get ready. It's this it's the same. It's just something.
SPEAKER_01The process of building something I've discovered is a therapy in and of itself.
SPEAKER_00It is, it is. It's I feel like I'm, you know, raising a child when I'm doing a loaf of bread. It is just technically alive, right? It is something, something so beautiful. I just feel like, God, if someone wants to come and learn it, come and learn it. It just uh has did something for me. It makes me think of people different, it makes me treat people different, it makes me look at myself different. It's it's just did something.
SPEAKER_01What's um one thing that you think that you you tell people consistently, like as advice when they want to get started? So when you're talking to these people or teaching these classes, is there something you tell them like as a piece of advice?
SPEAKER_00Well, everyone in the class, and when you're if I'm teaching how to make bread, I don't care what it looks like, bake it. Just bake it. It's not as bad as you think. It might still turn out every everyone's channel. It might turn out blown out on the side, a little lopsided, a little dark on the bottom, a little dark on the top. It does too blonde. Cut it open and eat it. Bake it and just partake of what you made.
SPEAKER_01I think that's good life advice in general. Just do it. Just do it. Just do it. Do it. Oh my gosh. No, I think it's very interesting because I mean, I remember when I first was starting uh this, you know, business, or before I did, I was looking at all the things that I could do. Like, and what am I gonna do? I mean, everybody's making sourdough, like everybody's got farm stands, like what am I gonna do? Um, and you know, finding that niche, I think, is so important for people in the beginning because I think people get distracted focusing on too many things. Um, and that's why it's so important to like find your niche, whatever that is. Like, and then the oversaturation doesn't matter if it is oversaturated, you know. Everybody says that.
SPEAKER_00But enough people.
SPEAKER_01Like you're so like if you're so honed in on I'm sourdough, like you become known for that, you know. Like who am I gonna recommend, you know, versus somebody who has like they got sourdough and then they got candles and then they got this, and then they, you know, it's like what uh what are what's what is it, what's going on here? So I think a lot of people when they first start trying to build a business, they get distracted with too many things.
SPEAKER_00We've tried agreed, but you know, we've did some dried mixes with things to bring you to the table. Oh, yeah. I mean breaking bread oil and it goes along with what you're doing, yeah. Yeah. Cinnamon rolls. This week English muffins have really taken off. Lots of English muffins to make. Competition is is a bottleneck. Yeah. Even though it's not you're not, or at least I don't feel like I'm competing. And I think when people are just coming up and they're just making something, they're trying to find their way, sometimes it's really easy to look at it the wrong way. Like your competition or I'm how am I gonna make money? They are already there. Yeah. But somebody might you mesh, you know, that single mom who's raising her three kids by herself is going to relate to that group of people who want to support her and her business, something completely different from this old lady here who's doing different things. And it's it's really hard. I've had one one baker who it has not said such nice things. So it's and I think there's, you know, a competition feel there, and there's no need to compete. So that gets that gets hard. That I mean, it it's hard for whatever that person feels where you have to say things that aren't true. That's why I tell people, I'm an open book. If you have a question, please ask. No, I do not freeze your bread. No, there is no commercial yeast in there. And for people who bake with yeast, that's great. That works for them, and they have clients who want that. Someone gets that when they come and ask questions. I'm very transparent. I I don't plan on hiding anything. It's if you want to come tell me, hey, I want to sell bread for a living, tell me what I need to do, I'd be happy to tell you.
SPEAKER_01The competition thing is so interesting because I'm kind of like you, like I'm an open boat, you know, share. I don't necessarily have the time to share as much as people. I like I try to respond to comments, I try to help people, like I share my recipes. So um, but I mean, I still will get at events or anywhere I've gotten like the attitudes like you talk about. And I feel like that's just a reflection on uh where somebody is, you know, at the time. And uh and your attitude honestly will come across to customers as like the energy is just different. And we can all help each other rise together. I mean, I've been literally next to another tallow person at an event and still done okay. And it's honestly, there's enough space for everyone if you're if you're being authentic in who you are and showing showing what you're about and showing your message if you have one or you know, whatever it is. If you're being authentic, then I think you will authentically draw the people that are meant to be in your life to you, and that it's for personal life and as business as well. It's like the people who my customers are drawn to me because I I guess I'm just I'm weird and quirky and I don't hide it. And you know, that resonates with some people, but I know there's other soap makers and they're very they're they're polished and they're professional looking, and I they're they honestly amaze me. That is not me. I'm like, I'm so yeah, but they're you know, they draw a different type of customer to them, and it's like you know, back to what we were saying earlier like yes, have a quality product, but also be yourself in your business at the same time and don't try to put on a front like you're somebody else, and you will have no problems with any kind of oversaturation.
SPEAKER_00No, it's too hard to do all that anyway. It's so much easier just as today, today, someone has ordered for Saturday um a parm, uh an Italian urban parm loaf. I wasn't thinking, I just went ahead and I just shred up Asiago, put it in there, and I was like, I text her and she's like, no worries, no worries, that's fine. Because I said, I'll make you tell me now so I can get working on it. And she's like, We've been honest, and people have just welcomed that, you know, and so would I. That I hope that I get the same kind of people, you know, that I attract the same type of people as the same kind of person I am. If you mess up, just be real, it's fixable. Yeah, it's fixable. Going back to competition. Uh, I have a good following. We do a lot of, we do a lot of bread every week. Some people are like, why are you giving that bread away? Where's that at the end of where are you? What am I gonna do with all the bread that's left over? Is there bread left over at the market? Sometimes there is. Have we sold out the last two times? We have, um, which is good. But have we gone home with extra? Yeah, I just put a note on Facebook. We have extra bread, and people are like, I'll meet you at Taco Bell. That also shows it.
SPEAKER_01Your business is growing and snowballing because eventually you get to a point where you have so many customers and repeat customers that you will start selling out, and it'll be probably pretty good.
SPEAKER_00We love it. We love it. Sell out is nice, but it also means when someone comes at the end of the market that they've missed something. Well, there's things that we don't do. I don't do croissants. Um, people come to me, I will point you in across from me. There's a sourdough baker's and and they make croissants, they make pastries, they do those things. I refer every Saturday, I will refer people over there. It doesn't matter to me if it's competition. Now, sometimes it doesn't go in reverse that way, and that's okay because it's one of those things. It's what's yours is yours. What's meant for you will be yours. 100%. I send people everywhere. I will send you over there, I'll send you over there if you make something that I don't make, or or I'm out of it. It'd be nice if everybody worked that way.
SPEAKER_01It would be, it would be very nice.
SPEAKER_00Especially for the new people who are coming up. It's um the world we live in, no matter what you think about the world we live in. You know, think gas is going up, food is going up.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, chocolate is going up.
SPEAKER_00So it's that uh flour going up. Flour is stable for me. We are uh freshly milling now. So we are just now uh we did freshly milled work too. We were purchasing freshly milled. We would go and have the the berries freshly milled right there as we while we waited, come home and start mixing right away. So it's just extremely fresh, much different than buying it from from the store, freshly milled or from an outside source. It's right there coming home and baking. So we have officially started freshly milling on our own. So we are getting tweaking recipes and making things ours and just doing the best we can. It's a learning process.
SPEAKER_01When did you switch over to the freshly milled ourselves?
SPEAKER_00Just doing it ourselves. All along, we've been getting some freshly milled stuff. So, you know, it's a learning process, it's definitely a learning process. So I'm happy that people that we have such a uh sourdough community that they're okay at tasting something and saying, You gotta work on this. And you know, that's what I like. That's how we get feedback at small business owners, though. I need people to tell me last week they were saying, Can you put a little more jalapenos back? So we start my husband measures with his heart, so he dumps, and I'm like, these things are consistent. Yeah, we have these things are way too loaded, and they're staying, you know, more moisture in them because we use fresh. So let's start measuring things. And I've got two people right away. Can we just put I get what you're doing? Can you give us a little bit more? So you know it's it's uh process. So I love when people say, Oh, hey, can you can you put some more cinnamon? Take some of this out. And we love it. We can't make everybody happy, but we certainly work really hard at making, especially those who have stuck with us when they've got the worst bread to where we've feel good enough. Just coming into, after all these years, coming into a place that says that's good enough is a great place to be. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So, uh, to kind of wrap things up, what is a dirty little secret that you learned along the way that you would change if you could go back? Or you would do sooner.
SPEAKER_00A dirty little secret.
SPEAKER_01It's dirt and drive, so you know, gotta get your dirty little secret.
SPEAKER_00Um a dirty little secret as far as making it in the home and the fact that it is so time consuming that you will never, ever, ever have your kitchen space again. It is our kitchen is gone. Our dining room is gone. Our dining room is a is a bakery. We have an additional oven. We've put an additional oven in our dining room. We call it the bakery. There is flour dust everywhere at our house. There's it's it's everywhere. We are overwhelmed with racks, cooling racks. We have to be prepared for all that because then you lose the capability of having some people come to your home to visit.
SPEAKER_01So be prepared to lose your entire kitchen.
SPEAKER_00The space, dough fermenting, bread cooling, flour everywhere. And we clean our home, we clean our sinks, but there's dough stuck. We get dough stuck on us, dough stuck on things. So we always have to do a lot of that. And we don't have a space. When I leave my my job, when my husband leaves his job, we get to leave that job behind and we come home and we have a place that we can sit and relax. When you work in your home, you lose the space that you work out of. And ours is our kitchen. You lose your sanctuary almost. We've we've lost that. Hence the bakery that you're goal. And then dirty secrets is sometimes when I'm making videos, I purposely don't show you the sink that's full of dishes, the dough that I have to rake off into the trash. We always have that. Is that a dirty secret? That's it. I mean, that's a dirty secret. That's how my kitchen looks half the time. Dough everywhere. We have to scrape it off with bench scrapers. Um that stuff is not easy to get over. It's not, you can't get it in your drain, or you're gonna have a piping problem. So I remember when I was on my sourdough kick and I was just had to wipe out the pots beforehand. And we have late nights, and if you want to splurge and go antiquing or thrifting longer, and you stay out longer than you should, when you come back, you have thrown your whole schedule. I have last week I was getting up at three o'clock in the morning so that I can get bread shaped and refrigerators before I driven her work. Come here and talk to me. This is a dough day. Our floor is getting done today. So we have got dough going here, floor happening there. My husband is home and was just it was a needed break anyway.
SPEAKER_01So you're amazing. When would I pass up coming to see all this? I'm so glad you made it out. Thank you. How can people get in touch with you if they want to find you?
SPEAKER_00Um, we have our website, Breaking Bread and Company, and we have um gsay.com after that. You know, I'm not a computer person. We sell our bread at um Dixie Delight and Peace of Heaven. We're on Facebook, Breaking Bread and Company. We're on Instagram, the same thing.
SPEAKER_01And you're doing the Dallas Farmers Market the same thing.
SPEAKER_00Dallas Farmers Market every Saturday through the end of August. Um, we'd love to see anybody who wants to come see us.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. Thank you. Well, that was all the dirt on sourdough with Joanne from Breaking Bread and Company.
SPEAKER_00Hopefully, you're interested in making it. Such a good thing.
SPEAKER_01It was wonderful. Thank you. And this was Dirt and Drive. Thank you for listening. Dead at all the um for that. Oh, I thank you for coming out. I think it was a pretty good first episode.
SPEAKER_00Oh, red birds. It just red bird, you know.
SPEAKER_01A little cardinal, maybe. Cheers. Thank you for joining me. All right, y'all. Before you head back out to Pastor, remember this is just people sharing opinions, not medical, legal, or business advice. The opinions expressed here don't necessarily reflect my opinions or the opinions of Dragon Creek Ranch or the Dirt and Drive podcast. Remember to always do your own research. It's okay to get your hands a little dirty, but keep your wrap sheet clean. Thanks for listening. And if you enjoyed the podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. It'll help us reach more folks.