Home of Brick Oven Bread in Regina, Saskatchewan

We had a bake sale today at The Day Job to kick off the Christmas festivities.  Cindy’s treats were a huge hit.  She’s been researching smaller sweet items for the holidays and tried three new items.  The best of the bunch was a chocolate cookie dipped in icing and roasted almonds at one end — they sort of look like a lit cigar although they don’t taste like one at all.   They’re fun to eat in three small bites — the first taste is almonds, followed by chocolate and almonds, and finally pure chocolate.   Yum!

No surprise to you that it’s been a while since we’ve baked for you all.   We really miss it.  The best part of the bake sale was seeing the joy in the eyes of the folks who bought our baking.  That’s the best part of our bread baking too.  Not connecting up with you makes this journey to opening even longer.

Goldilocks and the Road to a Real Bakery

Over the last four months we worked long hours getting a lease in place, but with no real success.  We’ve had two opportunities fall through:  a too-small site near downtown which found us caught between a zoning issue and an impatient landlord, and a too-large site near Taylor Field in which the landlord was wonderful but the building was too large, too soon.

While we learned a lot with both sites and met some very helpful people, we’re still searching for a ‘just right’ location.  Or maybe ‘good enough’ is a better way to put it.  Big enough for an oven, mixer, refrigeration and, of course, a place for customers to stand, and maybe park nearby.  But not so large we go broke paying rent.

We’ve got a couple more leads to follow up, and one space with great potential but a very reluctant landlord.  So hopefully we’ll have more information to share soon.

Announcing the Bootnik email list

When we started this site I made a few beginner mistakes around keeping everyone in the loop.  I spent some time this fall getting everything pulled together so that all of you can get consistent updates without our email account getting tagged as a spammer.

We’re now using an email provider called Mailchimp to send out the emails to everyone who’s on our Orange Boot email list — that is, the (Orange) Bootniks!

People who subscribed to website updates are Bootniks too — we don’t want you to miss out on news and insider info (like the quite-possible-almost-for-sure Bread For The Holidays event.)  This means website subscribers *might* be getting some updates twice, from the website and the Bootnik list.   If this happens often and it bothers you, fire me an email and I’ll fix things up for you.

One More Thing

I almost forgot — if you’re not signed up to our Orange Bootnik list yet, now’s the time!  Be the first person on your street to learn about when we finally open the best Artisan Bread bakery in Regina.   Either use the box in the upper right corner of the website or click this link.  Your neighbours will think you’re way cool!

Photo by tannazie

Well…Hi there!

Although I’ve spoken to a great many of our friends and customers over the past year, I haven’t posted to the site in a very long time.  This has caused a bit of worry with people who discovered the website and thought they missed out on some fun (and great bread.)  I get a couple emails a month from people asking if we’re still baking.

Are we still baking in the brick oven? Yes and No.  We’ve done a few bakes for special occasions, but we’re not baking on a regular schedule.

Are we going to open a full time bakery? Very good question!  It looks like…YES!

We still have a lot of work to do, not least of which is settling on a location.  But we’re working hard at it — picking a location, sourcing equipment, getting the financing in place, etc.  I think we have the dominos lined up so that once we settle on the location, the rest can fall pretty quickly.

Our dream site at the River Heights Mall fell through back in May — the landlord has other plans for the mall that doesn’t include world class bread and baked goods  If you feel differently, perhaps you can tell him   But you know, once that option officially died it actually opened up some new ideas for us.  I guess we were stuck on one place so much that we couldn’t see the opportunity in other sites.

We’ve also been talking with other bakers.   Second generation bakers and rookies who have been open less than a year.  So we’re feeling much more confident that we can be open and baking for you before I need to post a Summer 2010 update.

In the meantime, please drop us a line if you want to chat, either with a comment on the website or via email.  Words of encouragement are welcome, as is a kick in the pants once in a while — your choice!

Hi Everyone,

I hope you’re all having an excellent summer! While our oven has been idle for much of the summer months, there is more than enough things going on to fill up the time. It’s to the point now where I wonder how we ever got any baking done last winter!

Why We’re Not Baking

For us, the summer has been spent on three big activities:

• The Regina Fujioka Student Exchange: Ben’s Japanese exchange program is in the ‘Hosting’ year, which means we hosted a lovely 13 year old girl named Misa Haragai in early August. July was spent fundraising and preparing for the 8 day adventure. I’m also in charge of communications between the 25 Canadian families who were involved, which meant building and maintaining a social website for everyone to communicate. I can’t link to it since it’s invitation-only (young kids = stronger security) but it’s been working pretty well. The exchange truly was an outstanding and life changing experience for all of us, and the Japan trip is still a year off!
• The Lakeview Community Association: As some of you know, Cindy and I have been involved in the LCA for 7+ years now and although we try to retire, most of our colleagues keep moving away, so we remain. I spent most of the summer planning a volunteer recruitment drive and revamping the LCA website. The recruitment drive is limping along (it appears we have to design it AND execute it) and the website is starting to crank along. My goal is to share information about the community at large, and have subscriptions so everyone can get updates in their email. If you live in southwest Regina, why not subscribe? If you live in Lakeview, and want bread again, why not volunteer?
• The MS Bike Tour: To celebrate my forty-something birthday, Cindy signed the two of us up for the MS Bike Tour in Waskesiu on September 13. Today (August 24) we started training and seeking pledges. I was grateful for the strong frame on my bike because, unfortunately, my cycling regimen has been quite poor this summer. We’re going to struggle through regardless.

Now, I’ll be getting into the bread business in a second, but the reality is that we don’t know when we’ll be opening again.  What I will promise, however, is that if you pledge Mark or Cindy in the MS Bike Tour, there will be free bread for you.  Guaranteed by the end of September (unless you are away in September.)  Just click the links above (on our names) to learn more about the tour.

What About the Bread?

I’m a member of the Bread Baker’s Guild of America and two BBGA items really shaped my summer.  The first was my trip to Edmonton back in June which was pretty discouraging when the talk got down to the nuts and bolts of operating a small bakery in 2008.  That and I spent much of July following a discussion of all the risks and threats of running an undercover bread operation.  Not a pretty sight, which strengthened our resolve to either do this ‘for real’ or stop.

One of the problems I’m having is getting concrete information on what’s acceptable facilities for ‘home baking’ that can be sold at bake sales, farmer’s markets and the like.  I recently reached out to the Regina Farmer’s Market folks to see what their rules are and hopefully that will help.

We’ve received a lot of support from our existing customers and new folks who want to be a part of the Orange Boot Experience.  Thank You!  There have been many days when we wonder if we’re ever going to crack this nut, and your encouraging emails and visits make us want to keep trying.

If this sounds like we’re on the fence, well, it is.  Sorry.  The path forward is as muddy as it was back in June.  But I think of you folks as our Board of Directors, who deserve to know what’s going on and have the opportunity to provide some direction too.  Does the path forward seem really clear to you?  Please tell us!  If it requires some sitting time on the back patio, come on by!

Hi everyone,

I hope you all had a great weekend. Father’s Day was a nice, relaxing affair — out to a movie with the whole family, a late lunch, some puttering around the house and we finally got the garden in. Nice day and beautiful weather too.

As I mentioned last week, this Friday is the final bake day for a while as we plan out our next steps. But we’re going out with a bang, offering an old favourite and a personal favorite we haven’t made for several months.

#1: Saskatchewan Sourdough — let’s go for a straight white loaf with sourdough starter for some extra tangy zest.

- Saskatchewan Sourdough, 500g, $3.50

#2: Semolina — we use Saskatchewan grown organic semolina flour for an extra shot of golden colour and flavour. Then we shape it in a traditional S and give each loaf a nice coating of sesame seeds. yum!

- Semolina Loaf, 500g, $3.50

One note: There’s a finite number of loaves we can bake on Friday — 112 loaves to be precise. Depending on the volume of orders this week we might have to put a limit on amount of bread for each of you. Feel free to order as many loaves as you like, but we may have to pull back a bit. Thanks for your understanding.

In closing, I want to take a minute to wish each of you a sincere and heartfelt Thank You for all your support over the past 8 months. Your response to our bread and your incredible positive feedback has inspired us to make our bakery a dream worth pursuing. We promise to keep in touch over summer as we build our business plan and will be reaching out to some of you for advice along the way. If we don’t see you this week, have a great summer!

Best wishes,

Mark, Cindy, Ben and Robyn

Hi everyone,

Well, the Bread Baker’s Guild meeting in Edmonton last week was an interesting learning experience. New kitchen, new instructors, and the chance to meet some incredible bakers from across Western Canada. We even made the Edmonton CBC news (free bread to whoever can find me a link to this!)

The main reason I took the trip was to meet with bakers I admire and get as much advice as possible about how to start up a ‘real’ bakery. And I certainly got a lot of advice! Not all positive, but that’s all part of the package too.

Cindy and I have spent many hours this week getting our head around the cross-roads we’ve reached with this start up phase of our business. We’ve tapped out what we can do out of the house, which, though it’s more than we ever expected, is not enough to sustain us. So the time to grow is now. But where to get the time to grow?

This is a long way of saying that we’re going to be taking an extended break from baking in the wood oven. We’ll be baking this week and next then stopping for the summer. We’re going to take the summer to build a real business plan source equipment and re-open ‘for real.’

So, two weeks of baking — what’s up this week?

#1: Flax and Currant Bread: Shaped like a paver but light as a feather, this rustic loaf has a nice nutty/sweet flavour and is just plain good eats. Think ciabatta but healthier. This loaf was a huge favorite the first time we offered it so don’t miss out!

- Flax and Currant Bread, 500g rustic loaf, $3.50

#2: French Loaf – For those of you who like your bread straight up, we offer a French Loaf. A nice white loaf. Nice and tasty, that is!

French Loaf – 500g, $3.00

Best wishes this week!

Hi Everyone,

My apologies for the late notice of this week’s baking features. It’s been crazy around here since last Thursday when we headed out to Ben’s soccer game in Moose Jaw. We were flying around like that crazy wind and didn’t slow down during the rain over the weekend. We haven’t slowed down yet — that comes sometime on Wednesday. Wednesday’s calm will give us all the energy we need to gear up for Friday baking!

This week we start our 4-5 week cycle again with two old favorites:

#1: Saskatchewan Sourdough (Pain au Levain) Don’t be put off by the “sourdough” in the name — our loaf has a robust taste with just the slightest yogurty tang.

- Saskatchewan Sourdough, 600G loaf, $3.50

#2: Orange Boot Birdseed Bread: A very popular multigrain loaf with roasted sunflower and sesame seeds, rolled oats and flax seeds. Great for toast, sandwiches, stews and soups.

- Orange Boot Birdseed, 600g loaf, $4.00

===== So what else is new? =====

Hmmm…let’s see. We’re reaching the end of the ‘test marketing’ phase of our journey to a real bakery. Your patronage and constructive feedback has helped us so much over the past 8 months — you’ve given us the confidence to take the Orange Boot to the next level. Sooner or later we’re going to need to focus on expanding, although we’re still not quite sure what the next step is.

I’m heading off to Edmonton next week for a seminar on Preferments put on by the Bread Baker’s Guild of America. It’s the first class of its type offered in Canada so I can’t pass it up. The best news is that one of the instructors is Tracey Muzzolini, who is co-owner of Christie’s Mayfair Bakery in Saskatoon. We’re all huge fans of Christie’s and I intend to get as much information and advice from Tracey as I possibly can. I really hope this week will help us define the next step for the Orange Boot.

Best wishes this week!

Hello everyone,

I’m taking a couple minutes away from Cindy’s Mothers Day festivities to get this update written. Food is playing a key role as it does with most of our holidays, although in the case of Mother’s Day it hasn’t exactly been the best food. Toast and Juice from the kids was nice (that two-castle rye bread sure was yummy!) but then it went downhill — apple fritters from Robin’s, pub grub for lunch and pizza for supper. It’s our chance to load up on the calories before another hectic week of soccer, meetings, band concerts and baking. Yes, glorious baking! An excellent way to end the week.

This week we’re offering two loaves which will have breakfast and lunch covered for the Victoria Day weekend:

#1: Orange Boot Multigrain: This is a good, honest multigrain loaf with oats, corn meal and brown rice added to wheat and rye flour for a nice full flavour. It’s great for toast, sandwiches, or tearing off great hunks and chowing down!

- Orange Boot Multigrain, 600g, $4.00

#2: Walnut and Raisin Bread: This loaf received rave reviews the last time we offered it up. Toasted walnuts impart a wonderful aroma and the raisins give the perfect amount of sweetness. If there’s any bread left by Sunday, it makes a killer French Toast too!

- Walnut and Raisin Bread, 600g $4.00

One more thing: We’re not going to be baking the following week (May 23) as we’ve got a bunch of kid’s commitments bunching up on Thursday and Friday. Our advance apologies for that.

Best wishes this week!

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the delay in getting this note out to you. Spring is in full swing at our place — a soccer practice tonight, and a game, strawberry jam being made (love the St. Paul’s Strawberry Fair!), garden centre gift certificates being processed and my mixer is in pieces. Just a typical Monday this time of year.

The good news is that we’re back baking again this Friday. I’ve still got to service the mixer (found an old diagram on the Net last night so I think I know what I’m doing) but should have that done by Wednesday at the latest. We’re going to test the mixer on one of our more challenging loaves, but one I’m really excited about sharing with you. So let’s get to it!

#1: Two Castle Rye – this was a big hit at my whole grain class at SFBI both in terms of flavour and appearance. Legend has it that the loaf was first made when two rival kingdoms settled a long war. The loaf is actually two mini-loaves in one, hence the “two castles.” From the rye flour in the mix at least one of the castles was German, I’ll bet. It’s a true multi-grain loaf with white flour, whole wheat and rye flour and a good selection of seeds too. If you like our Birdseed loaf but are looking for a more whole grain flavour then this loaf is for you!

Two Castle Rye – 600g, $4.00

#2: French Loaf – For those of you who like your bread straight up, we offer a French Loaf. It’s like our baguette from three weeks ago but larger so you can get some more mileage from bread. Our marketing department is looking for a fancier name than “French Loaf” but there you go.

French Loaf – 500g, $3.00

As is our custom, please order by 6PM on Wednesday by email (mark@madbaker.com) or calling 522-1592. Pick up on Friday between 3PM and 6PM at 2904 Wascana Street.

Best Wishes this week!

=========== What’s New at Orange Boot ==============

We’ve got a new patio in front of the oven thanks to Cindy. No more mud!!! The brick path out to the patio is a work in progress but we’re getting there.

The website has had some extensive updates, with more to come. A better ‘The Bread’ page has detailed ingredients and pictures of all our bread (except this week’s bread, but I’m working on it tonight.) Check out http://orangeboot.ca/the-bread/ for more detail.

Hi Everyone,

Even though 80% of the guests last Friday told me a storm was brewing, I didn’t believe it. Didn’t want to believe it. Even at 4:30PM Sunday I thought it was a myth. Now I have a thick layer of ice on my windows and I hear we got off lucky. Oh well, I’m still thinking about how beautiful it was when we were baking on Friday.

Last Friday was an example of how troubles can compound over the course of the day but all work out in the end. We dealt with too-stiff dough, too-wet dough, an oven that was too-hot and too-cold at various times and a bitter undercurrent of having two bikes stolen from the garage during the previous night. BUT, we were able to adjust as we went and the bread all turned out really well. How about that 100% Whole Grain loaf? I’m a white flour fan but golly, that was a tasty loaf.

The adversity is mentally tiring though — it took till sometime Saturday afternoon to get revved up about the coming week. That being said, we’re fired up, ice or no ice, bikes or no bikes. The starter is fermenting, more flour is on order and we’re ready to start the cycle all over again.

This week we welcome back two old favorites:

#1: Saskatchewan Sourdough (Pain au Levain) Don’t be put off by the “sourdough” in the name — our loaf has a robust taste with just the slightest yogurty tang. As a friend of our friend Marilyn says, “I didn’t think I liked sourdough but I LOVED this bread.” And if you can’t trust a friend of Marilyn, who can you trust?

– Saskatchewan Sourdough, 650G loaf, $3.50

#2: Flax and Currant Bread: Shaped like a paver but light as a feather, this rustic loaf has a nice nutty/sweet flavour and is just plain good eats. Think ciabatta but healthier. This loaf was a huge favorite the first time we offered it so don’t miss out!

– Flax and Currant Bread, 500g rustic loaf, $3.50

While the taste of our Country Loaf was pretty darn good, the shape isn’t what I wanted so we’ll be trying the final experiment this week. Might be really good, might be fit for croutons, but I’ll share whatever I make again this week so long as it’s at least crouton-worthy.

Best wishes this week!

Hi everyone,

The garage is put back together and the yard is dry-ish so we’re back to baking this week. I’m really excited about working in a brighter, fresher looking space — I hope you are able to come check it out this week!

Two loaves are on offer this week:

#1: Orange Boot Birdseed Bread: A very popular multigrain loaf with roasted sunflower and sesame seeds, rolled oats and flax seeds. Great for toast, sandwiches, stews and soups. 650g loaf, $4.00

#2: Baguettes: I’ve been putting this off long enough, so it’s time to make some real baguettes. I’ve been experimenting with several techniques to get a nice crumb structure with our high gluten flours and I’m confident you’re really going to like this. 350g Baguette, $2.50

Please note: While they are still good for soup or croutons on Saturday, the baguettes are best enjoyed the same day they are baked!

Best wishes this week!