The first Blog

It always takes me ages to embrace the new ways. I love writing and wrote a column in the Kilkenny People for 6 years. Stopped 3 years ago and have been looking for a new column ever since. I theoretically knew about blogging but that was it. Now, literally years later, here I am - on Blogger, blogging and thrilled to be back. Yesterday, I set it up on a beautifully sunny day while waiting for my daughter to finish her maths grinds. While she was working on differential equations, I was flicking between tabs, setting up my blog on one while reading how to do it on the other!! Today, while the sun is still splitting the skies, two people have already viewed this emtpy space where the wisdom of the finished baker will be aired. Someone in America was wondering what this blog is all about and I do hope you look in again.

After the bread round are the thoughts of a woman in her 50s, a German living in Ireland, a wife of an Irishman, a mother of four children who are just beginning to leave home. A woman living in rural Ireland who trained as a geographer, worked as a home manager with a bit of geography thrown in after she thought of setting herself up as Ideas Unlimited, the versatile rural consultancy.

Then came the column writing with the love to her my opinions and then came another idea which was to join the wonderful artisan food producer community and start a home bakery. From baking for the family to baking for  a shop run by a friend it developed to baking for 7 different outlets and finally this year moving out of the family kitchen into a bakehouse across the yard. An old farm house with many empty sheds is now a farmhouse where the shed, loosely known as the rubbish shed is now the bakehouse.

Every morning at 4am, I start and still am thrilled with my wonderful new space. Working the yeast doughs is a great and many people pay big money for this kind of therapy.
At the moment I work with two of the children helping out on alternate mornings, the plan is to grow, to employ part time bakers and maybe a driver, to do markets and sell more. The plan is that this business will supply many, many people with great bread and us with a bit more of an income at a time when money is on every ones lips and in less of our pockets.

So, I'm here, set up, ready to communicate. Shall now get back into the bakehouse and do the Saturday clean up. Sunday and Monday are rest days and if the weather holds up, the River Barrow in Graiguenamanagh is where time will be spend after the bread round. JP