It’s been extra busy around the Smittybread home-based bakery this spring. In addition to baking artisan breads for the West Lafayette Farmers Market, I’ve moved from one side of town to the other and have been making plans to start a storefront bakery.

While the move was just a few miles geographically, it was an arduous task sorting, packing and moving years of accumulated stuff. Luckily most of my baking ingredients and gear didn’t get lost in the shuffle. Of the first five West Lafayette Farmers Market sessions so far this year, I’ve only missed one and have sold pretty much everything I’ve been able to bake.

Unfortunately, the week I had to skip baking due to the house closing was ill-timed. It was the week Smittybread was featured in an article in Lafayette Magazine focusing on how diverse vendors use farmers’ markets as springboards to launch new products and businesses.

Anticipating the added interest the article might create, I took a few minutes before market opened May 18 to let my neighboring vendors know why I would not be joining them and that I would return the following week. One of them later said he was swamped with inquiries from people looking for Smittybread. Luckily they didn’t give up looking because I’ve since met many new customers who said they heard about Smittybread through that article. Thanks to writer Kathy Mayer, photographer Tom Baugues, and Lafayette Magazine for the positive press!

In addition to spending time moving the household and baking many baskets of sourdough bread this spring, I’ve been making plans to open a bakery. Were it not for the success I’ve had marketing sourdough bread, baguettes and pastries at the farmers market, it’s unlikely I would have the confidence to attempt something so bold, or as some might say, foolhardy. More about this in a future post.

This past week at the market I also was interviewed by a local TV news reporter for a story about a new farmers market website. As a former newspaper reporter for the Journal & Courier, I would often spot myself on the WLFI-TV 18 news, usually in the background of video shot at elections, council meetings, groundbreakings or other events. I’ve also occasionally appeared in news clips as the keyboardist in the local country band Moonshine Mason and the Rotgut Gang. I believe this was the first time, however, that I’ve been interviewed for a news story. It was a great experience.

WLFI-TV 18 Multi-platform Journalist Brittany Tyner wanted to know what I thought of a new website, FarmersMarket.com, where customers can buy from farmers’ market vendors without actually going to the market. Items purchased online are picked up at a given location once a week. It so happens that the Lafayette pickup location for items purchased through the website is Great Harvest Bakery. I told the reporter that while the idea has merit, I would not want Smittybread customers picking up their bread at someone else’s bakery.

That said, I also told her that community bakeries are not so much competing with each other as with large corporations that produce bread-like product in mass quantities for pennies per loaf and ship it, often frozen, great distances to outlets where it may sit days or weeks before being purchased.

There is no shortage of potential bread customers since nearly everyone eats bread in one form or another every day. When you think of how much bread is consumed per capita, capturing even a tiny portion of that market should be enough to keep a local bakery in business. The biggest challenge we face as community bakers is connecting with consumers and earning their business with a consistently good product that is priced competitively and delivered with a smile.