CSB FTW!

CSB.  I know, I know UIG, yer using all these keerazy terms and what do they mean?  Well, let me school you, blogfriends…  (I know, I actually can’t stand myself right now, so let’s move on)

So CSB stands for Community Supported Baking, and it’s a pretty new term to me too.  I had been familiar with CSA – Community Supported Agriculture, where you can purchase a share or half-share and receive a weekly box of locally grown fruits and vegetables, which is awesome, right?  And yet, as awesome as it sounded, we never actually did it.  And part of the reason is that it usually requires shelling out a substantial amount of $$ all at once, for the season.  And not that it isn’t a fantastic investment, it’s more that we usually hit the wall financially every week, and so even though there would be fresh, local, tasty fruits and veggies every week for us, the initial outlay was a bt of a barrier.  The other reason was less fiscal and more practical as in I can hit the various Hamilton markets several times each week so I don’t necessarily need to have a weekly pick-up of produce.  But even with those two things, every once in awhile The Genealogist and I think “maybe we should do one of those CSAs but then again, maybe not?  I don’t know?  What?”  But we never did.

Anyway. 

So a couple of months ago I was reading the paper and there was an article about two women who were opening a retail bakery in my ‘hood.  Which got me excited, because come on!  Bakery!  On my street!  And their philosophy was lovely, and not only that, they were offering CSB!  So, much like the fruit and veggie people, you pay a (in this case) monthly amount and every week you pick up baked goods.  Are you still with me?  Because I said every week you PICK UP BAKED GOODS.  Baked goods, people!

Now, I like to cook.  I do.  And I’m pretty good at it.  But what I don’t like about cooking is using a recipe.  So restrictive.  So normally the way I work is that I use cookbooks for ideas and guidelines, but I make stuff up as I go along. 

For example, a recipe might call for sage but I don’t have sage, so I use fennel.  Or, it might say use potatoes, but I only have yams, so I use those.  Whatevs, gramma.  And you know what?  I can usually make that shit work. 

But baking.  Man, baking is a whole other world.  You have to measure.  And be, you know, exact.  Baking just goes against all my instincts, but holy crap I love fresh bread and muffins and alla that.  So CSB?  Hell yes, sign me up!

So we signed up and put our money where our salivating mouths are, and yesterday we received our 3rd CSB order and can I just say?  It is a freaking miracle.  And I am not even kidding.  A loaf of fresh bread, a bag of cookies, muffins and danish.  All good, all wholesome and all using local (where possible) ingredients.  It is a beautiful thing.

The retail bakery will open later this winter, which will be amazing as well, but in the meantime, we are beyond hooked on this fantastic service.    So thank you,   Cake and Loaf Bakery.  Thanks to your excellent mad baking skillz, my boys have fresh, wholesome treats for their lunches.

But don’t worry, full credit goes to you.  I can’t even pretend to bake that well.