[Breaduprising] get your bread on the first big bake day of 2010!

[Bread Uprising Bakery]

Dear friends,
The first bake day of 2010 is here!

On Tuesday, March 23rd, we will be baking lots of bread for everyone!  We
have been busy with weekly baking days for the folks in our subscription
program, and have been wanting a way to bake for all the folks who aren’t
signed up for that.  Check out our new blog for updates about the bakery:
breaduprising.wordpress.com!

We will be baking (as usual, everything's vegan, we use all organic
flours, and other organic ingredients when we can):
    * Half-Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread - A light, airy wheat sandwich
bread with a touch of honey.
    * Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread - Dark and rich with a bit of molasses
and 100% whole-wheat flour.
    * Pecan Raisin Artisan Bread - Made with mostly whole-wheat flour and
a touch of rye, this one comes out sweet and nutty from the pecans and
raisins.
    * Our famous Muffins: Carrot Raisin Sunshine -or- Peach Cornmeal (your
choice, by the half-dozen)
    * Ciabatta Rolls (by the half-dozen) - These square, airy rolls are
the perfect size to split in half for sandwiches, or serve them up
alongside a hearty soup for dinner. Made with a touch of whole wheat.
    * Rosemary Olive Onion Focaccia - Serves 4-6 people. Laden with garden
rosemary, Lebanese olives, and onions from somewhere.

Please put in your requests by Tuesday, 3/16.  Fill out the online form
here http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VPNFR2H or let us know if you would
rather talk to us by phone or use a paper form.


Note about payments, capitalism, and sliding scales:

We envision this bakery is part of a project of building community (and
community economies) and figuring out how we can all meet each others
needs. We're trying to move away from the standard model of a bakery,
where customers exchange bread for money.  This is new ground for us, and
we do not know how to do it; because for the most part the community
structures that would make concrete interdependence possible for us do not
exist yet, and because we still have very real monetary needs like paying
rent.  We're trying to walk a line between the visionary and the
practical.  If you have any advice about how to structure this better, we
need it!!!

For now, we've decided to try using a sliding scale, and what we know how
to do is to tell you in detail what we mean by that.  We want to build
some kind of community process around this, but for now we are just going
to be honest with you and ask you to take the following things into
consideration when you decide how much to give:

   1. Sliding scale is about accessibility and also re-distribution of
wealth/resources.  We're asking you to think about enlisting in a
project of re-distributing resources – if you have more
access/wealth/resources, please give more and if you have less, give
less and you will receive a redistribution of bread!
   2. Sliding scale is also about compensating for the material costs of
baking and the labor we are putting into the bakery.  Which, to be
honest about it, are a lot.  The food system we live in is not based on
justice, and there are so many subsidies to big agriculture, so many of
us have a skewed idea of how much food actually costs.  As a
small-scale bakery, our ingredients costs are fairly low and the amount
of time we put in is high.  If we bake 100 units of bread/muffins/etc.
during this bake day, and pay ourselves a living wage, the labor costs
are about $4/unit: so the total cost for a loaf or a bunch of muffins
would be about $5/unit. Of course, cash money is not the only way we're
compensated for our labor in this project, and we'd welcome talking
with y'all about barter/trade arrangements as well.
   3. We are also asking you to take into consideration the “market price”
of bread, or how much is in your budget that you would otherwise be
spending.    We want to move resources into community economies that
would otherwise be going into capitalist ones; not sap all of
everyone's resources.

So, let us know by the 16th what kinds of bread you would like, & let us
know your thoughts about solidarity economies! Again, the online form is
at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VPNFR2H.  Also, feel free to pass this on
to other folks.

Love,
Noah & Tim