April 26, 2024 • 24 mins
Dive into the meticulous world of artisan sourdough with Meg, and her venture, Moscow Bread Box. She opens up about Moscow Bread Box's early days of doorstep deliveries, its evolution to farmers' markets, and partnerships with local farms.
Find out more on Instagram or Facebook!
She will be at the Spring Fayre: 11-2:30pm April 27th!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
This is the Kestrel Country Podcast, where we
discuss the people, places andevents all around Kestrel
(00:40):
country podcast.
Thanks for having me.
Well, I'm glad we could.
So meg is a senior here at NewSt Andrews College, but she's an
extraordinary bread baker.
I've got to say that five timesfast.
So, meg, tell us a little bitabout yourself, where you're
from.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I'm from the central coast of California, San Luis
Obispo area.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Which is gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
It's a really beautiful place to grow up.
Followed my brother up here forschool five years ago now Work
three quarter time at TrinityReformed Church as a secretary.
Love that.
We'll be continuing that afterI graduate and have turned a
little side baking hobby into abusiness and we're seeing where
that goes.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So when did you start the business here in Moscow?
I started baking to sell.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
When was that?
2022.
Okay, had a delivery servicegoing for a couple of months
doing farmer's markets and then,with health, things had to stop
.
So it's only just in the lastcouple of months that I'm
starting to kind of gear thingsback up, hoping that I can take
it after graduation and reallydevelop it into something more
consistent, more sustainable.
But it's had really goodtraction.
(01:48):
There's been a lot of interest,it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
So we're excited to see where it goes.
So were you interested in breadbaking back when you were
younger, back in California, oris this something that just kind
of started in college?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
My dad always made sourdough.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Really yeah, before it was hip to be making it, oh
yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Okay, oh yeah, back in the day he learned from some
like Catholic priest on YouTube,like it's a kind of family lore
.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Did he get some ancient starter?
I actually don't remember.
I should ask him where he gothis starter from, but you know
he would.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
He works as a pastor, so he'd be taking appointments
and we were homeschooled.
He'd be like, you know, do thefolds on the bread, or this is
what needs to be done.
So I've been around it, I'vebeen familiar with it for a
while at this point and learnedthe basics from him and, for
whatever reason, I wasn't reallyon social media in 2020, but, I
, somehow still got the bug tomake bread like everybody else
(02:38):
did and got very obsessive aboutit.
Anyone who could or would takebread from me.
I was like, please, this givesme practice.
It gives me practice, and aftera while I had people like where
can we buy it, though, can weget it?
How do we get your bread?
So I started selling it kind ofunder the table, and now we're
(02:59):
all official and legal, but youknow, yes, well, that's how it
goes.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
You know, that's how a small business has to start.
I also think it's easier not toknow what you're getting into
when you definitely because thenI don't know if you would, with
all the you know so many hoopsto jump through.
Yes, for sure.
So you had it.
When you were a little kid, youhomeschooled in California.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Partial.
Yeah, we did like a classicalschool that was two to three
days a week and then homeschoolthe other days.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Okay, and then so you came up to New St Andrews.
What year was that, Was it?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
2019.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Okay, so before COVID hit.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah, covid was the end of my freshman year.
Okay, which is wild to think itwas that long ago.
Isn't it crazy.
Oh, that's my whole collegeexperience in this upside down
world.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
I know Well, and it's so easy, because if you start
thinking about stuff, you markit by COVID.
You know Like, okay, was thatbefore COVID or is that after
COVID?
It's just funny because it'ssuch a time marker, Such a time
marker yeah.
But we got to visit San LuisObispo in 2019, January of 2019,
.
I believe so, pre-covid,because my sister-in-law was
down there and it was gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
It's a lovely place.
Yeah, All my family's backthere and not planning to move
back right now but there's a bitof my heart for sure, I believe
it.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
15 minutes to the coast and yet all the wineries,
and it's really fun.
Yeah, hard to beat.
I was surprised and I don'tknow why.
I probably shouldn't have been,but how Western it felt, you
know, like the cowboy countryfeeling, and I don't, I think
California, and I think that'sprobably why you're thinking
coastal or you're thinkingsurfer or you're thinking you
know, produce, but it was fun tosee all of that yeah.
So a little ranching town.
(04:36):
Yeah, it was really fun.
Okay, so tell us about yourprocess with bread.
So you started in 2020.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Where'd you get your starter?
My best friend, jane Rush.
She baked, I think, in Virginia.
She was part of a bakery thereand she's just like she's a
queen.
She doesn't even use a recipe,she just like goes by, vibes and
it turns out every time.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
She knows the feel of the bread.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
She's that good, so I got some starter from her and
just started.
I didn't, and still don't,actually have an oven in my
apartment.
You don't.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
So where do you bake?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
My landlady, god bless.
Her lives upstairs.
She lets me pop up and use heroven once in a while, and then I
bake at the church.
We have a kitchen there, soI'll be moving in May to an
apartment with an oven with anoven I'm so excited about
that'll make my process a loteasier.
Oh, I'm sure, um, but juststarted.
Just started whacking thingstogether to figure it out and
(05:35):
get a feel for it and startedbaking in my toaster oven.
I like I love actually lookingback at pictures and it's like,
okay, it was only like threeyears ago and it looked like
that, like it's really actuallycome a long way since then.
And then, yeah, just kind offollowing people online watching
different YouTube videos, andthere is so much particularity
like people get really, reallyuptight about sourdough things,
(05:58):
and I don't like that.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Like.
I am an intuitive person.
I don't want to be moreartistic than scientific.
Don't tell me what to do.
I am an intuitive person, Idon't want to be More artistic
than scientific, maybe.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Don't tell me what to do.
I want to do it myself, sofiguring out what worked for my
schedule at that point.
As a full-time student.
I was out of the house fromlike 6 to 11 every day.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Right.
So how do you do the full-time,how do I make it all work?
How?
Speaker 2 (06:18):
do I make it work for my schedule, and that, I think,
has been the beauty ofsourdough for me is that it's
extremely flexible and it canwork how I want it to work for
my life.
Someday I'll maybe teach aclass on that.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
See, I do think that's pretty important, because
that was the thing for me.
I didn't grow up with sourdoughbread, and then, of course, the
sourdough bug is going, and soI tried it first using oh shoot,
now I'm not going to rememberit the super elaborate,
intricate Like the Tartinemethod.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Tartine, it was yes.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
And so it was like oh man, Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
So you're reading through the instructions 25
minutes and then I have to, butthat doesn't work with the
schedule of like oh, but I'mrunning around to get kids or oh
.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I'm sorry starter, you're just on your own now and
you know, and so it was kind oflike and then later, it was the
idea of the artisan made simpleis that book, yeah, or sourdough
, made simple?
I've seen it, but I've, yeah,you didn't use that one.
Okay, that definitely helped,and then it was that mentality
of it just has to work with ourschedule.
So if the loaves are a littlebit flat, or the rise time, or
(07:16):
we didn't do any folding.
Yeah, you know it's like okay,this is when we can bake it.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah, this is when we can make it.
Any bread that you like to eat,that your family likes to eat,
is successful bread.
Like there's, you know, so muchfinickiness you can get into
and that's fun.
Like the longer I've baked, themore I've enjoyed experimenting
with, like getting reallyparticular on things and really
perfecting my system, yeah, andI've liked that.
But I dislike the mindset thatthat's necessary to make good
bread and that it really is andcan be accessible to anybody if
(07:43):
they want to.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Well, it makes it much harder to get started If
you're kind of just enteringhere the threshold is actually
really low.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
It's actually really low and very encouraging yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So, with your student schedule, tell us how you made
that work.
Gosh, I don't even rememberTeach a mini class here without
teaching a class.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Let's see, this is my sophomore year.
Sophomore year was wild with myschedule.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah, because you were going full-time student.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Full-time student plus a million and one other
commitments.
So it was really.
The days were long and thenights were short.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
But you still loved the sourdough.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
But it was enough to yeah, enough to really make it
part of my lifestyle, so I'dfeed my starter before I went to
bed.
That was a varying time,sometimes that's 11.
Sometimes that's one.
Whenever it was, I'd feed mystarter, leave it on the counter
, go to bed.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Okay.
So when you feed it, were youweighing anything, or was this
like eyeball?
Nope, nope.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Just till it's a good pasty consistency and call it
good.
I still don't, for whateverreason.
I'll measure everything else bygrams.
I will not measure feeding.
My starter Can't be bothered.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Do you, do you have any tips for like the sheer
level of sticky than crazy hard.
You know that the starter gets.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yeah, I prefer it to be a little bit on the like
wetter side, just cause it'seasier to work with Um.
So it's roughly one-to-one byvolume flour and water Um.
But, however, I've startedmaking it a little thicker, um,
but not not much.
I don't really want to have tolike work at it, like just feed
it, make it easy, and I onlykeep.
I keep a very small amount ofstarter in my fridge.
(09:12):
Okay, pull that out, you know,sometime midday, whenever I
think about it, feed it and thenI'll use it back down to.
So I don't have a discard.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I don't ever discard.
You never do a discard.
Okay, so you just eat it.
How?
Speaker 2 (09:24):
much I need it.
Use it to make bread, put itback in the fridge.
Nice, okay, so that keeps itagain really easy.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I don't understand why people do a bunch of discard
things.
That seems stressful to me.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Well, because I'll pour some out.
But then what happens on myjars?
It gets all like so so crustyyeah and so then I'm like okay,
fresh jar, but then that old jarI have this hesitancy to throw
away sure, and you're like thenit's sitting there soaking for
days, yeah I'm trying to getavoiding, avoiding, avoiding
yeah um, so I think yeah, youcan very much.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Keeping it in the fridge makes it really easy to
have a low maintenance starterthat you only feed when you need
it and then you're not wastingflour or time or you're not
worried about it dying on thecounter if you don't pay
attention to it.
So that works out well.
Feed it before I go to bed,Wake up at that point in time
between probably 4 and 5, andmix.
When I first started I justmixed everything together.
(10:19):
Now I hold out salt and add itin later when I first started, I
just mixed everything together.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Now.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
I hold out salt and add it in later.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Oh really, but mix it all together.
What's the reason for holdingthe salt now?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Holding out salt is a process called auto-leasing, so
it allows the flour to fullyabsorb the water and the longer
you auto-lease, the more basegluten structure you're going to
get Okay, which actually allowsyou to pay less attention to it
, do less folds and still have apretty nice texture on your
bread.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
So at what step do you add the salt when you do it
that way?
Speaker 2 (10:46):
So I just I mix flour , water, starter until it's kind
of just like a shaggy dough.
Ignore it for half an hour, anhour, go back, add the salt a
little bit of water, sploosh itin.
Yeah, and then I'll start folds.
To this day my bread's lucky ifit gets three folds like I
don't pay that much attention toit.
Um, if I'm doing a big batch, Iyou know I'll pay more
(11:08):
attention, because I it's 50pounds of dough that I don't
want to throw out the window,yeah um, but if I'm just baking
for myself, it doesn't get a tonof attention and that's, it's
fine.
Um, mix it together in themorning again, like if that's
first thing when I get up readmy Bible, eat breakfast,
whatever.
Give it a fold.
Get ready, pack up my bag.
Give it a fold.
(11:29):
Leave the house.
It's on the counter, it doesn't, doesn't come with me, it just
hangs out there and by the timeI come home in the evening,
shape it it, stick it in thefridge.
Uh, if things go according toplan.
You put your shaped loaves inthe fridge.
Yes, yeah, yeah, and that'sexcellent for a lot of reasons.
One uh, it scores a lot easierout of the fridge when the
(11:49):
dough's cold.
Two if you end up not beingable to bake it in time, you can
just leave it in there.
I've left loaves in the fridgefor two or three days and it
changes a little bit but likeit's still totally edible and
you get some really good flavorafter fermenting that long,
Shape them, put them in thefridge Again.
if I'm on top of it the nextmorning, they get baked.
If not, the next time I get achance they get baked, and you
(12:11):
know, it's prettystraightforward.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
So you've well no, but that's really great though,
because you are making it crazyflexible Like I've never
refrigerated the loaf?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
I don't think.
And that's super fun and youcan like, even if you don't have
time to shape them.
Stick just your bulk dough inthe fridge.
Like it's only going to getbetter the more time you give it
.
So I actually put a pretty lowpercentage of starter in my
dough so that I can be gone for12 hours and it hasn't
overproved by the time I gethome.
Gotcha, and that like long,slow fermentation process.
(12:44):
I find both convenient becauseit's flexible, but also actually
provides more flavor than if Iput more starter in.
it rose really fast and I didn'thave like the time for it to
really develop that complexity.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
No, that makes.
That makes a lot of sense.
It really does.
So when you have figured thisstructure out I assume
originally it was just kind oflike this has to work.
This is when I'm available, butnow do you measure everything?
Have you written this down?
Is this something that yourepeat, or is it always just by
your gut?
Speaker 2 (13:10):
No, I definitely have it down to a science at this
point, but I liked startingwithout measurements because it
allowed me to get an intuitivesense of what was going on and
not just like this is whatsomebody told me to do, so I'm
doing it.
It was like oh well, when Ichange this factor, this changes
.
So I'm actually developing amental concept of holding out
(13:33):
the salt is having this effect,or doing this many folds, is
having this effect?
Or doing this much water versusthis much water is having this
effect, like seeing thecorrelation of why change
different elements, and then Ican decide what do I want?
How do I work back to whatelements I pay attention to?
So I'm working out of like a 75to 78% hydration at this point.
So a thousand grams of flour,750 to 780 grams of water, 15%
(13:58):
starter, 4% salt Also.
Actually, a higher saltpercentage is going to slow your
fermentation as well, which isokay, also good for flavor,
right, um, and that's likepretty standard.
I've messed around withdifferent have you ever salted?
Speaker 1 (14:11):
have you had an over salted loaf?
Um, I don't think I've had thathappen.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
You haven't had that no, I, I mean, I also have a
really salty palate.
So I've ever been like, well,that's too much for me, yeah,
and you can mess with differentflours, you can mess with all
sorts of different things.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
When you started, what were you using for your
flour?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Winko flour?
Yeah, both bins.
Yeah, yeah, you really can usewhatever's available to you.
And what about feeding yourstarter too?
Same thing.
Yeah, at this point I get flourfrom the restaurant supply
store.
That's a little bit nicer.
But whatever you have on handand sometimes I find if my
starter is like kind of unhappy,feed it a little bit of whole
(14:51):
wheat, something that has alittle bit more like grist to it
, to try and help, you knowencourage the flora, get the
colonies, yeah, whatever Give itsomething to work with, but
yeah, kind of whatever's on hand.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
That's great.
I like that too, because itmakes it again easier to start
Part of it.
You know it's like if you don'thave space for a million
different kinds of flowers youjust don't have space.
Yep, yeah, so that's pretty fun, although it is really fun to
experiment with the flowers too,because I use a high, high
gluten um shepherd's grain, yep,frequently that's usually what
I got at home right now yes, mygo-to, which is pretty fun, um,
(15:26):
but if you don't have it, youdon't have it.
So tell us a little bit abouthow the moscow bread box started
to take shape.
You had people asking if youcould buy it.
So then what was your next step?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
let's see.
I think first step wasdeliveries.
Um, I started doing I think Iprobably posted on Kirk or
Ladies, I can't remember at thispoint you know Saturday morning
doorstep delivery for bread andI started doing bagels and
English muffins and it was justdifferent days of the week, so
it's during the summer I had thetime to do this Different days
(16:02):
of the week, deliveries fordifferent types of things and
then started to try toconsolidate to just like a
weekend bake it all out anddeliver.
There's a couple differentiterations there.
And then a friend and I decidedto get a booth together at the
Troy Farmer's Market, which issuch a lovely little market.
It's so small and one cheap,like it made it really, you know
(16:23):
, achievable.
I could go paid 10 bucks andhave a booth there and not be
worried that if I didn't sellsomething I was like up a creek
without a bottle um, but also,you know, the regular customers
know me, I got to know theregular customers what they
liked.
That was really fun.
Um, so we sold there and Istopped doing deliveries because
that was like conflicting onSaturdays and it was.
(16:44):
Yeah, I was planning to pickback up with deliveries once
market was over and then healthdid not permit.
So, as I'm kind of reopeningand bringing Moscow Breadbox
back to life, I'm hoping to leanmore into like a weekly pickup.
I'm hoping to lean more intolike a weekly pickup.
(17:05):
Okay.
Or so like right now, wing overfarm, is where, like every
Friday, you can find there'sgoing to be bread available
there, and that saves me a bitof the hassle of having to deal
with deliveries and like all ofthe particularities of
individual orders, so just, sowing over farms and where's
their stand located?
Let's see, they're nine, 11mountain View.
I believe so.
Just up past the water park onthe left, beautiful, beautiful
(17:29):
spot, great people Highlyrecommend it out there.
It's really cute and that'sbeen fun.
I've only been there for abouta month, but I think that's it.
People sold me out in like acouple hours.
Last week it's gotten fasterand faster.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
How many loads are like a couple hours.
Last week it's gotten fasterand faster, so how many loaves
are you stocking there every?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
week?
Oh, not much.
I started small just to kind ofsee.
I don't know the foot trafficthrough here.
So I think the first week I hadlike four loaves and it took
the weekend, and last week I hadlike six loaves and two
focaccia and it sold out in acouple hours.
So the hope is to right now inthe midst of school and still
not having my own oven, we'llsee how much I can scale up.
But, once I graduate and I havemy own baking set up, I'll
(18:04):
hopefully be able to scale upthere and I think I might add
Wednesdays there as well,because that's their CSA pickup
day.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
And is it something where people can just put cash
in or pay via.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yeah, there's Venmo and a cash box and you pay that
all directly to Wing Over andthen I sort it out with Jenny.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
But that's a cash box and you pay that all directly
to wing over.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
And then I sorted out with nice, with Jenny, yeah, um
, but that's great, and I'll beat the spring fair this weekend
yeah, depending on when thisdrops.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
I know 27th.
We're putting this one in lastminute.
We'll see if we can get it todrop before this.
But if it does drop before this, tell us what the times are for
the spring fair this weekend.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Spring fair fair is 11 to 2 30 at the fairgrounds
this saturday, the 27th.
Okay, um, I think the springfair is usually smaller, which
means you probably have a betterbet of getting something,
because I sold out in like anhour and a half at the Christmas
fair, oh no, okay.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
So it's 11 o'clock, you got to be there.
What are you planning onselling?
I'll have regular loaves.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
I'll have regular focaccia, I'll have caramelized
onion and pesto focaccia.
That sounds really good, andthen the ones I'm most excited
about.
I'm making two different kindsof danishes, so I'm going to do
a cream cheese apricot danishand a marzipan raspberry danish.
Those sound good.
So all sourdough yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
I'm very excited about it.
Get your cup of coffee, getyour danish.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
And then continue to shop and you have a little walk
around.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Yeah, it.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I feel like they're all just fun.
That's a good problem.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
I like like I've never.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
I've made probably I don't know upwards of 1,500
loaves at this point and I justdon't get tired of it, like I
really enjoy.
Every time I take the lid offthe Dutch oven it's like ooh,
look at that, it's so fun.
But that's I mean pretty muchin terms of process.
That's pretty rote at thispoint.
I just started figuring outdanishes for the fair.
It was like a thing I wanted tolearn and that was super fun
(19:53):
and super rewarding.
I enjoyed that.
I mean, they're all fun intheir own ways.
I'd say one of my favoritethings to eat is bagels
sourdough bagels but they're ahuge pain to make.
I don't really make them thatoften anymore, but those are.
They're all fun in their ownways and I've got several things
on the list of like okay,baguettes are coming up, like I
got to learn.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
baguettes, I got to learn sourdough croissants.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
We're going to learn.
Like you know, I've got thingson the to-do list that I'm
hoping.
I have a lot, of, a lot offaith in how much time I will
have after.
I graduate but things I'mhoping to learn, you know, come
summer come the next phase.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
So Moscow Bread Box will be continuing this summer.
Are you going to be at the TroyMarket again?
I will be.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah, so at least once a month is what I've set up
for for now.
I might add other markets.
I have a wedding lined up andI'm hoping to kind of ask around
about events.
You know would be happy to bakefor private events, that sort
of thing.
That's not really somethingI've like advertised about yet,
just because I feel souncomfortable marketing myself,
(20:55):
but hoping to leave some spaceopen for that over the summer.
So I'll post you know where I'mat on social media.
If anybody follows along, youcan see what weeks I'm at the
market and when I'm not, andthat sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
And how to contact you.
So what is the social mediahandle for you?
Speaker 2 (21:11):
I'm most active on Instagram, which is Moscow Bread
Box.
I'm also on Facebook, but it'smore just the automatic post to
Facebook from Instagram.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
So if they want to get in touch with you, is it
best to DM you on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Instagram's great yeah, and I have an email as
well, but that's really, youknow, seems kind of formal, I
know.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Instagram's pretty easy to get out there.
Okay, tell us where the namecame from.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
This is actually kind of funny Part of the story.
I was baking and, you know,selling to friends at this point
, so this was spring of 2022, Ithink and went to dinner at a
friend's house and there wasanother gal there who I kind of
knew, mallory Struble, you know.
We were acquaintances and justgot to chatting and I was like,
(21:57):
oh, you know, like someday it'dbe so cool to actually sell
bread for real, like go to thefarmer's market.
And she was like we should dothe tri-farmer's market.
And I was like we can just dothat.
I don't know, that seems kind ofscary.
And she was like no, we shouldjust do it, like I'll bake some
stuff, you bake some stuff, andwe'll go to the farm.
It's small, Like it's literally.
(22:17):
It's so chill, it'll be so fun.
And so this person that we likebarely knew we hit it off, we
started chatting, we decided tosign up for the farmer's with
the name and we baked there thatsummer and then she got married
and you know, kind of on to herown adventures and I kept the
(22:39):
name so perfect.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
yeah, that is sad.
To mallory's dribble, yes,which is pretty great, and you
kind of, I guess.
Oh, yes, she's married, but itis pretty great when you have
some of that again, that barrierto entry, some of those things
that just remove the elements ofwell, why not?
Yeah, just go ahead and do it.
Yeah, yeah, just try it.
Figure it out, yeah, yeah.
Well, that's really really fun.
Okay, let's, as we wind down,any final thoughts about it.
I mean, we could go into deepinto the process of
(23:01):
understanding what the folds do,and all of that too, but is
there anything about sourdoughspecifically that you wanted to
share?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
I don't know I I enjoy bread so much because it's
so tangible.
I think is something I keepcoming back to when I'm thinking
about okay, why am I doing this?
Why am I trying to start abusiness?
Why am I trying to?
You know, what am I doing withthis?
Um, it's a really tangibleoutworking, especially coming
out of college, coming out ofacademia, and like so much time
(23:32):
in your head You're like, okay,what do I actually do that can
actually love people, blesspeople and provide hospitality
to people.
And that's like really been thedriving force of why I like to
bake in the first place Like itmakes people happy and I love
that.
Like I love being able to feedpeople and hoping that as I
expand a business out of it,that provides means for other
(23:52):
people to bless other people youknow, around their own tables
and that you know, if I end upteaching classes, if I end up
writing something I don't know,like that makes it available,
like wanting to make thatavailable.
Yeah, both the kind ofgratification of really hands-on
, meaningful, rewarding work andthe joy that that brings to the
people around them.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Well, I love it and it's true, like getting a loaf
of sourdough and just kind ofripping into it is delicious,
hard to beat.
It's really hard to beat.
You don't need butter, youdon't need anything, it's just
stinking good.
But well, that's really great.
So, meg, thanks so much andhopefully we get this out in
time.
But then come see her Saturday.
Come say hi At 11 o'clock atthe fairgrounds, yeah, and we'll
(24:36):
make sure and post yourInstagram handle and all of that
in the comments too.
But thanks so much for coming.
Thanks for joining us.
Like, share, subscribe.
We'll see you next week.
This is the Kestrel Country Podcast, where we
discuss the people, places andevents all around Kestrel
(00:40):
country podcast.
Thanks for having me.
Well, I'm glad we could.
So meg is a senior here at NewSt Andrews College, but she's an
extraordinary bread baker.
I've got to say that five timesfast.
So, meg, tell us a little bitabout yourself, where you're
from.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I'm from the central coast of California, San Luis
Obispo area.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Which is gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
It's a really beautiful place to grow up.
Followed my brother up here forschool five years ago now Work
three quarter time at TrinityReformed Church as a secretary.
Love that.
We'll be continuing that afterI graduate and have turned a
little side baking hobby into abusiness and we're seeing where
that goes.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So when did you start the business here in Moscow?
I started baking to sell.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
When was that?
2022.
Okay, had a delivery servicegoing for a couple of months
doing farmer's markets and then,with health, things had to stop
.
So it's only just in the lastcouple of months that I'm
starting to kind of gear thingsback up, hoping that I can take
it after graduation and reallydevelop it into something more
consistent, more sustainable.
But it's had really goodtraction.
(01:48):
There's been a lot of interest,it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
So we're excited to see where it goes.
So were you interested in breadbaking back when you were
younger, back in California, oris this something that just kind
of started in college?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
My dad always made sourdough.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Really yeah, before it was hip to be making it, oh
yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Okay, oh yeah, back in the day he learned from some
like Catholic priest on YouTube,like it's a kind of family lore
.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Did he get some ancient starter?
I actually don't remember.
I should ask him where he gothis starter from, but you know
he would.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
He works as a pastor, so he'd be taking appointments
and we were homeschooled.
He'd be like, you know, do thefolds on the bread, or this is
what needs to be done.
So I've been around it, I'vebeen familiar with it for a
while at this point and learnedthe basics from him and, for
whatever reason, I wasn't reallyon social media in 2020, but, I
, somehow still got the bug tomake bread like everybody else
(02:38):
did and got very obsessive aboutit.
Anyone who could or would takebread from me.
I was like, please, this givesme practice.
It gives me practice, and aftera while I had people like where
can we buy it, though, can weget it?
How do we get your bread?
So I started selling it kind ofunder the table, and now we're
(02:59):
all official and legal, but youknow, yes, well, that's how it
goes.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
You know, that's how a small business has to start.
I also think it's easier not toknow what you're getting into
when you definitely because thenI don't know if you would, with
all the you know so many hoopsto jump through.
Yes, for sure.
So you had it.
When you were a little kid, youhomeschooled in California.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Partial.
Yeah, we did like a classicalschool that was two to three
days a week and then homeschoolthe other days.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Okay, and then so you came up to New St Andrews.
What year was that, Was it?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
2019.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Okay, so before COVID hit.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah, covid was the end of my freshman year.
Okay, which is wild to think itwas that long ago.
Isn't it crazy.
Oh, that's my whole collegeexperience in this upside down
world.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
I know Well, and it's so easy, because if you start
thinking about stuff, you markit by COVID.
You know Like, okay, was thatbefore COVID or is that after
COVID?
It's just funny because it'ssuch a time marker, Such a time
marker yeah.
But we got to visit San LuisObispo in 2019, January of 2019,
.
I believe so, pre-covid,because my sister-in-law was
down there and it was gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
It's a lovely place.
Yeah, All my family's backthere and not planning to move
back right now but there's a bitof my heart for sure, I believe
it.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
15 minutes to the coast and yet all the wineries,
and it's really fun.
Yeah, hard to beat.
I was surprised and I don'tknow why.
I probably shouldn't have been,but how Western it felt, you
know, like the cowboy countryfeeling, and I don't, I think
California, and I think that'sprobably why you're thinking
coastal or you're thinkingsurfer or you're thinking you
know, produce, but it was fun tosee all of that yeah.
So a little ranching town.
(04:36):
Yeah, it was really fun.
Okay, so tell us about yourprocess with bread.
So you started in 2020.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Where'd you get your starter?
My best friend, jane Rush.
She baked, I think, in Virginia.
She was part of a bakery thereand she's just like she's a
queen.
She doesn't even use a recipe,she just like goes by, vibes and
it turns out every time.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
She knows the feel of the bread.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
She's that good, so I got some starter from her and
just started.
I didn't, and still don't,actually have an oven in my
apartment.
You don't.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
So where do you bake?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
My landlady, god bless.
Her lives upstairs.
She lets me pop up and use heroven once in a while, and then I
bake at the church.
We have a kitchen there, soI'll be moving in May to an
apartment with an oven with anoven I'm so excited about
that'll make my process a loteasier.
Oh, I'm sure, um, but juststarted.
Just started whacking thingstogether to figure it out and
(05:35):
get a feel for it and startedbaking in my toaster oven.
I like I love actually lookingback at pictures and it's like,
okay, it was only like threeyears ago and it looked like
that, like it's really actuallycome a long way since then.
And then, yeah, just kind offollowing people online watching
different YouTube videos, andthere is so much particularity
like people get really, reallyuptight about sourdough things,
(05:58):
and I don't like that.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Like.
I am an intuitive person.
I don't want to be moreartistic than scientific.
Don't tell me what to do.
I am an intuitive person, Idon't want to be More artistic
than scientific, maybe.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Don't tell me what to do.
I want to do it myself, sofiguring out what worked for my
schedule at that point.
As a full-time student.
I was out of the house fromlike 6 to 11 every day.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Right.
So how do you do the full-time,how do I make it all work?
How?
Speaker 2 (06:18):
do I make it work for my schedule, and that, I think,
has been the beauty ofsourdough for me is that it's
extremely flexible and it canwork how I want it to work for
my life.
Someday I'll maybe teach aclass on that.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
See, I do think that's pretty important, because
that was the thing for me.
I didn't grow up with sourdoughbread, and then, of course, the
sourdough bug is going, and soI tried it first using oh shoot,
now I'm not going to rememberit the super elaborate,
intricate Like the Tartinemethod.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Tartine, it was yes.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
And so it was like oh man, Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
So you're reading through the instructions 25
minutes and then I have to, butthat doesn't work with the
schedule of like oh, but I'mrunning around to get kids or oh
.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I'm sorry starter, you're just on your own now and
you know, and so it was kind oflike and then later, it was the
idea of the artisan made simpleis that book, yeah, or sourdough
, made simple?
I've seen it, but I've, yeah,you didn't use that one.
Okay, that definitely helped,and then it was that mentality
of it just has to work with ourschedule.
So if the loaves are a littlebit flat, or the rise time, or
(07:16):
we didn't do any folding.
Yeah, you know it's like okay,this is when we can bake it.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah, this is when we can make it.
Any bread that you like to eat,that your family likes to eat,
is successful bread.
Like there's, you know, so muchfinickiness you can get into
and that's fun.
Like the longer I've baked, themore I've enjoyed experimenting
with, like getting reallyparticular on things and really
perfecting my system, yeah, andI've liked that.
But I dislike the mindset thatthat's necessary to make good
bread and that it really is andcan be accessible to anybody if
(07:43):
they want to.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Well, it makes it much harder to get started If
you're kind of just enteringhere the threshold is actually
really low.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
It's actually really low and very encouraging yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So, with your student schedule, tell us how you made
that work.
Gosh, I don't even rememberTeach a mini class here without
teaching a class.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Let's see, this is my sophomore year.
Sophomore year was wild with myschedule.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah, because you were going full-time student.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Full-time student plus a million and one other
commitments.
So it was really.
The days were long and thenights were short.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
But you still loved the sourdough.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
But it was enough to yeah, enough to really make it
part of my lifestyle, so I'dfeed my starter before I went to
bed.
That was a varying time,sometimes that's 11.
Sometimes that's one.
Whenever it was, I'd feed mystarter, leave it on the counter
, go to bed.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Okay.
So when you feed it, were youweighing anything, or was this
like eyeball?
Nope, nope.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Just till it's a good pasty consistency and call it
good.
I still don't, for whateverreason.
I'll measure everything else bygrams.
I will not measure feeding.
My starter Can't be bothered.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Do you, do you have any tips for like the sheer
level of sticky than crazy hard.
You know that the starter gets.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yeah, I prefer it to be a little bit on the like
wetter side, just cause it'seasier to work with Um.
So it's roughly one-to-one byvolume flour and water Um.
But, however, I've startedmaking it a little thicker, um,
but not not much.
I don't really want to have tolike work at it, like just feed
it, make it easy, and I onlykeep.
I keep a very small amount ofstarter in my fridge.
(09:12):
Okay, pull that out, you know,sometime midday, whenever I
think about it, feed it and thenI'll use it back down to.
So I don't have a discard.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I don't ever discard.
You never do a discard.
Okay, so you just eat it.
How?
Speaker 2 (09:24):
much I need it.
Use it to make bread, put itback in the fridge.
Nice, okay, so that keeps itagain really easy.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I don't understand why people do a bunch of discard
things.
That seems stressful to me.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Well, because I'll pour some out.
But then what happens on myjars?
It gets all like so so crustyyeah and so then I'm like okay,
fresh jar, but then that old jarI have this hesitancy to throw
away sure, and you're like thenit's sitting there soaking for
days, yeah I'm trying to getavoiding, avoiding, avoiding
yeah um, so I think yeah, youcan very much.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Keeping it in the fridge makes it really easy to
have a low maintenance starterthat you only feed when you need
it and then you're not wastingflour or time or you're not
worried about it dying on thecounter if you don't pay
attention to it.
So that works out well.
Feed it before I go to bed,Wake up at that point in time
between probably 4 and 5, andmix.
When I first started I justmixed everything together.
(10:19):
Now I hold out salt and add itin later when I first started, I
just mixed everything together.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Now.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
I hold out salt and add it in later.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Oh really, but mix it all together.
What's the reason for holdingthe salt now?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Holding out salt is a process called auto-leasing, so
it allows the flour to fullyabsorb the water and the longer
you auto-lease, the more basegluten structure you're going to
get Okay, which actually allowsyou to pay less attention to it
, do less folds and still have apretty nice texture on your
bread.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
So at what step do you add the salt when you do it
that way?
Speaker 2 (10:46):
So I just I mix flour , water, starter until it's kind
of just like a shaggy dough.
Ignore it for half an hour, anhour, go back, add the salt a
little bit of water, sploosh itin.
Yeah, and then I'll start folds.
To this day my bread's lucky ifit gets three folds like I
don't pay that much attention toit.
Um, if I'm doing a big batch, Iyou know I'll pay more
(11:08):
attention, because I it's 50pounds of dough that I don't
want to throw out the window,yeah um, but if I'm just baking
for myself, it doesn't get a tonof attention and that's, it's
fine.
Um, mix it together in themorning again, like if that's
first thing when I get up readmy Bible, eat breakfast,
whatever.
Give it a fold.
Get ready, pack up my bag.
Give it a fold.
(11:29):
Leave the house.
It's on the counter, it doesn't, doesn't come with me, it just
hangs out there and by the timeI come home in the evening,
shape it it, stick it in thefridge.
Uh, if things go according toplan.
You put your shaped loaves inthe fridge.
Yes, yeah, yeah, and that'sexcellent for a lot of reasons.
One uh, it scores a lot easierout of the fridge when the
(11:49):
dough's cold.
Two if you end up not beingable to bake it in time, you can
just leave it in there.
I've left loaves in the fridgefor two or three days and it
changes a little bit but likeit's still totally edible and
you get some really good flavorafter fermenting that long,
Shape them, put them in thefridge Again.
if I'm on top of it the nextmorning, they get baked.
If not, the next time I get achance they get baked, and you
(12:11):
know, it's prettystraightforward.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
So you've well no, but that's really great though,
because you are making it crazyflexible Like I've never
refrigerated the loaf?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
I don't think.
And that's super fun and youcan like, even if you don't have
time to shape them.
Stick just your bulk dough inthe fridge.
Like it's only going to getbetter the more time you give it
.
So I actually put a pretty lowpercentage of starter in my
dough so that I can be gone for12 hours and it hasn't
overproved by the time I gethome.
Gotcha, and that like long,slow fermentation process.
(12:44):
I find both convenient becauseit's flexible, but also actually
provides more flavor than if Iput more starter in.
it rose really fast and I didn'thave like the time for it to
really develop that complexity.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
No, that makes.
That makes a lot of sense.
It really does.
So when you have figured thisstructure out I assume
originally it was just kind oflike this has to work.
This is when I'm available, butnow do you measure everything?
Have you written this down?
Is this something that yourepeat, or is it always just by
your gut?
Speaker 2 (13:10):
No, I definitely have it down to a science at this
point, but I liked startingwithout measurements because it
allowed me to get an intuitivesense of what was going on and
not just like this is whatsomebody told me to do, so I'm
doing it.
It was like oh well, when Ichange this factor, this changes
.
So I'm actually developing amental concept of holding out
(13:33):
the salt is having this effect,or doing this many folds, is
having this effect?
Or doing this much water versusthis much water is having this
effect, like seeing thecorrelation of why change
different elements, and then Ican decide what do I want?
How do I work back to whatelements I pay attention to?
So I'm working out of like a 75to 78% hydration at this point.
So a thousand grams of flour,750 to 780 grams of water, 15%
(13:58):
starter, 4% salt Also.
Actually, a higher saltpercentage is going to slow your
fermentation as well, which isokay, also good for flavor,
right, um, and that's likepretty standard.
I've messed around withdifferent have you ever salted?
Speaker 1 (14:11):
have you had an over salted loaf?
Um, I don't think I've had thathappen.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
You haven't had that no, I, I mean, I also have a
really salty palate.
So I've ever been like, well,that's too much for me, yeah,
and you can mess with differentflours, you can mess with all
sorts of different things.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
When you started, what were you using for your
flour?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Winko flour?
Yeah, both bins.
Yeah, yeah, you really can usewhatever's available to you.
And what about feeding yourstarter too?
Same thing.
Yeah, at this point I get flourfrom the restaurant supply
store.
That's a little bit nicer.
But whatever you have on handand sometimes I find if my
starter is like kind of unhappy,feed it a little bit of whole
(14:51):
wheat, something that has alittle bit more like grist to it
, to try and help, you knowencourage the flora, get the
colonies, yeah, whatever Give itsomething to work with, but
yeah, kind of whatever's on hand.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
That's great.
I like that too, because itmakes it again easier to start
Part of it.
You know it's like if you don'thave space for a million
different kinds of flowers youjust don't have space.
Yep, yeah, so that's pretty fun, although it is really fun to
experiment with the flowers too,because I use a high, high
gluten um shepherd's grain, yep,frequently that's usually what
I got at home right now yes, mygo-to, which is pretty fun, um,
(15:26):
but if you don't have it, youdon't have it.
So tell us a little bit abouthow the moscow bread box started
to take shape.
You had people asking if youcould buy it.
So then what was your next step?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
let's see.
I think first step wasdeliveries.
Um, I started doing I think Iprobably posted on Kirk or
Ladies, I can't remember at thispoint you know Saturday morning
doorstep delivery for bread andI started doing bagels and
English muffins and it was justdifferent days of the week, so
it's during the summer I had thetime to do this Different days
(16:02):
of the week, deliveries fordifferent types of things and
then started to try toconsolidate to just like a
weekend bake it all out anddeliver.
There's a couple differentiterations there.
And then a friend and I decidedto get a booth together at the
Troy Farmer's Market, which issuch a lovely little market.
It's so small and one cheap,like it made it really, you know
(16:23):
, achievable.
I could go paid 10 bucks andhave a booth there and not be
worried that if I didn't sellsomething I was like up a creek
without a bottle um, but also,you know, the regular customers
know me, I got to know theregular customers what they
liked.
That was really fun.
Um, so we sold there and Istopped doing deliveries because
that was like conflicting onSaturdays and it was.
(16:44):
Yeah, I was planning to pickback up with deliveries once
market was over and then healthdid not permit.
So, as I'm kind of reopeningand bringing Moscow Breadbox
back to life, I'm hoping to leanmore into like a weekly pickup.
I'm hoping to lean more intolike a weekly pickup.
(17:05):
Okay.
Or so like right now, wing overfarm, is where, like every
Friday, you can find there'sgoing to be bread available
there, and that saves me a bitof the hassle of having to deal
with deliveries and like all ofthe particularities of
individual orders, so just, sowing over farms and where's
their stand located?
Let's see, they're nine, 11mountain View.
I believe so.
Just up past the water park onthe left, beautiful, beautiful
(17:29):
spot, great people Highlyrecommend it out there.
It's really cute and that'sbeen fun.
I've only been there for abouta month, but I think that's it.
People sold me out in like acouple hours.
Last week it's gotten fasterand faster.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
How many loads are like a couple hours.
Last week it's gotten fasterand faster, so how many loaves
are you stocking there every?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
week?
Oh, not much.
I started small just to kind ofsee.
I don't know the foot trafficthrough here.
So I think the first week I hadlike four loaves and it took
the weekend, and last week I hadlike six loaves and two
focaccia and it sold out in acouple hours.
So the hope is to right now inthe midst of school and still
not having my own oven, we'llsee how much I can scale up.
But, once I graduate and I havemy own baking set up, I'll
(18:04):
hopefully be able to scale upthere and I think I might add
Wednesdays there as well,because that's their CSA pickup
day.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
And is it something where people can just put cash
in or pay via.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yeah, there's Venmo and a cash box and you pay that
all directly to Wing Over andthen I sort it out with Jenny.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
But that's a cash box and you pay that all directly
to wing over.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
And then I sorted out with nice, with Jenny, yeah, um
, but that's great, and I'll beat the spring fair this weekend
yeah, depending on when thisdrops.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
I know 27th.
We're putting this one in lastminute.
We'll see if we can get it todrop before this.
But if it does drop before this, tell us what the times are for
the spring fair this weekend.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Spring fair fair is 11 to 2 30 at the fairgrounds
this saturday, the 27th.
Okay, um, I think the springfair is usually smaller, which
means you probably have a betterbet of getting something,
because I sold out in like anhour and a half at the Christmas
fair, oh no, okay.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
So it's 11 o'clock, you got to be there.
What are you planning onselling?
I'll have regular loaves.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
I'll have regular focaccia, I'll have caramelized
onion and pesto focaccia.
That sounds really good, andthen the ones I'm most excited
about.
I'm making two different kindsof danishes, so I'm going to do
a cream cheese apricot danishand a marzipan raspberry danish.
Those sound good.
So all sourdough yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
I'm very excited about it.
Get your cup of coffee, getyour danish.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
And then continue to shop and you have a little walk
around.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Yeah, it.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I feel like they're all just fun.
That's a good problem.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
I like like I've never.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
I've made probably I don't know upwards of 1,500
loaves at this point and I justdon't get tired of it, like I
really enjoy.
Every time I take the lid offthe Dutch oven it's like ooh,
look at that, it's so fun.
But that's I mean pretty muchin terms of process.
That's pretty rote at thispoint.
I just started figuring outdanishes for the fair.
It was like a thing I wanted tolearn and that was super fun
(19:53):
and super rewarding.
I enjoyed that.
I mean, they're all fun intheir own ways.
I'd say one of my favoritethings to eat is bagels
sourdough bagels but they're ahuge pain to make.
I don't really make them thatoften anymore, but those are.
They're all fun in their ownways and I've got several things
on the list of like okay,baguettes are coming up, like I
got to learn.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
baguettes, I got to learn sourdough croissants.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
We're going to learn.
Like you know, I've got thingson the to-do list that I'm
hoping.
I have a lot, of, a lot offaith in how much time I will
have after.
I graduate but things I'mhoping to learn, you know, come
summer come the next phase.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
So Moscow Bread Box will be continuing this summer.
Are you going to be at the TroyMarket again?
I will be.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah, so at least once a month is what I've set up
for for now.
I might add other markets.
I have a wedding lined up andI'm hoping to kind of ask around
about events.
You know would be happy to bakefor private events, that sort
of thing.
That's not really somethingI've like advertised about yet,
just because I feel souncomfortable marketing myself,
(20:55):
but hoping to leave some spaceopen for that over the summer.
So I'll post you know where I'mat on social media.
If anybody follows along, youcan see what weeks I'm at the
market and when I'm not, andthat sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
And how to contact you.
So what is the social mediahandle for you?
Speaker 2 (21:11):
I'm most active on Instagram, which is Moscow Bread
Box.
I'm also on Facebook, but it'smore just the automatic post to
Facebook from Instagram.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
So if they want to get in touch with you, is it
best to DM you on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Instagram's great yeah, and I have an email as
well, but that's really, youknow, seems kind of formal, I
know.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Instagram's pretty easy to get out there.
Okay, tell us where the namecame from.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
This is actually kind of funny Part of the story.
I was baking and, you know,selling to friends at this point
, so this was spring of 2022, Ithink and went to dinner at a
friend's house and there wasanother gal there who I kind of
knew, mallory Struble, you know.
We were acquaintances and justgot to chatting and I was like,
(21:57):
oh, you know, like someday it'dbe so cool to actually sell
bread for real, like go to thefarmer's market.
And she was like we should dothe tri-farmer's market.
And I was like we can just dothat.
I don't know, that seems kind ofscary.
And she was like no, we shouldjust do it, like I'll bake some
stuff, you bake some stuff, andwe'll go to the farm.
It's small, Like it's literally.
(22:17):
It's so chill, it'll be so fun.
And so this person that we likebarely knew we hit it off, we
started chatting, we decided tosign up for the farmer's with
the name and we baked there thatsummer and then she got married
and you know, kind of on to herown adventures and I kept the
(22:39):
name so perfect.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
yeah, that is sad.
To mallory's dribble, yes,which is pretty great, and you
kind of, I guess.
Oh, yes, she's married, but itis pretty great when you have
some of that again, that barrierto entry, some of those things
that just remove the elements ofwell, why not?
Yeah, just go ahead and do it.
Yeah, yeah, just try it.
Figure it out, yeah, yeah.
Well, that's really really fun.
Okay, let's, as we wind down,any final thoughts about it.
I mean, we could go into deepinto the process of
(23:01):
understanding what the folds do,and all of that too, but is
there anything about sourdoughspecifically that you wanted to
share?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
I don't know I I enjoy bread so much because it's
so tangible.
I think is something I keepcoming back to when I'm thinking
about okay, why am I doing this?
Why am I trying to start abusiness?
Why am I trying to?
You know, what am I doing withthis?
Um, it's a really tangibleoutworking, especially coming
out of college, coming out ofacademia, and like so much time
(23:32):
in your head You're like, okay,what do I actually do that can
actually love people, blesspeople and provide hospitality
to people.
And that's like really been thedriving force of why I like to
bake in the first place Like itmakes people happy and I love
that.
Like I love being able to feedpeople and hoping that as I
expand a business out of it,that provides means for other
(23:52):
people to bless other people youknow, around their own tables
and that you know, if I end upteaching classes, if I end up
writing something I don't know,like that makes it available,
like wanting to make thatavailable.
Yeah, both the kind ofgratification of really hands-on
, meaningful, rewarding work andthe joy that that brings to the
people around them.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Well, I love it and it's true, like getting a loaf
of sourdough and just kind ofripping into it is delicious,
hard to beat.
It's really hard to beat.
You don't need butter, youdon't need anything, it's just
stinking good.
But well, that's really great.
So, meg, thanks so much andhopefully we get this out in
time.
But then come see her Saturday.
Come say hi At 11 o'clock atthe fairgrounds, yeah, and we'll
(24:36):
make sure and post yourInstagram handle and all of that
in the comments too.
But thanks so much for coming.
Thanks for joining us.
Like, share, subscribe.
We'll see you next week.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!