The Early Bird

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! When most people grudgingly roll over at 8:30 a.m. to turn off their alarms, I have already been up and about for hours. It is a common misconception that the early bird gets the worm. In actuality, the early bird makes the bread.

Hi, my name is Erin Smith and I work in the Terrier Bakery as a member of the bread team. Even though I have only been baking bread for about five months, baking has become a normal, and even pleasurable, part of my weekly routine. Baking bread does, however, start to take control of your life. I doubt that it is normal for teenage girls to excitedly leave a party because their poolish is ready to be made into dough. I don’t mind that taking both of Ella Kirk’s classes, “The Art of Making Dough” and “The Transformation of Dough into Sweet Success”, has driven me a little bread crazy. There is something special about being alone in the kitchen, elbow deep in bread dough, kneading and shaping a mound of pale white nothing into the day’s delicious baked goods all before the rest of Hiram is stirring. I always feel a warm wave of accomplishment run through me when I leave the bakery knowing that I have gotten a lot of work done when my day has just begun.