Free Bread is overjoyed to announce its affiliation with Sarah Black, one of New York City’s finest bakers.  Sarah has joined the company as an advisor, collaborator, and production manager.  Her expertise is limitless, her participation vital to the growth of our current and future product line.

Sarah’s bread baking resume is vast and impressive.  She was a founding baker at Tom Cat Bakery, arguably New York City’s largest artisanal bread manufacturer.  She founded her own wholesale bread company, Companio Breads, which sold in 1999.  She’s baked thousands of loaves, baguettes, rolls and bagels for some of NYC’s largest grocers, and now she’s committed to baking with us.

We are so lucky to work with Sarah-  learning and growing with her at the helm every day.  Great things are happening, and as long as she’s around there’s nothing we can’t accomplish!  Thanks Sarah!  We’re honored in every way.

We are so delighted to have been featured not only in Good Food Jobs‘ widely distributed newsletter, but on their incredible blog.

Good Food Jobs, their blog and their newsletter are read by millions of people looking for work, looking for help or looking for what’s new and interesting in the food industry.  This plug is a big one for us, one that we don’t take lightly by any stretch.  We share the energy the kind folks at GFJ have for food, and thank them for their generosity, support and excellent writing!

SO, if THIS wasn’t enough for you, please scroll down a lil further for the interview.  Gives you a few tidbits about why, how, and when Free Bread started, and all that good stuff.  Thanks so much for reading, y’all!  We love you!

Hello all!

To those of you who know about Free Bread, Hi! Thanks for revisiting us.
Those who of you who don’t, thanks for poppin in!

Free Bread has some incredibly wonderful things going on right now.  Most importantly, this:

Out of several thousand companies, Daily Candy chose Free Bread as a finalist for Most Innovative New Company in their Start Small, Go Big Competition. This is the kind of stuff entrepreneurs’ dreams are made of, the kinds of stuff that could help launch Free Bread into atmospheres that we never knew existed.

So let’s back up a bit.  Free Bread started production in January 2012 and in the past eight months, we’ve landed some really terrific accounts, great press, incredible connections and just a whole lot of great buzz.    That’s all fine and good, but what’s lies beneath all that are our wonderful products, our wonderful, kind people, and our values.

Free Bread is a values-based business, giving back whenever and wherever we can when we have the means.  Just this week we delivered 8 dozen of our certified GF bread rolls to the Block Institute.  We hire from Opportunities for A Better Tomorrow.   Relationships like these have been a priority since the beginning and as we grow, so will our commitment to many different communities.

So seriously folks, please stay tuned.  There are many things that I left out of this post– it wasn’t easy to do cuz it’s pretty good stuff.  Announcements are coming, super good announcements, but for now, please vote once a day.

Please note, voting requires that you choose one company from each category and enter your email address, but you may opt out of the newsletter.  Thanks a mil mamis and papis.  We are so grateful for your time, support and appreciation.

Sincere thanks,  Karen.

Good day, you!

Hope you’re splendid.

Things are absolutely nuts over here in Free Bread Land.  We have two outrageously exciting announcements to make, probably a week from today.  We will do it here, but for now we need your help.

Free Bread is ramping up production to get your delicious Gluten Free Bread to a store near you.  To do this we need to hire bakers, drivers and all that good stuff.

If you wouldn’t mind taking just a few minutes out of your day to help us win this hiring grant, we’d be so, so grateful.

Here’s the link.  The contest is run by software giant Intuit (oh, you know, those quickbooks people) and those 5 Gees will go a very very very long way.

Do it!

Click HERE now!  If Free Bread doesn’t come up automatically, type in Free Bread Inc and our location is Brooklyn, NY.

Thank you.  love.

Whew!  That was a lot.

So’s Free Bread, Inc. has been Googa Mooga-ing it for the better part of the past month– planning, baking, selling, and marketing our delicious gluten-free rolls to the 75,000 some- odd folks who were a part of this gigoogmous event.

It was incredible.  We SOLD OUT of all four varieties of our bread rolls BOTH days, with many a customer coming back for seconds and thirds.

I am coconuts for all you generous people who came out and bought our offerings and can’t wait to see where this takes our lil company.

Next steps include, but are not limited to:

1.  Getting our breads into fine dining establishments in New York City.
I WANT TO BE OFFERED ALONGSIDE THE BREAD BASKET GOD DAMMIT

2.  Getting sold at the Park Slope Food Co-Op.

3. Perfecting my vegan option.

4.  Creating more brand awareness so that people STOP ASKING WHY I’M CHARGING MONEY FOR THE FREAKIN BREAD.

love you n special sauce!

xoxo

karen

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I hope you are all enjoying your icky-weather-Sunday as much as I am.  I love days like this– they make me feel like I’m allowed to actually relax a little bit.

This past Friday and Saturday, Free Bread was a proud vendor at Earth Day New York on Vanderbilt Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.  We SOLD OUT of all four varieties of Free Bread to the throngs of characters roaming the avenue between 42nd and 46th streets on these two gorgeous, sun-filled days.

Below is a picture of our setup, complete with our Free Bread Mobile in all her branded glory.

Saturday was also my birthday, and I wanted to mention two things that I enjoyed as a result.  One, my friends at Saucy By Nature gave me a huge portion of their incredible and Gluten-free Quinoa Falafel, and then another huge portion of it to take home and share with my boyfriend, Gabe.  You can try this amazing stuff at Brooklyn Flea & Smorg, and buy their sauces at many fine retailers.

The second thing I wanted to mention is that I saved 5 of my sourdough creamers for myself, and Imma gonna tellya what I did with them becuz HOLY MACBREAKFAST this sh* is good.  First, I sliced these babies to make rounds, like this:

Then, I soaked the rounds in a mixture of whisked eggs, cinnamon and Bailey’s Irish Cream.   I pan fried the rounds for two minutes on each side, topped them with real maple syrup, and I swear to the heavens above I have not enjoyed a breakfast so much in 5 years.

Please, do yourself a favor.  Order some sourdough creamers, eat 1 or 2 fresh, then save the rest for a breakfast like this.

luv n buns

Karen

Good weekend, ladies and gents!

I am stuck at home with the flu, so thought I’d take a minute to give a short update.

Yesterday I had the pleasure to speak with about 40 young adults who have been accepted to participate a magnificent program called Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow.

I have decided that I need some help at the kitchen and in other aspects of my business, and I hope to find that help here.  

I’ve spoken about the many resources available to companies that are starting out, and here is one that really needs to be spread around.  

Stolen from their website:  The mission of OBT is to help disadvantaged youth and adults recognize their own self-worth, and advance towards self-sufficiency and financial security through job training, academic reinforcement, improved life skills, job placement, and support services.

Free Bread, Inc. is going to hire some interns, men and women who are looking for a second chance, and hopefully I’ll have enough cash to keep them around for paid work by the time their internship is up.  My thinking is this:  What I’m doing: baking, delivering, marketing, research, etc., is something that ANYONE can do (with just a little bit of training).  

This crazy food business world is most likely one that these men and women would never be introduced to.  Maybe they’ll have no interest in it.  If so, that’s great.  Strike it off their list.  

But if they do have interest, that can potentially lead to passion.  And passion gets people anywhere they want to go, right?  

So starting April 16th, I’ll have two interns at Free Bread, Inc.  And I can’t wait to see what they can do.

Signing off,

Karen

Today I found myself happily shopping for pipe n cable with the best plumber in town. His name is Rodger, he’s from Jamaica and I met him about about 3pm today on Craigslist. It’s just so odd where you find yourself sometimes. And with whom. In any event If you ever need a great plumber, give me a holler and I will give you his diggies. Btw I’m not misspelling didgies, I am saying I’ll give you his diggies.

A few weeks back I went shopping at the New York City Auto Auction in the Navy Yard near my apartment in South Williamsburg. I know that I introduced you to the lemon I bought there in an earlier post. I briefly mentioned some new friends that I made in the silly car world (the car is known to this world as many things: first, the Interceptor, however when googled, better results come up using go4 Interceptor or Meter Maid Police Cars or if you’re looking to join a list serve, go to sillycars.com. Now go and google, my friends! ) I was lucky enough to meet Edwin Rodriguez, a former NYPD who told me that I was doing myself a great disservice buying the piece of junk, and that he had plenty of ‘scooters’ (as they’re known in the police world) that actually work and to give him a call. Well I bought it anyway, begged my boyfriend to push it 10 blocks up Kent Avenue (the car had no brakes), and when he reached the big hill on Division Street he realized that he would need to push the go4 with his beautiful ’87 BMW. So into the lemon I went, steering while The BMW pushed us uphill with Gabe at the wheel. It was a sight to behold, ladies and gentlemen. So there she sat, on our street, for two long weeks while I stubbornly searched for parts. I finally called Edwin, who asked me what took so long, and convinced him to flatbed the scooter back to his house in the Bronx, so that he may delight in refurbishing it with his qualified mechanic. I, in turn, would buy one of his many scooters as a trade-in. So here is what I bought.

I can’t wait to get this thing on the road! Just waiting for the title, then we’ll get her registered and dress here up with some Free Bread Logos. More later.
Have a great weekend!

This just in.

Free Bread, Inc. has told their ‘sales team’ (I have told myself) to stop finding new retailers until our new labels are where we want ‘em and our special sauce is exactamundo.

What this means is that I’m waiting on several things to happen before you can find us anywhere other than Urban Rustic, Khim’s & Bagelsmith (all in the WBBK)

1.  GFCO Certification.  Should be done by late March.

2.  New Website Launched. Should be done by late March.

3.  New Labels with Nutrition info, Variety info and more are printed.  Should be done by late March.

4.  The Free Bread Mobile is running & ready to deliver.  Should be done by late March.

So in the meantime, I’ve made some changes to the ingredients.  I got the soy outta there.  I took out most of the egg.  I swapped the cheese for Chalov Yisroel so my Hassidic neighbors can eat my bread.  There’s more to come, and I can’t wait to tell you about it.

Love!

Good afternoon lovelies.

So it’s been an action-packed couple of weeks.  Lots of good things, a good share of bad.  Let’s begin with the beguine:

1.  I bought a po-po scooter go cart thingy for $500.00 at the police auction.  My boyfriend had to push it 10 blocks up the street.   I bought some new parts and it still don’t work.  The po po scooter go cart thingy is a piece of junk and a headache and I will definitely lose almost $1000.00 on it.  But I did make some new friends in the po-po scooter go cart thingy world.  I guess there are a lot of other nutsos who like these things.  

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2.  I got an order for 1600 breadrolls and baked them all myself in 72 non-stop hours.  It was hell.  But I did it and will be getting paid!  Finally!  Money!

3.  Several new accounts are in the pipeline.  I’m at Urban Rustic, Khim’s on Driggs and Bagelsmith Lorimer (all in Williamsburg, BK). I’m waiting for my new nutrition and variety labels before I go any further, see #4.

4.  Getting Gluten Free and Chalov Yisroel Certification.  These are official certificates and the designations will be on the labels.  Labels will make the breads more visible, more informative, and more appealing to the people!

5.  Didn’t make the finals for Next Big Small Brand Competition.  Mayj bummer, but I really think it’s for the best.  Contest is run by a design agency and my designer, Monica Vansaghi at Cannonball Agency, is bloody amazing and no design agency could possibly come close to the wonderful meatballs that she provides.

6.  Website is on its way.  Working working working.

7.  Love you readers so so so so so so much.
Thank you for your support and time!

PS
If anyone knows someone who wants a beat-up, non functioning po po scooter go cart thingy, I’m selling this hot mess on ebay.