Help fund Walter's bread oven!
Donation protected
Your donation will help me take my cottage bakery Hello Bread to the next level by letting me purchase the Rofco B40, an oven meant for microbakeries, enabling me to make more bread more efficiently!
Baking bread has captivated me since I was a teenager––the combination of simplicity and complexity in the process, the almost otherworldly transformation that occurs, the sense of accomplishment at a successful end result––it all fills me with a powerful feeling of calm and joy.
Starting about three years ago, baking became a big enough part of my life that I couldn't eat all the bread I made (however hard I tried...), so I started giving it away. As I baked bigger batches, I spent more money on flour, and so I started selling the loaves. Luckily for me, my incredibly kind and supportive friends and family indulged me and bought the bread as quickly as I made it. Eventually I created a website (hellobreadaustin.com ) and a mailing list, which currently has over 200 members. (See above, the incredible friends and family.)
My bakes have kept getting bigger and bigger, which has been a joy in every way. The only problem is, I've hit a bit of a wall. My power to scale up has stalled, due, for the most part, to the conventional oven I use. I can currently bake three loaves at a time, which, at 45-50 minutes per batch, means that baking 24 loaves takes around 7 hours.
I'd love to be able to bake much more bread, pastries, pizza, cookies, and experiment more, and expand to farmers markets, and ship more to friends out of town, and so much more. To do this, I will need a new oven. The Rofco B40 is a triple deck oven meant for microbakeries that will boost my batches from three loaves to 9-12 loaves depending on their size. (!!!) What took 7 hours before could take less than 2. This would be a huge boost in my mission to spread the bread-love far and wide!
Any donation of any amount is icing on the cake that is my fortunate, fortunate life. Know that every dollar you give will go straight back out into the world, or more specifically, into the bellies of my loved ones, including you! Thank you <3 <3 <3
(thanks to Caitlin Cash, Andrew Leal, and Marshall Tidrick for photos)
Baking bread has captivated me since I was a teenager––the combination of simplicity and complexity in the process, the almost otherworldly transformation that occurs, the sense of accomplishment at a successful end result––it all fills me with a powerful feeling of calm and joy.
Starting about three years ago, baking became a big enough part of my life that I couldn't eat all the bread I made (however hard I tried...), so I started giving it away. As I baked bigger batches, I spent more money on flour, and so I started selling the loaves. Luckily for me, my incredibly kind and supportive friends and family indulged me and bought the bread as quickly as I made it. Eventually I created a website (hellobreadaustin.com ) and a mailing list, which currently has over 200 members. (See above, the incredible friends and family.)
My bakes have kept getting bigger and bigger, which has been a joy in every way. The only problem is, I've hit a bit of a wall. My power to scale up has stalled, due, for the most part, to the conventional oven I use. I can currently bake three loaves at a time, which, at 45-50 minutes per batch, means that baking 24 loaves takes around 7 hours.
I'd love to be able to bake much more bread, pastries, pizza, cookies, and experiment more, and expand to farmers markets, and ship more to friends out of town, and so much more. To do this, I will need a new oven. The Rofco B40 is a triple deck oven meant for microbakeries that will boost my batches from three loaves to 9-12 loaves depending on their size. (!!!) What took 7 hours before could take less than 2. This would be a huge boost in my mission to spread the bread-love far and wide!
Any donation of any amount is icing on the cake that is my fortunate, fortunate life. Know that every dollar you give will go straight back out into the world, or more specifically, into the bellies of my loved ones, including you! Thank you <3 <3 <3
(thanks to Caitlin Cash, Andrew Leal, and Marshall Tidrick for photos)
Organizer and beneficiary
Walter Nichols
Organizer
Austin, TX
Caitlin Cash
Beneficiary