Bez appeared at another craft fair showcasing the wares of foreign
service staff or their spouses. It was a busy two days and after many appearances
people seem to look forward to our goodies. The amount of baked goods increases
with every show and items continue to sell out, faster each time.
There were the usual goodies such as the brownies, banana loaf and
cranberry loaf. The coordinator and I were both shocked when all 20 (yes,
twenty!) loaves sold out by 10am. Unbelievable! People were also very hungry
for the black current and white chocolate scones and raspberry almond cake that
made another appearance after Handmade Harvest. DFAIT employees didn’t just
want these to accompany their morning coffee, but for their breakfast too.
Wednesday night was a busy one with more baking for day two. Scones and
a maple walnut tart went into the oven. Without any overripe bananas in the
central west-end, lemon poppyseed was the prime loaf. Something with blueberry
was in mind and thanks to the suggestion of a DFAIT customer, the blueberry
orange loaves were very popular. Who would have thought? Again, both sold very
quickly.
Another experiment was a bacon maple scone. They didn’t go as fast as
the black current, but the ‘regular’ resident celiacs gave them a try and
willingly gave their feedback. While delicious, they needed more maple syrup
and of course, more bacon (noted). Bacon is one of the latest things in baking
and I’m sure these little ones won’t disappear, but they need some more
tweaking.
It was wonderful to see people return later in the day and the
following day; repeat customers are satisfied customers. It was humbling to hear
people say they were happy I was there again. It made me smile from ear to ear
when someone’s colleague said ‘Oh, so-and-so had that and they loved it. I’d
like one too’. And of course, there was a sense of appreciation from both celiacs
and myself when they said ‘I can have something with my coffee today! Yea!’.
Plans are being made for their next show (already!) in December.
