Mise-en-place. It’s French for put in place. And it’s the Golden Rule for running a restaurant. It defines when things happen, how they happen, and precisely where. At 4 am Saturday morning, I turn on the proofing ovens. At 4:01 I lay the croissants out on trays. At 4:07 I put water on to boil. […]
Easy as a Ketchup Sandwich: Episode 11
We bought our first bottle of ketchup when we entertained guests shortly after our wedding in 2000. The second and third bottles our household has ever owned were consumed & discarded in the last two weeks. I blame the vegan sleeping in our guest bedroom. Corey (dubbed “The Kid” by the cafe customers), slips by […]
The Full Stop: Episode 10
Failure to come to a full stop. That was the reason Saoirse failed her drivers’ test last Thursday. I’ve never seen her fail to stop. She’s a stickler for rules, refusing to put the car in gear until everyone’s buckled in, lecturing her Dad about his various infractions, scrupulously adhering to every speed limit, and, […]
Managing Expectations
The scrambles can all go together in one pan. The sunny sides need to cook separately. I have enough space on the cooktop to manage three orders of home fries; sausage and pancakes on the griddle. That leaves one order of over-medium, two over-easies, the oatmeal, and three more orders of home fries plus the […]
Brain Drain
I wonder if they have fireflies in Ireland. Supper’s long finished, and I’ve slipped out to the screen porch to catch a glimpse of the display. From the kitchen sink Bob bemoans that the Kyrgyz exchange students who flew back home two days’ prior missed the show. Erin Lavigne is missing it, too. Erin’s […]
An Inconvenient Soup
He taps his credit card on the counter as he scans over the charges on the screen I’ve presented him. He gives a little nod at each price. Then I see him look down at the pint of split pea soup in his hand and furrow his brow before looking back at the screen. The […]
Endless Growth
If you’re not growing, you’re dying. This aphorism has annoyed me since I heard it in my first farm business management class twenty-two years ago at Cornell. I heard it repeatedly in my entrepreneurship and human resource management classes, and again in the farm transition and business planning classes I took before we opened the […]
Enterprising Missionaries, Introverted Farmers
We saw the Book of Mormon at Proctors Theater in Schenectady this past weekend. It brought back lots of memories, and I just had to re-run this post in tribute…. When a couple of Mormon missionaries were going door to door, they didn’t expect to confront an angry famer with a shovel. But when they […]
Market Family
Never be late. It’s dangerous and costly. Don’t drive fast on the way down. There are speed traps on Route 30. Learn how to grill steaks, pork chops and lamb chops in three steps. Memorize this process. I’ve got 18 items on the list so far. When I step away from the computer, Bob takes […]
Poison
“He went through my bag,” Vivian tells me. “Right there. In the store.” She’s perched at the cafe counter. She’s just coming up from the city, and she’s pulled in to the cafe before she even goes to her house. Bob makes her a burger while we sip tea. This is the first day […]
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