I had no idea that my adventures in baking were about to end and with them my passion.
Leaving our slowest market Glenreagh became a mutual opinion between us and the market itself. Yet another location that soured over time and one that ultimately only regret not leaving sooner as most of our time there was spent playing Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros. 3 on our Gameboy Advance. The earlier years there were better for us back when we were near the center of the hall and I recall wearing a shirt and tie and nice shoes. One of the lessons I learnt there was you have to watch what you do at every moment because you are being judged in public and at fourteen I was once criticized for wiping the dust off my dress shoes. Because it was unhygienic to handle packaged food after touching your shoes. It truly made a ruckus throughout the entire hall but not as big as the rice cake incident. We had our tables pressed up at a distant corner of the hall. Wanting a snack I opened the bag of rice cakes we brought along. Unfortunately the plastic was a little too tough to tear and the bag exploded. Picture this. I'm behind my table of baking and rice cakes went flying in all directions like a landmine had gone off. Pieces landing everywhere in the walkway, near other vendor tables, I'm standing there stunned holding an empty bag.
When we left Glenreagh a few of us unhappy decided to team up to create a new Farmers' Market in the Town of Barrhead. It started as the Monday Country Farmers' Market at the Barrhead Seniors Center. Understandably there was some outrage over the making and having a third market by both Glenreagh Farmers' Market (Thursday) and the Barrhead Farmers's Market (Saturday) that "Bob" managed but we were approved and we were permitted to host Mondays.
Now back in February 17/2010 Pascha was told she was highly allergic to Gluten. She would gain weight if she were on a bread and water diet so the very next day, Feb. 18/10 she went gluten free when we were in Whitecourt and felt better than she had felt in years. It was like nothing could stop my mom. That was until...
My Mom ended up bedridden and could barely walk and painkillers struggled to work. We brought her bed into the living room and dragged my mattress to the foot of her bead so I could help her at all hours of the night. This was a four and a half month nightmare.
While my Mom was bedridden the Monday Country Farmers' Market was instated but did not last long. Instead of letting it go so I could take care of my Mom it ended up being recreated as the Thursday Barrhead Farmers' Market located in the middle banquet room in the Barrhead Neighborhood Inn. My Grandmother was Secretary and I became the Manager of our small weekly sale. (And we had a wonderful treasurer.) At the time I held the record as the youngest person in Alberta, maybe Canada, to become a Farmers' Market Manager. I don't know, maybe I still hold the record.
Becoming the head baker and Manager I was not only bound to this market week after week but I was also expected to be there every single week with fresh baking. We also sold Pascha's handmade cards. So we would also bring along the card stands and her greeting cards and set that display as well.
If you look at these two pictures below there is far less baking made and there are a couple reasons for that.
1) I was on my own. The default was I would make the dough/batter/etc. and Pascha would pan and bake it. My mom could no longer help and this is everything I could do on my own in a single day.
2) I did not need to make nearly as much because it ultimately was a "dead" market with very little foot traffic. (For anyone that reads this that was at Thursday Farmers' Market or popping in I would like to thank you for your support.)
(The second picture was taken with my flip phone camera. That's why the poor resolution.)
Week after week I would be baking all Wednesday long into the night and typically into the morning trying to get all the baking set up for the day. We would leave Mom as comfortable as possible at home before we would leave to set up not only our table but the market itself.
We had a heavy sandwich board set up at the back parking lot. (The same sandwich board we use today as some outdoor markets. A stand near the lobby entrance, it was promoted at the hotel sign outside, the old Barrhead Co-op text scrolling sign, and a drive by street promotional sign at the north end of Barrhead. On top of that, time after time I walked up and down main street handing out flyers to anyone that might not know about the market during market hours and I would put posters up on every billboard and store window that would be willing to put one up. Sometimes the posters would have to be attached to the town billboards week after week because opposition would rip them out. Clearly not everyone in my home town encourages all the effort I put into this event.
I gave this Farmers' Market 100% of my effort.And my Mom being at home set up a Facebook group where we would put up announcements of who would be at the market for the week. Some things that we had at the market: Avon, Fresh Baking, Greeting Cards, B.A.R.S (Barrhead Animal Rescue Society) , Barrhead Food Bank Donation Center, Living Books, Gold Canyon, Any Water, Honey, Leather Work. Watkins, Scentsy, and Knitted Slippers, Chocolate, Signature Homestyles, and Creative Memories.
I even recall my Cousin joining in and being a vendor for a short while as well as Ace Hardware. I recall wishing I had the funds to be able to support all the vendors that came to the market. One thing I remember from that time is that I ended up losing weight and having to purchase a belt at the market. To this day I still wear it with my Micro Tallit.
A lot of memories are foggy as it was a 4 month blur of baking, taking care of my mom, some writing, and taking care of the market duties.
One of those duties to become a Farmers' Market Manager was that you needed a Food Safety Permit. Something you didn't need back then as being vendor was enough to be part of the Farmers' Market Association Umbrella and it used to mean something. A second thing that was unneeded was a certified kitchen. (Something that we had although the certification had expired as it was dedicated to the Chocolates years before.)
I spent hours studying for this test because it was the only thing holding me back from becoming a legitimate manager. I ultimately passed in on my first try. I believe it was somewhere in the 90s. two points higher than my Grandmother and a point lower than our vice-president.
These were extremely difficult months but some fond ones as well.
Stress provoked family arguments were happening throughout the day and trying to be there for Pascha. I tried to be there whether it was helping her get out of bed, or just being a hand to hold through the pain as the painkillers wore off. Thinking back those four and a half months feel like a blur or moments. I would sleep at the foot of my mom's bed as I remember being asleep and she would throw M & M's at me. I would wake up in the morning and have a number of them on my pillow. Her aim good enough she could hit me in the eye. I remember baking for hours and throughout the night for the market. Mom and Granddad would be in the living room watching Adderly around one in the morning. I remember deciding once when I was in the Bakery room that I would blast the music so it could be heard in the Living room. I played as many songs I knew my mom enjoyed to help boost her morale up, which worked.
I remember sitting at my computer and writing a few short stories that are in The Silent Reality. Shortly after mom's surgery I was able to write Trial of Pain. The perspective of being a Caregiver. The most prominent story that comes to mind is Understanding Life Through A Bottle, when I completed it, tears were streaming down my face. I scared my mom who was in bed beside me because not knowing that that poem impacted me that way. I didn't even know it was about Alcoholism until after I wrote the last line. There were a few stories I wrote at that time I remember having to stop and take a nap. This was one of them.
If you are interesting you can purchase this book from the printer here
Some time around 2009 - 2010 I came to the conclusion that A.K. Square Cookie Man was sounding limiting to what we actually do and decided to recreate my brand into Bakerboy before quickly changing it into Barrhead Bakerboy when I heard Bakerboy was a deejay at the new Hot 107 radio station. Something that was also disappointing was this was the year that my favorite radio station 104.9 EZ Rock ended in Edmonton being replaced with other new station,102.3 NOW! Radio.
One of my fondest memories baking is also my fondest memory at the Farmers' Market.
Probably between 3am and 5am if my Grandmother would allow it, I would dry dishes alone and after the market was over, the vendors would pack up and leave, I would be responsible for putting the tables and chairs back to wherever the hotel wanted them. On both instances I would play LIGHTS's album The Listening. More prominently I would play Quiet, The Listening, and both versions of Pretend. Whether it was drying a sink full of dishes or standing in an empty hall with only my CD player running I would feel this momentary peace in the moment. Not like everything was right in my life but more like a deep breath where I could have a few moments to look around and just take in the peacefulness. It's really a feeling I've never really had before or after. I do want to say If I ever had the chance to meet LIGHTS I would want to thank her for this album as I think it really helped me from completely breaking.
Another highlight I want to share is that I remember a person stepping into our market and purchasing a large amount of baking from our table. For me at that time, I would do all the math in my head. A method I used was repeating the temporary sum numbers as I would add various prices together. At one point in my count one of the other vendors came over with a calculator. Not only did the math in my mind match the calculator total but I came up with the total before they finished their calculation. Back in the day I was really good with math. An unfortunate consequence of falling out of markets for years, I lost most of my calculation abilities refined from many markets over the span of many years.
I believe there were only two times in that year my Mom was actually able to make it and see what we were able to establish in Barrhead. She came only for a few minutes and took a look at what we had before having to head home to rest and recover.
I became tired and that burning flame of passion was getting dull but I was able to accomplish the farmers' market season. That brings us to the final year of baking, and the coming divide in my life.
Thank you for your time
Chance Hansen
Keep Smiling!
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