Farm Bakery Is A Family Affair

Farm Bakery Is A Family Affair FARM HOME Food Known in the area as the bread lady Tenito Smith of Bowling Green Ky has a booming business selling her baking at a local Farmers Market as well as from her front yard not to mention catering and supplying a nearby restaurant year-round     Smith bakes a wide variety of bread products and also zesty croutons fresh fruit pies jams pickles bruschetta and salsa just to name a few     She sells her baking on Saturdays at the Farmer s Market where her husband Jimmy sells sweet corn tomatoes and yellow squash Peak season for both the baking and the veggies is June July and August when the Farmer s Market is operating two extra days per week     Jimmy also grows field corn wheat and soybeans on the family s farm so he particularly appreciates the extensive help he gets from their 18-year-old daughter Monica in handpicking the vegetables     Tenito spends one or two days a week year-round baking just for the restaurant She starts baking for the Saturday s Farmer s Market on Thursday morning at 5 a m not quitting until 10 p m This is repeated on Friday to be ready for the sale      I only have Sunday off to rest she says I m used to hard work though and I loved to cook from an early age After I got married I used to cook for six to eight people who worked for us when we farmed 1 500 acres I fed them a full lunch daily in the field followed by an afternoon snack of cobbler and then supper at the house     Smith started her baking business seven years ago by renting a kitchen to work in After two years of that she and her husband converted their garage into a certified state-inspected kitchen     The family doesn t farm as many acres as they used to instead focusing more on vegetable production      Now I cook for a crew of five or six kids during corn picking season she says     She points out that Jimmy does most of the grocery shopping remember it s large volume shopping and he s darn good at it! she says Also when he s not in the fields he often slices the apples and peaches for her      I try to go outside the realm of what s normal or common in the products I make û this includes seven-grain honey bread parmesan-garlic bread salt-free sugar-free bread pies and muffins with Splenda for diabetic customers and I almost never use margarine in my baking because of the hydrogenated fat I don t use any unnatural preservatives - if I can t pronounce it I don t need or want it in there     Tenito prints her own labels they must meet state regulations and list ingredients with her computer This is just another aspect of a business that requires long hours and hard work but which she finds rewarding          Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Tenito and Jimmy Smith 1331 Richpond Rd Bowling Green Ky 42104 ph 270 781-4101; email: nidasmith @aol com

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.