Parent teacher conferences were held Wednesday afternoon and Thursday, so school was out Thursday. Playgroup meets on Thursdays and when school is out, we try and go.
Today's activity, a tour of a local bakery, an anual event that has become a group favorite. We haven't been able to attend before and it was as outstanding as I've heard! Baker Bob is the owner of the bakery, he's been doing it here in town for 15 years, before that he baked bread in Colorado. He took the kids through the entire process.. from the wheat kearnels to grounding it into flour, to the jobs of each ingredient - yeast, water, honey, salt, flour. Once all the ingredients were mixed together, each child got a ball of dough to knead on the floor of the bakery - they made hamburger buns, hot dog buns, twists, braides, etc. Then Baker Bob showed them the big oven and how they divide the big lump of bread dough into four equal logs for bread loaves.
The kids each got to have half of a huge cinnamon twist, and as many slices of bread as they wanted from a board of testers. The children loved it and the parents had a great time selecting what loaves of bread they were going to take home for dinner. We purchased Honey Whole Wheat and 4 cinnamon twists.
I was amazed to find out that they use no sugar or oil in their bread dough - its all about the quality of the flour they use.
Here are a few pictures of the tour:
