Just in case you missed Friday’s GoMemphis (Playbook) insert, Muddy’s had a wonderful review by the fabulous Christine Arpe Gang.  Christine wrote a really great review of the bakery and there were also photos by Ben Fant, who spent about half an hour in the shop last Friday taking photos and hanging out with us behind the counter!

I knew we were going to have a review (I found out a week prior when they called to say a photographer was stopping by!) but I had no idea we were getting a double-page feature!  Big thanks to the Commercial Appeal for doing so much to support local businesses; thanks also to Christine for writing such a glowing review and to Ben for the awesome photos… and putting up with our silly antics while “acting natural”.

In case you missed it, HERE IS THE ARTICLE!

ps. as a funny side-note that you regulars may appreciate, we had a number of newbies actually calling/visiting the bakery to ask if my hair is really blue!  One of you regulars overheard one woman ask and piped up, “sometimes it’s a purple mohawk!”  Loved it.

Yay for Kerry and Matthew, the radio sweethearts! 

I got a really sweet email from Kerry’s mom with a couple of photos of the cupcakes they served at the wedding.  I’m so glad we got to be a part of it; congrats y’all!

Each year, MIFA hosts a no-go gala as one of their major fundraisers.

This is basically a fake party; you are invited to not attend and instead spend the evening enjoying other pursuits.  This year, the theme is cooking and the invitations are little cookbooks with recipes donated by some twenty hosts, including local chef Wally Joe, Jennifer Chandler (author of Simply Salads), and me!

MIFA has also set up the cookbook online and are welcoming submissions from anyone and everyone, so please take a gander at the awesome website and maybe share a favorite recipe.  Donations to MIFA are of course, also welcome!

Just a reminder, ye faithful blog readers:

The Botanic Gardens farmers’ market is today!  It’s every Wednesday from 2pm-6pm and totally chock-a-bock full of delicious greens, strawberries, cabbages, sprouts to plant in your own garden, homemade quiches and hummus dips, groovy granola, and more.  Check it out!

For those who are interested in my botanical exploits (hi Dad!), you may remember that I have had an amazing gift for most of my life. I can kill any plant within 48 hours simply by looking at it. It’s my mutant power. However, this past summer, for the first time ever, my botanical efforts paid off and my basil and rosemary both flourished. The blueberry plant died, but in the immortal words of Meatloaf… two outta three ain’t bad.

This year, emboldened by my success, I’m getting a little more daring. The rosemary (carefully packed in pine needles all winter) is doing very well and I kept a shoot from the basil plant indoors all winter and it’s now planted next to the rosemary.
But here’s the real adventure: I’m growing tomatoes. I haven’t participated in tomato growing since I was a wee sprout myself (when Dad’s green thumb overpowered my fledgling plant-killer mutation) but I decided to order some seeds and start FROM SCRATCH. Whoa boy, we’re having fun now!

I ordered from the Seed Saver’s Exchange, which is a fantastic resource for heirloom breeds saved by actual growers and not owned by Monsato et al.  I got Eva Purple seeds as well as Sugar Sweetie cherry tomato seeds. I planted the sugar sweeties a few weeks ahead of the Evas and I’ve watched them grow from a crate of dirt to tiny little green shoots to lanky, leggy sprouts. They are just about ready to go in the ground (just as soon as it stops raining!). The Evas are currently in teacups, pots… anything I had lying around to put them in (a lot of pyrex and loaf pans), lining my home office window until they’re big enough to go in the ground. I got one more tomato plant, already started, from Whitton Farms a few weeks ago at the farmers’ market; this one is a Cherokee Purple and is definitely ready to go in the garden.

Here’s the giveaway: if you’d like a Sugar Sweet cherry tomato seedling, just leave a comment (be sure you leave your email address!) on this blog post and I’ll randomly choose winners.  Yay!

A friend of mine, Lauren Anderson, sent me this awesome link about buying from local businesses.  It has some great facts and figures, as well as other ways you can help support your local economy.

Check it out!

I would first like to say THANK YOU to all of our wonderful customers; y’all are the reason that we’ve survived our first year and are still in business when so many places have closed due to economic stress.

Speaking of stress, we’ve been booking up weekends further and further in advance and we know it’s frustrating for y’all… and it probably upsets us as much as it does you.  I’m in the bakery business because I need to make people happy and it’s definitely  your smiles that motivate all of us to keep baking, to try harder, to work later.

We’re trying to fix the situation by setting up a second kitchen; when I’m not in the shop baking, I’m out scouting sites for it and buying equipment for it, etc.  We’re trying to get it  running asap so that we can take more orders and don’t have to turn anyone down.
Please keep this in mind and realize that when we say “I’m sorry, we’re booked” that means that every single of the 24 hours in that day are already allocated and that we really ARE sorry to disappoint you.  I promise, as soon as the back-up kitchen is going, this problem will be no more!
Huzzah!