A Day In The Life: 1,000 Pounds Of Dough

Maybe you hold an idyllic image of what a baker does in the darkness of early morning, methodically rounding out loaves of dough on a broad table and placidly carrying them to the oven.

Rick Heenan has been Flagstaff's village baker for 16 years, in the literal sense of his business name, but his 4 a.m. mornings are hardly so tranquil.

Heenan and the others working at The Village Baker start before 6 a.m., and they take turns making dough, shaping it, pulling it from a walk-in fridge after it's risen for 24 hours, scoring it, baking it, bagging it and carting it off for delivery.

If a loaf rises for a little too long, it collapses in the oven and is ruined.

Get behind and one of the dozens of restaurants or shops relying on this bread is left hanging, as they were a few years ago when the oven exploded, which was a nightmare for Heenan.

To read the rest of the story, please go to: Arizona Daily Sun