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Are Rats Intelligent?

Why on earth would anyone consider a rat an intelligent species?

They are vermin!

Yet we are literally breading these rodents in our landfills. We are providing them with a safe, warm place with tons of food to satisfy their hunger, but they are not satisfied. They want excitement in their lives just like you and i, and so they forage.

These rodents are a danger to the human race and we spend thousands of dollars to keep them from the food establishments we own and expect our customers to frequent.

Yet on the television, (at least in British Columbia), last night – April 24th 2010. There was a program that proved, (to me anyway), that rats are indeed intelligent.

Not only are they intelligent, they actually talk to each other.

No, not with spoken words like you and I do, of course not. And, neither you or I can hear what they say. At least not beyond the usual squeak or squeal. But believe me, judging by what i saw in the trials they “DO” use intelligence to converse with each other.

I was amazed at the results.

One example was with two rats in a maze. Beyond the maze were four plates of different types of food.

On one plate was dog food.
On one plate was peanut butter
On one plate was something else
On one plate was a chocolate chip cookie.

One rat eventually found its way out of the maze and proceeded to check out each plate in turn starting with the plate furthest away from the maze. Sniffing cautiously at each plate, before deciding that it would taste the cookie with a nibble.

The rat immediately went back to the maze and found the other rat, still in the maze. Which within seconds was making a direct beeline to the chocolate chip cookie and proceeded to devour as much as possible.

How did this second rat know exactly where to go. It was still in the maze when the first rat encountered the plates.

In the second experiment there were three rats. Two in one cage with a screen between them and two tubes of pipe. The third rat in another location on a table also with a tube of pipe. The test was with a spring loaded rat trap and a piece of cheese in the trap.

The rat very cautiously walked around the trap, being careful to avoid it. Why?

Rats and mice for years have been thought to devour cheese as the preferred food choice. It didn’t take the bait.

The investigator tapped the table with a piece of card and the rat on the table immediately ran to the tube of pipe for safety.

Guess what. So did the two rats behind the screen in another location. They too; ran to the tube of pipe for safety.

They eat anything and tell each other if it is good or bad food. It was obvious to me that they do talk to each other in some way, telling other rats where things are and whether or not it is safe to either eat or travel.

So if you are having problems with rodents, rats and mice. You need experts to vary their methods of attack to rid your place of business of these frightening and dangerous critters.

Posted in Start a Bakery

Don’t worry it will never happen!

You’ve heard the scientists and government spout that kind of rhetoric for years. Yet on just about every occasion those words are eaten by those that state them.

When banana orchards became infected and both orchards and importers went broke many thousands of dollars were spent to replant those orchards with the modified Cavendish variety.

When the Gros Michel variety became infected in the 60’s the scientists set about genetically altering the banana. Just as scientists have done to the wheat grain and many other seeds, to a strain supposedly resistant to the strain of blight that had affected the Gros Michel.

That genetically altered variety became the Cavendish which is thought to be resistant to the Panama version of the blight. But as has been seen all over the world in many other viruses and germs, they tend to genetically alter themselves.

Over the last few years variants in the blight have been seen and have gained a serious hold in many countries. Some plantations in Malaysia have been completely wiped out and in the last few years has also infected Africa.

Human nature said, what happened to the Gros Michel cannot happen to the genetically altered Cavendish. But guess what?

Yep! It started to infect the Cavendish too!

What did the scientist say? Don’t worry, were working on it!

Scientists have been working hard, and they have produced several variation of the banana, from the many varieties available. The problem is the new variations just don’t have the same flavor, so far. It seems the bananas are naturally heavy on seeds but low in palatability.

Although it seems we might not be feeling the pinch from a lack of product available in the super markets, it should be noted that the Malaysian plantations went from full scale operations to nothing in five years.

So we are left to speculate as to what the final curtain call will be for the banana.

The banana fruit is still a threatened fruit, and we are going to have wait, yes wait to see if we can beat that threat. But we need to realize that many people in the tropical countries are the least able to adapt to the loss of nutrition and income, are already suffering.

Posted in Start a Bakery

Bye Bye Bananas

A few years ago I read an article in a newspaper or online that said that bananas were doomed.

We are well into the ten year period that particular story described for the doom. What would we see in the stores if this were to be true?

We might first expect the price one pays for bananas to sky rocket in price. We might also expect the availability to diminish and become almost unavailable.

So where are we today?

Well, let’s see… “The price of bananas has increased”, but, no excessive increase in price. We can also see that over-all the banana market and availability has not been missing from store shelves either.

With north Americans eating more bananas than apples, bananas have become our favorite fruit. So much so that a study has concluded that we will eat around 10-12,000 bananas before reaching age 40.

So were the reports of the bananas demise greatly exaggerated? Probably not.

A report out of Uganda a few weeks back had a headline of “Bananas now an endangered species”. The account went on to say that, the disease first discovered in Uganda back in 2001, called The Banana Bacterial Wilt or BBW. Poses a major threat to the banana production and to their farmers too

Unless a cure can be found, it is feared that bananas could become extinct.

Bananas represent a large cash crop for the farmers and the people who depend upon the banana crop for their livelihood and both humans and animals rely on as a staple diet.

The blight has also been found according to the news item Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Indonesia. North America get most of their bananas from central America, which so far has not been hard hit yet.

The brand or types of bananas we eat are the Cavendish type and worldwide we eat about a hundred billion bananas a year. Because bananas are genetically identical having come from plants, what can affect one type of banana can affect them all.

The report also says that those bananas we eat today are not the same variety our grand-parents or parents ate back in the 1960’s. In those day apparently the variety name was Gros Michel.

They also say that the Gros Michel had a better flavor. Of course that today is subject to the people who have actually eaten both varieties. I have eaten bananas in Africa, America, Canada and the UK. I have to say that as far as my memory goes the best bananas I ever ate were the ones fresh from the trees in Africa.

Posted in Start a Bakery

My doughnut tastes

There are many instances where the love of a doughnut carries through to a must have situation.

For me every time i visit my home land, i feel compelled to visit the seaside port of Portsmouth and Southsea. The Royal Navy museum in Portsmouth is a great place to see the old timbers of Nelson’s Flagship and the many mothballed more modern day flat-tops and other navy war machines as well as a paddle steamer and a battle ship from the 1500′s that sunk without firing a shot in anger with all hands.

I guess you are now asking yourself just where does the navy and war machines come into a bakery site and what could it have to do with doughnuts.

Well, as much as the navy and boaters use something called a doughnut to save their craft from bumping together, the doughnut i would be referring too is the edible kind.

The graphic image above is a small table top cake doughnut machine. These are the sort of machines you can find in places like Southsea and other seaside resorts in the UK. You buy then by the bag anywhere from 8 to more than a dozen at a time. They are usually hot straight from the machine and lightly dusted with cinnamon sugar. I can taste them now.

If you would like to learn how to make these or other styles of doughnut. GO HERE.

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Posted in General Comments

Refrigerators

Everybody has a refrigerator for one thing or another. Right!

But did you know there are different types of refrigerators on the market.

OH! I am sure you know the fridge and freezer and probably think that is what i mean by two types but No that isn’t what i mean.

The best refrigerator to get is a system called FROST FREE.

A frost free refrigerator rarely sweats on the inside of the cavity and lets face it that is the last place you want your products to sweat.

Every fridge will draw moisture from the products that you put into the fridge, but you certainly do not want that moisture to remain within otherwise your products will go moldy very quickly.

Mold means wasted products, extra cleaning work and upset health inspectors who could easily close your business because of the mold, and no one wants that to happen!

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Posted in Start a Bakery

PMS

PMS what is it and what does it mean to a baker.

Every month for a baker is a scramble to get to the end of the month and get ready for the next.

Pms to a baker is not the same as what men and women put up with in the text that most people relate to PMS.

PMS to a baker is Profit makes sense.

Without profit in a business you might just as well pour any money you have down the nearest drain!

So why do so many people complain about PMS when without it we are nothing?

The problem is much the same as our other term and understanding of PMS. So how can we as bakers continue to get PMS every month of the year?

That I think would be advertising. Advertising is the one thing that is hit and or miss, so advertising is a headache because we never know where or when it hits the spot. I say this because the newspaper is dying out. Radio is expensive and who listens to jingle bells in the middle of summer or wants to hear the announcer tell one of their sick jokes about the weather.

Television is beyond the budget of most bakery businesses and again who actually watches the local directory channel. Maybe they look at the directory channel just to see what’s on at a certain time so that they can record their favorite movie, but I doubt very much that people actually sit and watch the ads roll across the screen unless that is your job.

Word of mouth advertising is a premium ad. So lets see how to get word of mouth advertising to work for us.

First we need to make a product that stands out from the crowd.

We call this eye appeal.

Next we need to have a price that is also appealing. That means creating a costing of the recipe.

And, lastly we need to have a taste that matches or goes beyond the eye appeal, which once placed in the mouth covers the price with memory loss.

That is how PMS works for our bakery business.

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Posted in Start a Bakery

Easter

Valentine’s is over with for this year, so what’s next?

Well in the bakery our next big sales event is the Easter trade.

I personally love Easter and the Hot X Buns. But, bakeries make a lot more than just hot x buns for Easter. Many bakeries make their own Easter Eggs. Many more make chocolates as well as Easter breads.

Some bakeries will buy their Easter Eggs from a supplier and then offer to put a customers name on the egg to personalize it for an added charge. This is an excellent way to address client satisfaction.

It is also another way to offer a free service, such as buy your Easter Eggs here “and have your child’s name added for free”.

Hot X Buns are a traditional item that every bakery should be making from today until at least a couple days after the Easter period. The supermarkets have been selling hot x buns for several weeks now and they are usually small and often stale with what i call insipid paper crosses. These paper crosses are often burnt or almost totally invisible on the bun. The reason for that is the crosses are made from rice paper. Rice paper absorbs moister and if the proofer was high in steam then the cross will absorb that moisture and burn within the heat of the oven.

A far better method to making the cross is to use a batter and pipe the crosses onto the buns. This can be done very quickly and very neatly and providing there is no sugar in the batter it should bake white to give the perfect cross.

Posted in Start a Bakery

Equipment

Every bakery needs equipment to produce their own products and some people have no thoughts of making their own products – and that’s OK too.

However, where do you get such equipment if you plan on large scale productions.

Well here is an equipment supplier for you to check out. Why not take a look at their Equipment and Services HERE!.

Posted in Start a Bakery

Coffee is it Good or Bad

Here’s is a story i found this morning January 18th 2010.

I thought it quite interesting, since there is usually a reason behind these controversial topics.

I can’t state from any authority or claim truth to these studies. But they are confusing to say the least.

You can read that story by following the link below.

http://ca.lifestyle.yahoo.com/food-entertaining/articles/shopping-cart/eatingwell/20858

Posted in Start a Bakery

Starting your new bakery

It’s the new year!

You already know that, it doesn’t take a genious. But with the new year many people make what are termed RESOLUTIONS.

We all do it. Come new years eve. That’s the custom in most nationalities. But how many of us really keep thoses resolutions?

Some do… and of those that don’t, continue to make them every year and never act on them.

BUT? Those that do, well those are the ones that are successful.

If you have the desire to become self employed as the owner of your own bakery, then now is a good time with which to keep at least one of your resolutions

Starting a bakery business requires a plan of action. Today you have that plan started. How do i know?

Because you are here and were the one that made a new years resolution to learn how to start a bakery.

Starting a bakery is like no other business, yet the stages of starting a bakery is the same as any other business. It starts with a plan. I said that already!

That’s very true and the more in depth your plan the better and successful your bakery business will be.

Start by deciding on the products you want to make and see if there is a market for that product. This will create the machinery list you need. Then you can start thinking about how much of your product that you must make to pay for those products.

Once you can relate to your products the next stage is to start looking for some place to make them.

Posted in Start a Bakery

Affiliates added

The Crusty Baker has started an affiliate program for all bakery entrepreneurs and anyone else.

Financing a food production is not alway’s an easy sell to bankers. So let us help you with this affiliate program.

Bakery entrepreneurs, this is also a step towards helping you to finance your new venture.

The more you advertise us, the more sales we make, the more commission you receive!

Go sign up now. Add the affiliate link onto your web site, Facebook, Twitter and your emails and we will do the rest!

Go now to the affiliate sign-in.

Posted in General Comments

Question’s

Everyone has a question or two or three. In fact questions are our way of asking to be educated. Now, I am NOT saying we are all illiterate by any means. I ask question every day. Sometimes I already knew the answer but, often times I am amazed that I didn’t know the answer.

That is why I have added a Frequently Asked Questions page to our web site.

It is the latest move in our attempt to assist the many entrepreneurial bakers in our society today to open a bakery.

If you have question for The Crusty Baker, related towards how to start a bakery, first check our FAQ page. If it isn’t answered there leave us your questions in the posts.

We will try to answer each question personally, but that is not alway’s going to happen, so you could very easily find your reply added to our FAQ page.

Posted in General Comments, Questions

General Questions

Posted in General Comments