We are lucky enough to serve a local business with their bakery for well over 30 years. Anytime their is a meeting or birthday party they put in an order and we do our best to serve their needs. This week someone retired and took the time to write us a note of appreciation. We are very happy for Connie and wish her well in her retirement years!
Over 13" of snow hit our bakery today. Mitchell Airport shut down, the main Highway is shut down, and we are only short "strong winds" for it to be classified officially as a blizzard. As we opened our doors this morning I certainly didn't expect any people to be coming in for bakery.
However, one of the principals from our local high school came in. He braved the storm because he had a craving for one of our walnut danishes. We were thanking him for his patronage and teasing him a bit when he explained that he lives right next door to another bakery but comes to Larsen Bakery because he likes our Danish much better. Apparently, his friends and family as far as Arizona know this and like to tease him, too. But he still insists on coming to our bakery.
Needless to say, his Danish was on us today.
During the Christmas Holidays Larsen Bakery ships out thousands of Kringle every day. It is easy to forget the people who are making it for and who is actually packing and shipping all these packages. It is also easy to get caught up with all the calls that come in to wonder if "we are doing it right".
Today this fax came across my desk and it made me smile. Someone took the time to let us know we are getting it right and Larsen's had a piece of making her Dad's birthday.
The Food Network played a special on our Bakery this week. It was with Al Roker's "Roker on the Road". It was a five minute segment that showed how we create our authentic Danish Kringle in our bakery. Al Roker got to make a real Larsen Kringle and fun was had by all. We didn't know they were going to play it again, but I was glad they did because I got to meet Martha.
Martha called me in the middle of the week and told me she had seen the special and wanted to know more about other Danish items we carried and shipped out. I told her about our Seven Sisters Coffee Cake, our Almond Tarts, and Danish pumpernickel bread. It turned out she was a real bread lover and wanted to know all about our pumpernickel bread. I am a bread lover at heart and so I gladly told her what made our pumpernickel so good.
We take two days to make our bread, there is no sugar, cocoa powder or even molasses in it. We let the bread ferment and over two days develop its own natural flavor and then bake it off in a slow oven letting the grains break down further giving it a slightly sweet flavor. In fact, in older days real pumpernickel was used for younger kids and older people because it was easier on their stomachs and wasn't so hard to digest.
Martha ordered a sample of each including the pumpernickel. This morning she called me back. She was having chicken noodle soup and had a couple of thin slices of the pumpernickel bread. She said she had tasted nothing like it before and she now understood what the difference between store bought bread and bakery bread. She had already toasted it and topped with peanut butter and was looking forward to trying an open faced sandwich with it. It was obvious she was excited and just wanted to share her excitement with me and let me know how much she appreciated my suggestions.
I hung up the phone with a big smile on my face. Too often it is easy to get caught up in all the things that need to be attended to in a bakery, but for that moment on the phone I remembered why I work in the bakery in the first place. To share the love of bakery with other people.
Thank you Martha for helping me to remember that.
Today Larsen Bakery received a wonderful thank you for our endorsement for supporting our local teachers and honor roll students.How cool is that?
Supporting our local schools and teachers has long been a habit of Larsen Bakery, and sometimes I think we forget the impact that we can have on the people receiving our support.
Getting this letter reminded me that I am proud to be a part of the continuing tradition that Larsen Bakery has created. A big thank you goes to Mike our General Mgr. for spearheading this donation and of course all of our people for continuing to support local groups.
Recently we had a couple come in from Berlin Germany stop our bakery and try our Kringle. They were kind enough to send us a postcard and photographs letting us know how much they enjoyed the Larsen Kringle.
As you may or may not know our local bakery has been serving customers for over 40 years now and we have had people from all over the world stop by and visit. What continues to amaze and inspire me is how bakery crosses all barriers. It doesn't matter what culture people come from or what language they speak, when they come into the bakery and buy a fresh loaf of bread or sample our Kringle a smile crosses their face and suddenly language or culture doesn't matter. We are sharing a common a delight...bakery. I love that and it is one of the reasons I come to work everyday. I am proud to be a baker and share my love of bakery with all of our customers.
Attached is the post card and pictures we received from these gracious people. Stop by us a share some Kringle when you happen by our town, we would love to see you!
Download 2008_05_24_prep_school.pdf
We at Larsen's always strive to give back to the community and it's always nice to hear back and find out how it has affected other people and their lives. We are pleased to hear the Kringle were a hit and a part of Dance, Inc's fund raising success.
My name is Hannah Kultgen, a junior at Marquette University, and secretary of a completely student run organization, Dance Inc. Each semester we put on a great show and this semester we were able to get main stage, but this meant we would have to pay some stage fees.
One day at a meeting I decided having a bake sale would be a great way to help raise some money. I called Larson’s and asked if they would be willing to make any sort of contribution. They were more than willing, and as an organization we are so very thankful for the very generous donation Larson’s bakery gave to us. My apartment was literally filled with Kringle and I was inviting all my friends to come check it out! I cannot even express to Larson’s how thankful the organization was and me especially. We made way over our goal and definitely couldn’t have done it without Larson’s generous donation. The Kringle were a huge hit and everyone loved them. Thanks so much and next time I and anyone else is in need of some bakery I know where I will be going!
