That farmers market pop-up changed how I schedule my sourdough

Honestly, I used to just bake sourdough whenever I felt like it, no real routine. But last month I did a trial run at the Saturday farmers market in Greenville and sold out by 9:30 AM because I only brought 12 loaves. The vendor next to me brought 40 loaves plus pastries and she was booked solid for the next three weeks. I realized I needed a proper schedule to figure out how much to bake and when to start the preferment. So now I count backwards 48 hours from market day and set a timer on my phone for each step. Has anyone else found a specific timing trick that works for big batch sourdough?

2 comments

2 Comments

taylorellis13d ago

40 loaves AND pastries booked solid for 3 weeks??? That's insane.

wesley_adams13d ago

Wait, did you say you brought 12 loaves to a farmers market and sold out by 9:30? That sounds more like you way underbaked than found some secret scheduling trick. Most serious bakers I know would call that a rookie mistake, not a breakthrough. Timing your preferment backwards from market day is solid advice for anyone scaling up, but honestly the real lesson here is you need to triple your batch size before you worry about the minute-by-minute timer. You should be thinking about how much dough your mixer or your hands can handle in a single stretch, then build your schedule around that capacity. A timer for each step sounds good on paper but if you're churning out 40+ loaves, you'll drive yourself crazy checking your phone every 20 minutes.