Throwing in the kitchen towel.

We are ten months in. Day jobs are intact. Recipes are finessed. Lots of wonderful encouragement and support from friends and family. Everything we could ever hope for, really. But it’s the height of summer. The days are steamy. The kitchen is menopausal hot. And everyone here in Maine is doing summer as Mainers always do - hitting the road and not looking back. The beach, the trails, the lake house beckons, without a moment to spare.

We desperately want to go along for the ride, but we have started this bakery, and it’s our job to build it. One day at a time, one cookie at a time, one customer at a time. Portland is brimming with tourists this time of year. But locals? There won’t be a sighting until sometime after Labor Day, when it’s safe to reemerge and life begins to resume some of its normalcy and routine.

Not to be deterred, sometime mid-summer, we decided to host pop-ups at our commercial kitchen in Portland. Build it and they will come, right? Turns out maybe, maybe not. Especially in the heady days of summer on a Saturday morning.

Part of the reason we bake is to bring joy to others. But what to do when you craft and you concoct and you bake, and no one comes?

Quite simply, you keep baking. Amid feelings of discouragement and the sound of crickets, you keep on. Take a weekend off to recharge. Go for a walk on the beach after work to savor the moment and the beauty that is Maine. But always, always, move forward and forge ahead. Seasons change and so do prospects. The kitchen towel will have to wait for another day.