August 2023 Newsletter!

Hello Friends 👋🏼

What a ride this summer has been so far – fast and oh so amazing!! Are you in shock too that we are already well over half way through the summer season??

Time Flies when you are having fun!

For VGB we only two more full weeks being open’ish here in the Gates of VB. Starting September Long we will go to weekends only - seems like yesterday we were opening up for weekends in the Spring!

When the gates open we are so excited to have even more of the beach communities be able to come to the Bakery and check us out…see you soon friends!

Needless to say I couldn’t be more proud of our bakery and our team! Just sayin’ - the VGB team rocks – like OMG Rocks…thank goodness lol as I couldn’t do any of this without them…and my family (love you guys).

Quick’ish Run Down

We have been so busy these past SIX weeks - we continued to stay open seven days a week, and by the time I finally hit ‘send’ on this newsletter we will have wrapped up the busiest weeks/weekends of the summer….August Long / Tennis Epic weekend. We are breaking all of our records - and having fun doing it!

This season we have once again had so many firsts – and I feel this is going to be our normal for a few years! I love trying new stuff, the team is willing to dive into all challenges, and I love being involved in the community events!

So let’s dive into the ‘firsts’ of 2023… and most likely not the ‘lasts’ at VGB.

Gluten Friendly!

So it turns out there is a pretty big crowd that are ‘gluten challenged’ – is that okay to say??

We have addressed the call for more Gluten Friendly (GF) - and I feel we have delivered!

From last year we brought back GF products – Cupcakes, Macarons & Cranked Energy protein bars. These three items were very popular last year, and have sky rocked in popularity this year… it just takes time it turns out. Patience and trust 💕

As we have time to experiment more we will continue to roll out more GF goodies that all of you will love…or at least try once.

Custom Cakes

Last year I was not able to keep up with any special requests – but this year is a whole new ball game. It is very rare I will say no to anyone willing to take a chance on my cake decorating skills! The community has been so supportive of my efforts and have pushed back on my ongoing comments of #notacakedecorator . I am having so much fun decorating and practising my skills. The cakes have definitely gotten better in design and uniqueness….and of course the flavors are amazing (just sayin’)

My cakes might not be Food Network Show ready – but damn they taste good and you all seem to love them and support my learning – thank you!

Sugar Cookies

I will say this over and over again – we are not cookie decorators (or cake decorators) ….but we love to try. And really in the end – the cookies taste amazing and we are not entering any Instagram competitions. Cookies are meant to be eaten – or inhaled – depends on how you roll. I love that our cookies are not perfect – Sierra, Amelia and I are doing the best we can in knocking out hundreds (yes hundreds) of colourfully decorate cookies and I am proud of our efforts in the challenges that the bakers punch out for us (p.s dinosaurs and rock ships are not cool bakers). Perfection also leads to increased costs — so we will keep them messy and unique.

New this year – and most popular – and most time consuming to decorate – Rainbows 🌈! They really are pretty special and the kids love them – so we will continue to pipe out the 8 colours to make them awesome. Next up – rocket ships 🚀– uggggg so hard and yet so ugly… I mean delish. Dinosaurs 🦖 have also crept into the sheeter – Amelia you crushed this challenge. I 100% opted out. And finally – the easiest and prettiest cactuses 🌵 there are!! Phew finally one that is ‘easy’. Oh and Ice cream 🍦 cones - tedious too but too cute to not do. Who knew last year Sugar Cookies would be a ‘standard’ must have ?

Beach Authors & Artists

I had someone put up a post about how I should not focus ‘selling books/candles/art/furniture, coffee clubs, side projects, ect’… and well I 100% disagree! I love 💕 love the fact that I am able to support and showcase so many talented beach peeps and Manitoban artists here at the Bakery.

How lucky am I ??!! I am so proud of the number of authors (book count : 6) that have asked to be on the Bakery’s shelves – oh and get this …. their books sell out - often!! I love these artists (and now friends) and their willingness to put their products on our shelves.

So to my critic - It does NOT take much of my time to meet new artists and say yes to hosting their art/talent/skills….so I will continue to focus on supporting and promoting my community of entrepreneurs and oh-so talented new friends.

Vent’ish over – but really come on - let’s all get along and support each other.

Thank you to the over 21 artists, authors, makers, creators and community members who have asked (or been asked) to have their products in our bakery – I appreciate you and am so proud of your talents.

OH and let’s not forget the ‘made in Manitoba’ products….

Kids Market

Okay well this went over AMAZING!! Words won’t come even close to say how proud I am of community and our future / active Junior Entrepreneurs (JE)!

I had a vision of what I hoped it would be for our JE kiddos - and damn did it happen!!

If you have been following social media you will be able to tell from the photos and updates that it was beyond awesome!

Want to see the Video Montage? Check it out here on instagram

We had 24 kid vendors rock each one of their business stands. They designed and produced their OWN products, created their OWN signage/marketing, and set up a booth/stand that was so creative and perfect! Over and Over again – I AM SO PROUD!!

The VGB Kid Market will 100% be back in 2024 – and we will have even more kid vendors stands, kid entertainment and well errr ya…stay tuned. I have lots of ideas - and oddly enough my ideas are working out ;)

I can’t wait for next year!!

The date will be picked based on the 2024 VB activity calendar – I will find a date that doesn’t overlap with VB events…. It is tough as there are sooo many amazing kid/family events. But I will sneak it in – and it will happen close to the end of July 2024!! Watch Instagram and or the VGB website for updates on registration.

Back yard Beautification!

These are the smiles from laying 3 pallets of sod - we are darn proud!

In June/July we attempted to hide the ugly and spread dirt with the help of Brent and his tractor / spreader(?) and seeded the ¼ of the back yard. The grass surprisingly took and grew fast and gorgeous within three weeks. It looked so good I reached out to Peter J to see if we could ‘borrow’ some of his equipment to help grade the rest of the yard to align it with the beauty we had growing….well he went sooooo beyond and offered to sod it!!

Massive excitement over here as a result… and a few tears of happiness and shock. It was really too much.

I am so humbled by this generous and amazing gift. Thank you so much to Peter & Dana J and Chris! Our back yard will be more welcoming and will continue to be available to all visitors of VB. I have more plans of ‘fun’ events to bring to the bakery as a result (sooner than planned).

Please come and check out our grass - lol - it is pretty darn gorgeous!

May Long 2022

July / Aug 2023

And as always – Sheila, Gregg, Barbie, Connie and Tom have continued to support constant growth and beautification of our Bakery backyard. Our fairy garden is already expanding and the amount of new local plants – from Sheila – is growing!

The garden dream team also expanded their community garden to three boxes – and needless to say the squash is escaping out of their beds!!

Barbie has a new vision to take the fairy garden / path all the way around the property of the bakery….should be a fun experience….and a lot of work. Good luck….i’ll keep baking and watch from the tables.

Bakery / Business Challenges of 2023 - so far - including the most recent updates

Note: I wrote this start of August, and finally getting to finished it (mid-aug)….which means you get a glimps into my mini-roadblocks and the end solutions/results.

AC - It didn’t really work well before, and got worse as the season got warm and oh so humid. On Aug 8th - Kevin of New Age AC - was here putting in the right system for the building and our team.
- Update - we are freezing!! And that’s a great thing. I am loving it…lol. Sweater weather in the bakery. None of our icing isn’t melting off our cakes and we are not decorating ‘in’ the freezer any more. The heat and humidity was not just impacting our production efficiencies, but my own mental health was getting close to risk of full burn out. I was blown away on how the heat impacted my own ability to be ‘happy’. Thank you RM for the replacement!
Septic Tank - I know what a shi**y problem, but who knew? Looks like our tank never had a lid - which is not okay. So we are working to fix this - with help from the RM.
- Thank you to Lorne Anderson Pump out for coming sooo last min and week over week to pump out our bakery - there are 23 people here that REALLY REALLY appreciate you.
- Update : RM is fixing the problem - phew and ewwww.
Big Freezer Broke - Right before the long weekend too. We quickly baked off everything in there (which wasn’t that much), and distributed all remaining to the other two smaller freezers. The freezer is still on warranty so we had ‘Jay’ out right away and the parts are all on order.
- Update: Jay K - KMAR Refrigeration - to the rescue and his team. As of Aug 15th the freezer has been fixed (all parts replaced pretty much), and he cleaned and showed me out to maintain all my other equipment. Jay’s company rocks.
Back up Residential AC Unit - flooding - The AC role is to pull out humidity of the air, but when I am not there at night the pan fills with that water and floods … so ‘clean up on isle’ one for me most hot mornings. At least we had a good’ish temp solution to pull out the humidity. Worth the clean up to provide some relief while we wait for the AC to be replaced.
- Update: This unit is now gone and kicked out of the bakery - whoop!! The window is back too - bring on the natural light!
Google Review - Enough said. #notahobby

What about You Jen??

As for me – Jen – I’ll sum it up by answering most common questions I get asked:

Necklace purchased from the VGB Kids Market - Maude’s Creations

How’s it going? Amazing
No really – how’s it going? Seriously – great! We are having fun and I have such a great team so it makes it a great experience! I am legit having fun, and going to bed super early every night. The season is starting to slow down huge - so I might get to stay up later!!
What’s it like over last year? Sooo different and yet so the same. We opened sooner, we extended our hours, we added a lot of new goodies, and continued to make all the loved and popular items! We rolled out new efficiencies, hired more VGB team members, and as a result we don’t sell out ‘as fast’. We do sell out – but not enough to close shop early. Also – majority of the team came back so it was like riding a bike for them – they tell me constantly - ‘jen we got this’…and ‘it's okay to leave and go to the beach’. Ask me how many times I have left due to this …. ummm maybe twice.
Are you tired? All. The.Time. Lol – but that’s okay….I am always tired but the team kicks me out of the bakery here and there when they can see I need to go for a nap. And I go to bed before 9 pm most nights - I am old lol. I go hard for these three months, and then I get to sleep in so it all balances out.
Are you stressed? Nope! However, I will say part of my ‘tiredness’ is the mental game tiredness – and yes the physical demands of the day. But the mental game I wasn’t expecting to tire me out so much – but it does – but I got this so all okay. Again – Short season – so in the fall I will focus on me.
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To be dorky - when I see families hanging out in the yard, and kiddos exploring the fairy garden grasping the last of their cookies, it makes it all perfect!  Makes so happy and confirms what I am doing is the right way to run my business
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Will you do the country market again? I don’t know lol. It was a lot of work to bake for it and the actual bakery, but we did great and the team working it had fun. So leaning to more yes than no. When? Maybe next year (sorry).
Would you do it again? Heck ya!! And I have some ‘friends’ that want me to do this in their beach town….we will see. #findmeabuilding
What’s the one thing you love to bake– if you asked me last year it was any of the experimenting with Robyn with pastry lol….sorry Denis. This year – I wouldn’t say ‘baking’ but playing with new recipes and learning more about decorating.
What’s your favorite cookie? BAC (Big Ass Cookies) - hands down!!
What are you going to do in the fall? I’ll dive back into more my coaching and business consulting, but first and foremost spend a lot of time with my family, clean my house, sleep (a lot), and spend a lot of time with my friends…which means staying up past 9 pm. And then focus on the math of the bakery and planning out the 2024 season!