We recently connected with Alan Block and have shared our conversation below.
Alan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
When I first started baking sourdough bread and bagels, I posted pictures on Instagram as I learned. After a few months, I had a person reach out and ask how they could buy my bread. It never occurred to me that someone would want to buy bread from me. That was six years ago. I now bake at least two days per week and make over a dozen loaves and several dozen bagels.
Alan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I have a seven acre homestead in Saybrook township in Ohio, which is in the far northeast corner of the state. We raise chickens and bees and have a large vegetable garden. I bake sourdough bread and bagels for several customers, including a local food store. We also host campers through Hipcamp, and most summers nights we have tent campers here as well as people staying in our tiny house. Very often they are people looking for an escape from city life.
This year we are hosting our first Mind and Body retreat and given the incredible response to it, we will be hosting more in the future. In addition, we will be offering farm to table meals later this summer. My wife’s art studio, which we built by hand, is a beautiful venue for such events.
Our mantra is Grow, Raise, Make. And I would add to that Share. We actively seek to share our homestead, our knowledge, and our passion for what we do with others.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
A lesson that I had to unlearn was that people were not interested in the type of bread I was baking or the price I had to charge to make the business viable. My bread has a dark, crunchy crust. The interior has holes both large and small. The taste of the bread is bold. I thought people wanted cheap, squishy bread from the store.
What I have learned is that people will absolutely pay for quality. When I switched to all organic flour and grains and had to raise my prices, my sales actually increased. And some of the most unusual flavor combinations I have come up with (like black emmer and winter squash) have been some of my most popular.
Bottomline: don’t underestimate people. Give space for them to appreciate what you do.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
The most effective strategy for growing my clientele was to get my bread and bagels into a physical store in a busy area. Previously, I sold my baked goods directly through social media and my website. But when a friend connected me to a new store that was looking for sourdough bread, I contacted the owner and she immediately ordered a few loaves to try out. The next week she doubled her order. Now I bake for her twice a week. Once people try my bread, they want more of it. You can’t do that online.
Through that store, I have made connections to new individuals, restaurants, and most recently, baked for a wedding. Those connections were unlikely to happen through digital means.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.flanneldogfarm.com
- Instagram: @flanneldogfarm
- Linkedin: Alan J Block
Image Credits
These are all photos that I took