Hi there!

A newsletter today with five announcements:

1. There will be no 100% rye bread this week! It’ll be back next week.

2. We are hosting our fourth Community Cooking Day at the bakery next Tuesday and we’re making it a blowout with mac and cheese, collared greens, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, and cookies. We have 20 volunteers coming in on our day off to help us cook for our community fridges and donate between 150 and 200 meals. We’ve launched a link for folks who can’t make it to volunteer but would like to help in some way called the Community Cooking Day Ingredients Fund. Last month’s meal cost us around $1 a meal for 140 meals, and this one (based on food costs that I’ve calculated as well as specifically microwavable and compartmented packaging) is closer to $2 to $2.50 a meal. If you have the means to contribute to the pot, that would be amazing. If not, also amazing. Here’s the link. (Any extra funds will roll over to next month’s Cooking Day, just FYI.)

3. Holiday preorders are here! We toyed with the idea of a cookie tin but we don’t have the capacity at the moment, so we’re sticking to more rye miche, six-packs of mince pies, various sizes of fruitcakes, loaves of chllah, and pain d’épice. Never had pain d’épice? It’s a rye and honey French-style gingerbread that is spiced with anise seed and orange zest and feels just wonderfully festive and warm. Mince pies (no meat!!) are stewed dried fruit and shortcrust pastry. Fruitcake, well, fruitcake — you can read more about our fruitcake here. We’re also doing a challah preorder right before Hanukkah starts and the following Friday, so you can guarantee you get a loaf both weekends. All the holiday preorders live in the same place, at www.downtimebakery.com. Check it out.

4. Merch is shipping nationwide! Sweatshirts, hats, and T-shirts are available to purchase on the homepage, too. We can’t guarantee they’ll definitely make it to you by Xmas, but we’re going to do one big shipment on Monday the 15th so if you get your order in before then, you may just get lucky.

5. We are hiring! FOH staff and a dishwasher, as Sarah, one of our FOH counterpeople, is joining us on the baking team, and Julia, our dishwasher, is also joining us on the baking team. Know anyone? Send them our way.

That’s all for now.

Dayna’s What’s Up Corner

I’m rewatching Mad Men for the (whispers) fifth time. I’m reading Katherine Dunn’s short stories, Near Flesh. I’m watching Vince Staples on Ziwe. That’s pretty much it.