Company description
About Us
Apple Ridge Farm is located in Saylorsburg, PA. It is owned by Brian Bruno and run by a group of hard-working people who are dedicated to producing the best food possible in the most sustainable way possible.
History
The farm originally started out as an 80+ acre farm founded in the 1860’s by the Getz family. It was purchased by the Bruno family in the early ‘70’s. For 30 years our family raised sheep, horses, fruit trees, and kept a large garden. Growing up on the farm was a great experience but as a kid it felt like a lot of work compared to the other kids I knew. I honestly had no plans to be a farmer. What I really wanted to do was be an environmental scientist and help save the planet. I went to Penn State majoring in Environmental Resource Management which to my surprise had a lot of focus on agriculture.
Turns out many farms are sources of chemical pollutants, manure runoff, and soil erosion. It got me thinking about my family’s little farm. I had no idea agriculture had all these environmental problems, because our farm didn’t. As my parents started talking about retiring and selling the farm I decided to give it a shot the summer before my senior year with a large garden and a roadside stand in the driveway. It was a ton of work and took up all my free time that summer but I was hooked.
The more I learned about modern agriculture and our corrupt food system the more interested I became in trying to change it. After graduating in 2004 I moved back to the farm and began working it in my free time. We’ve grown each year since and have added a greenhouse, hydroponics, a certified kitchen, and a wood-fired brick oven sourdough bakery. In 2016 we partnered with the ShawneeCraft brewing company and opened Scratch, a wood-fired brick oven pizza pub in the Easton Public Market.
The future is full of challenges. Climate change, labor, politics, and diet trends. All we can do is to keep trying to produce the best food we possibly can with what we have to work with.
~ BRIAN
Philosophy
Here at Apple Ridge, our mission is to produce healthy, nutrient-dense food in a sustainable manner. We produce food with a purpose and we feel as good about producing it as our customers feel about eating it.
In the barn, that means raising all of our animals on pasture with access to non-gmo feed, grass, and bugs. In the fields, it means producing nutrient-dense, chemical-free vegetables by feeding the soil natural inputs and minimizing tillage. In our stone-oven bakery, it means making bread the way bread used to be made, based on three simple ingredients: flour, water, and salt. We start with regionally-grown flour that’s organic, unbleached, and unbrominated flour. Instead of using commercial yeast we use an all-natural sourdough starter to help make our bread easily digestible again. Our baking process takes much longer than your average modern-day bakery but the end result is a product we can be proud of and that people can eat and feel good about. In fact some of our baked goods and most of our value-added products feature ingredients grown right here on the farm. As part of our commitment to local sustainability, we fuel our wood-fired oven with slab wood, a waste product from a local sawmill.
As part of our commitment to sustainability we also strive to create economic and environmental sustainability within our community by creating jobs and utilizing waste products (leaves, manure, vegetable scraps, and slab wood) as inputs into our operation.
Job description
We are looking for a qualified pastry professional to join our team as Head of Pastry in Saylorsburg, PA. In addition to our sourdough breads, we produce a suite of top shelf pastry items: turnovers, scones, puff-pastry twists, muffins, cookies, etc.
Our previous Head of Pastry had to move back to New Jersey suddenly and we are looking for someone with a solid pastry education and to fill that role. This position is one with leadership potential that we hope would grow toward assistant management and beyond in the future.
We are looking for someone with the education and skills necessary to not just do what they’re told, but do QA and help us iterate to continue to improve our product line. This person would be a self-starter who can work in a fast-paced product environment.
Duties:
- Oversee the production of pastries, including Turnovers, Scones, and other baked goods
- Ensure that all pastries are prepared according to recipes and quality standards
- Maintain a clean and organized work area, following food safety guidelines
- Collaborate with other kitchen staff to coordinate pastry production for Farmers' Markets -Shape anywhere between 400-1200 Loaves of bread as part of a team
Skills:
- Strong knowledge of food production techniques, particularly in pastry
- Familiarity with food safety regulations and best practices
- Excellent organizational skills to manage inventory and coordinate production schedules
- Strong attention to detail to ensure quality control in pastry production
- Previous experience in a restaurant or bakery setting is preferred
- Culinary training or relevant certification is a plus
Weekend availability required
5 days/week 40-50 hrs/week
Pay $18-$20/hr with opportunities for the right person to quickly advance to a salaried position.
Compensation
this position is: hourly, varies DOE, $18.00 - $20.00
Application instructions
This job expired on June 29, 2024
Deadline
no deadline