Staff writer
While many will still be tucked away in their beds at 3:30 a.m. Saturday, Rachel Schmidt will begin preparing baked goods she will serve at Norel Farms Bakery during Hillsboro’s Arts and Crafts fair.
Loaf bread and gluten-free breads will be made in advance, and the bakery will offer fresh zwieback, cinnamon rolls, cookies, and other pastries.
“The difference on Arts and Crafts Fair day is that we make everything fresh that day,” Schmidt said. “We make donuts all morning long, I make all the cookies that day, I make all the muffins that day.”
Other than a dishwasher that comes in the mornings, Schmidt is the only one working at the bakery on a normal day of the year.
However, on Arts and Crafts day, she recruits as much help as she can find.
“On Arts and Crafts day, all I do that day is make cinnamon rolls,” Schmidt said. “My husband is the one who puts out all the ‘fires’ that day.”
Schmidt’s children also help, taking over the register and baking muffins and cookies.
Her husband’s parents, brother, his brothers’ wife, and their children also will come from Meade to assist, and Schmidt’s children’s college roommates also will lend a hand.
“Everyone will have something to do,” Schmidt said. “
At last year’s fair, the bakery sold 32 dozen cinnamon rolls, and this year will offer something new: raisin fritters.
“I don’t always offer that because I didn’t have enough helpers,” Schmidt said, “but this year my brother and his wife will be here and they’re going to be doing them.”
The bakery will be open 5:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday for the fair, and is open 5:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.