never trust a skinny baker...

I guess I should explain that statement...
...a contented "sized" tummy from lots of "experimentation" and "practice" in the kitchen...
...thick arms of the muscles needed for making doughs, carrying bags of flours and sugars...(not to mention moving the machinery from time to time)
...a few handful of wrinkles from the many mornings arising at the 3am alarm...
...the strong, but worn, hands of years of making, stretching, and shaping of dough...

Yet, to me, the modern baker is changing. At a stretched 4 ft 10 (and almost a half), thin frame, and just approaching 40, I have gotten many a look from people. Yet one statement stood out more than any other over this past summer of attending my first farmer's markets..."you can never trust a skinny baker".
At first I stood aback, almost wounded, like I didn't belong there. I had chased this dream for nearly 15 years, and worked hard to get to where I am today. Then I thought about it...I had alot of this same metality of what people and things are "supposed" to look like. I grew up enjoying cooking shows where the chefs and bakers all were depicted with this same original vision. My own mentality changed because I wanted to "fit in" to this elite group of people. Then I realized that the old adage "never judge a book by it's cover" is very true. Sometimes the "tigger's perserverance" is the driving force that has kept me going to accomplish my dream, and, at the same time, I can look at the world with a different view that is outside the little box that I had kept it in for so long. :)