MILWAUKEE — If you’ve been grocery shopping lately, you know eggs are in high demand, not to mention very expensive.
It’s not only putting a strain on families but also on bakeries, which are searching for solutions.
La Casa Del Pan is owned by four brothers from Oaxaca, Mexico. Each day the Milwaukee bakery uses about 14-dozen eggs to fill its orders.
Co-owner Heladio Garcia said that eggs are the main ingredient in most of the family’s recipes.
“When we started the business, me and my brothers… decided to open an Oaxacan bakery, and now we cannot cut (back) on the eggs because it would not be Oaxacan bread anymore,” he said.
Higher egg costs forced the bakery to lay off workers. The brothers have taken on the open shifts, which means 16-hour days, seven days a week.
They’re hoping to re-hire the laid-off workers this spring.
Heladio Garcia said the business is paying 100% more for eggs today than last month. It’s also tough to get enough eggs from their wholesale vendors.
One solution has been buying eggs from area farmers.
“It’s like helping each other, you know, we are helping the farmers and of course, they are helping us as well, so I think it is a win-win situation here, and it is better for us because we like to buy local as well,” said Heladio Garcia.
His brother, Efren Garcia, said many of their customers are from Oaxaca, so they would know if the recipes were changed.
“When they taste our bread, they know because they have been tasting the bread from Oaxaca… so it is very important for us to keep the quality as it is,” said Efren Garcia.
The brothers’ parents owned a bakery in Oaxaca when they were kids. They, and their co-owners, Bulmaro and Silverio Garcia, learned early in life the importance of hard work.
“To have a better life, you have to start the day early and in the bakery business, we start really early and then we work late at night too,” said Heladio Garcia.
It’s a work ethic the four brothers hope will keep their business going in this tough economy and serve as an anchor for the bakery’s future.