A Happy Family Is But An Earlier Heaven: A Day Filled With Fun

January 11, 2015, Sunday was my eldest son's field trip. Assembly time was 5:00 am and the bus was supposed to leave at 5:30 am. We got there a little late like around 5:40 am. The bus left at 5:50 am and there were two students with 2 companions that were left behind coz they didn't come on time. I just hope there's a refund. The fee is Php1,000 per head. We paid Php3,000 (Vivo, Me and Mazie) Vinno was free of charge.

We first went to Gardenia Factory, we arrived there at around 7:00 am. We watched the process of how they make the bread. Machines do all the works. Amazing!

Gardenia uses the traditional American Sponge and Dough bread-making method to bake you that soft-textured loaf with a tender crust and distinct taste. This unique method ensures that Gardenia's bread stays fresh longer and tastes so good you can even eat it on its own.

Step 1: Automatic blending

The production process begins with a computerized blending of the exact amount of quality ingredients needed. This helps to ensure equal goodness in every loaf.

Step 2: Production of sponge mix

The specially formulated Gardenia enriched flour, purified water, yeast, vitamins and minerals are added together to form the sponge which is released into a trough.

Step 3: Fermentation room

The sponge dough is then kept in a fermentation room, under controlled temperature and humidity for four hours, so that carbon dioxide is released, and the sponge can rise. This fermentation process helps the sponge to develop a unique Gardenia bread texture,aroma and taste.

Step 4: Production of dough mix

At this stage, the sponge is mixed again with other ingredients to form the dough. Depending on the type of bread to be baked, these can include skimmed milk powder, vegetable shortening, wheatgerm, bran, malt or honey.

Step 5: Divider

The dough is then divided into the required weight for each loaf and conveyed to rounder.

Step 6: Rounder

At the rounder, each piece of dough is kneaded so that carbon dioxide is trapped and the bread can develop soft texture when it is baked.

Step 7: Checkweigher

The dough piece then go through the checkweigher. Here, piece that are over or under the required weight are automatically rejected.

Step 8: Intermediate proofer

the dough is then left to rest in the intermediate proofer for 10 minutes before being moulded and placed into the baking pan.

Step 9: Moulder

Here, the dough is shaped according to the desired configuration and then automatically placed into the pan.

Step 10: Automatic lidder

The pan are lidded automatically to give the bred it uniform rectangular shape.

Step 11: Final proofer

At this final proofer stage, the yest is allowed to rise further under controlled temperature nd humidity.Once the dough has risen to the desired height, it is finally ready for baking.

Step 12: Tunnel oven

Here, Gardenia bread are baked for about 20 minute at a temperature of approximately 200 degree Celsius in the state-of-the-art tunnel oven.

Step 13: Automatic delidder and depnner

Hot from the oven, the freshly baked loaves are then removed by vacuum suction before being conveyed to a bread cooler.

Step 14: Bred cooler

This bread cooler can holdup to 8000 loaves of bread per hour. The freshly baked and hot bread loaves need to be kept in the cooler for about an hour until slightly above room temperature before it is ready for packing.

Step 15: Automatic slicer and bagger

when the loaves are sufficiently cooled, it is then ready to be sliced, wrapped and made convenient for consumption in attractive Gardenia.

Step 16: Daily delivery

In the early hour of the morning when most people are still asleep at about 3am, Gardenia begins preparation for its daily deliveries, 364 days a year. The freshly baked bread are tacked into the Gardenia's fleet of delivery trucks seven days a week, come rain or shine and delivered to some 3000 retail outlets throughout Singapore.

After that, we went to the private resort which is 15 minutes away from Gardenia Factory. There we had our breakfast, lunch and snack. The water was really warm and the place is really nice and cozy. The kids enjoyed swimming. Too bad i had my period at that time so i wasn't able to swim. I took a nap since there are air-conditioned rooms available.

We left the private resort at around 3:50 pm and arrived my son's school at around 5:20 pm. Finally got home safely at around 6:00 pm. We really had so much fun! This won't be the last. It was truly a fascinating trip!

Kids fell fast asleep. They must be really tired. By the way, Vinno didn't give me a hard time during the entire trip. He was so behave! Thank heavens!