“Bagels are the Jewish people’s love language”
Bagels are a central part of the Jewish faith and Amanda’s heritage, “the Jewish people’s love language,” as she says. Amanda Rainey grew up around bagels, recalling them served with cream cheese and lox at every family function and a frozen six-pack in every relatives’ freezer. After meeting Sarah Medcalf when they were both new mothers searching for a mom-friendly breakfast place, the idea of Goldie’s Bagels was born: “bagels made by moms for your mornings, meetings and mazel tovs.” Before jumping into a brick and mortar location, Goldie’s Bagels is beginning as a pop-up in Pizza Tree’s kitchen, which Amanda’s husband, Johnny, owns.
The bagels are handmade by Amanda and Sarah with locally sourced ingredients, and each week a special bagel sandwich is featured for their Monday popup. One of September’s bagel sandwiches was an apple, honey, and lemon cream cheese on a bagel for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Apples and honey symbolize a sweet new year and are an annual treat at the Rainey household as Amanda and Johnny teach their two young daughters the Jewish religion. This year also featured a special field trip to an apple orchard as a way to combine the homeschooling Amanda is doing for the girls due to COVID and their religious education.
As typical of moms, Amanda balances a lot between raising, and now homeschooling also, her two daughters, starting a business and maintaining her own faith and health. She does this with grace, seamlessly weaving together the parts of her life that are important: family, bagels, and faith.
Rosie Gilbreth, 4, and Laila Palmieri, 4, take off running through the apple orchard at the encouragement of Amanda Rainey and Johnny Gilbreth, who are followed by Cheri Palmieri, a family friend, and Micah Gilbreth, 1. Amanda is currently homeschooling her two daughters and this week’s was focused on apples and Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. “I taught them the word “orchard” today,” Amanda remarked to Johnny as they walked. 
Amanda Rainey and her oldest daughter, Rosie, pick apples for Goldie’s Bagels Rosh Hashanah bagel sandwich which will feature apples, honey and lemon cream cheese to celebrate a sweet new year. “I like my bagels a certain way and you can’t find them in Columbia,” explained Amanda. “Til now,” Sarah Medcalf, partner in Goldie’s Bagels, interjects. “We’re just making what like we like,” Amanda follows. 
Amanda Rainey shows Micah, 1, how to twist an apple off a branch. Each week, Goldie’s Bagels features new sandwiches which Amanda finds inspiration for based on what is in season. On Saturday’s, Amanda and Sarah go to the farmers market to find fresh ingredients for Monday’s pop-up. 
Amanda Rainey’s “Mizzou Hillel We heart Bagels” sticker is front and center as Amanda emails out reminders to the day’s customers to come pick up their bagels. Goldie’s Bagels is far from Amanda’s first bagel experience in Columbia. In the Fall of 2013, Amanda started Bagel Tuesdays at Mizzou Hillel to encourage Jewish students to come in and engage in the culture. 
Sarah Medcalf and Amanda Rainey, left to right, work side by side weighing ingredients for the first dough of the morning. Sarah and Amanda are grateful to Pizza Tree for “incubating our business” and making the start much easier. By partnering with Pizza Tree, Goldie’s Bagels has access to ingredients and equipment they wouldn’t otherwise 
Amanda Rainey puts bagel dough in the oven to bake. Eighteen bagels fit on a tray, and in the oven, and is a multiple of 90, which just so happens to be the perfect batch size of bagels. Eighteen also happens to be a very special number in Judaism as well. The Hebrew letters that spell “chai,” which mean living, add up to 18 in the Jewish numerology form, gematria. Amanda also said that when giving money as gifts, you always receive a multiple of 18, as a symbol of gifting them a good omen for life. 
Amanda Rainey takes a photo of this week’s featured bagel for Goldie’s Bagels social media. Amanda hand placed each apple slice and slowly drizzled the honey with consideration making her care for detail evident. According to her partner Sarah, Amanda is the queen of Excel and handles all the spreadsheets for the business, as well as most of the social media. 
Amanda Rainey takes a photo of Micah, 1, Rosie and Laila, 4, showing off their apples. Part of their schooling this week was also to learn the Apples and Honey song, in English and Hebrew, which is a typical Jewish song children are taught for Rosh Hashanah.
Self Review Wrap UP:
I really enjoyed my subject and thought my project was really great. I unfortunately ended up with some personal health issues during this time. My biggest regret is not being able to put in the time I really needed for this project and I think it shows.
This story for me was primarily about three things: her religion, her family, and her bagel shop. I thought it was interesting how much overlap she had in these three areas and how connected they all were. I started with a focus on the bagel and the bagel shop she had started with her friend. Their friendship and partnership began when they were becoming moms together. I aimed towards pictures that showed this relationship or captured Amanda’s personality. I think I got distracted by the bagels.
With the story having a heavy family element (her husband owns Pizza Tree, it’s aimed at moms, they became friends by being moms, bagels are a Jewish/family thing for Amanda), I knew I needed photos of them all together. I got the perfect opportunity when the family decided to go apple picking to gather apples for a Rosh Hashanah themed bagel sandwich at Goldie’s and as an educational trip for their daughters to learn about apples and Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashana is the Jewish New Year in which they eat apples and honey to celebrate a sweet new year. This could not have been better timing for my project, and I think it allowed me to see a different side of Amanda and get wonderful pictures of her interacting with her children. This perfectly tied in the family aspect.
I think the biggest part where I struggled was tying in the religious aspect. As I said, I think I got distracted by bagels. I wish I had spent less time watching them make bagels, although a little bit was important, and had instead requested more time with Amanda’s family, especially on the New Year. I didn’t focus on her husband really at all, both in the shooting but also in the editing. The class seemed really intrigued by the relationship between Goldie’s Bagels and Pizza Tree, as Amanda owns Goldie’s and Johnny, her husband, owns Pizza Tree. And it was really interesting seeing it play out too. However, I only actually met Johnny once, and adding on that detail wasn’t in my one-sentence description. With how few photos required for that final edit, I felt I had to be really precise in what I wanted to say. So that’s the process, what I did good, what I did bad. The important thing here though is what I learned. I hadn’t shot anything in months prior to this so I was a little nervous to pick up my camera again. But I did it and I didn’t hate it, so I learned to not fear my camera again. I also became reintroduced to old habits and broke them (we hope), so relearning old lessons was important. Lastly, I think I learned to be a little more efficient. I didn’t use my time as wisely as I should have for this assignment, but I learned what not to do, so I think I have a better plan for next time.