Tuesday Happenings

A couple new things, a few old things, mostly bread & roses & pickles:

Let’s address the ‘rose issue’ around here. When we moved in, there were new rose bushes lining the driveway in a railroad tie raised bed, and a few cultivated rose bushes here and there. We’re not ‘rose’ people, per se, as I prefer a more low-maintenance kind of flower and the culture of them is just too intense for me (likely same with peonies, or irises, etc) so we removed the raised bed and sold the roses. However, our entire property is peppered by wild country rose – a crazy invasive bush with tiny white rose flowers that open fully and last a week. When we find them, Josh tries to hack them back into “proper behavior” or we move them to the road front. I envisioned a Disney Sleeping Beauty hedge, very Maleficent – thorns, leaves, a wall of separation from the logging trucks and jacked up pick ups, etc. and it is turning out as I had imagined. It’s a lovely rose hedge – in flower right now – of mostly wild rose but occasionally interrupted by other random roses. It’s a fence, but not a fence.
But we are moving along – sales are ok, not great, but I really love some of our die hard customers. I feel like we are helping them to feed their families as much as they are helping to feed ours. It’s truly lovely. Josh is perfecting a new slicing loaf (like a white milk bread, but sourdough, I think) and we’re toying with some new flavors of stuff (like Cinnamon/Sugar crackers, and Egg bagels).
In that place of ok, let me hint at some interesting changes around here. It’s about time we pursued a more stable line of business so we’re building a plan that includes a commercial kitchen and possibly (simultaneously) mobility…we shall see how this plan works out (can you see my fingers tapping together like a mad villain?! yes!). Because if we want to be able to feed our family (or rather – house our family), we need to step up our game. Some things may change with that – there are some things that once we get licensed officially that we can no longer sell, very popular things, but we are trying to figure that out, too, so our people stay happy! (and thank you again for being so happy with us!)
With other new thoughts of new things, we might be adding a redesign of The Secret Pickle Club, as there is a bit of confusion right now how it works (you sign up and get a discounted jar of whatever pickles we choose) since Secret Pickle Club members are starting to talk to each other and are surprised that they get different pickles than others. Well, yes! We’re trying to introduce you to pickles you might not have tried before. It gives us feedback and cleans out small numbers of inventory, too. But what we might do is switch that up a bit so that all members get the same on any given week, and that a higher membership fee will grant you some extra special merch made just for the Pickle Club. Now, doesn’t that sound super fun?!
AND…we’ve put up a new pickle that might change our business structure. WOW! – that must be some pickle. We hope so, more coming on this new development soon. It might go really well with our other big changes! I’m excited, Josh is excited, Duende is super excited – and you will be excited too.
Anything else? Yes, well, put it on your calendar for July 18th at the Good Life Center, a lecture by me on how some pragmatic American thinkers add to and help get us out of the quicksand of ideologies. It’s an eco-aesthetic conversation about what I call Bread Philosophy. If you can haul your cookies up there, I look forward to seeing you! (If you want to give me a ride, all the better, let me know! ha!).

Happy Tuesday!