As I wrote in an early post my son Nate started an almond business in April. A month or so later he was able to buy a commercial smoker and I brought it back with me. My son thought that I could smoke almonds for his business.
At first I just smoked almonds which sold well at the farmers markets but people started asking why we didn’t make flavored almonds. I wasn’t sure how to make flavored almonds or which flavors to even make. After looking at several books and articles on-line I had a couple of ideas and then Nate had tried some flavors with roasting.
I started out adding some olive oil, sea salt and pepper to a bowl then adding almonds, and after mixing them then smoking them. After many experiments I found that adding lots more salt and pepper is much better.
After that first batch of almonds I came up with the idea of soaking almonds in Key Lime juice then smoking them. Now I’ve expanded the smoked almonds to include: those with white wine, red wine, port, dark beer, pale ale, garlic, garlic and salt, and a “Margarita” Style using tequila, Key Lime juice and salt.
Tomorrow morning is the farmers market that I work for my son so I’ve been getting the almonds together. Our customers will be asking for their smoked almonds that they depend on us providing.
Yesterday was our 37th wedding anniversary, hard to believe that it has been that long but it does seem like forever in another way. But actually we did get married on a Saturday night.
We’d wanted to go away for a change and had thought that a place with a campground nearby would be perfect. We had some great Iron Horse Champagne and BV Cab that we wanted to drink with our dinner but didn’t want to drive anywhere after drinking.
Looking at our finances over the weekend I found that we really didn’t have enough money to do much extra. With starting up the cookie company recently all of our extra funds have gone to the start up costs, hence we were going to need to stay around here and make the best of it.
I took an inventory of what we had on hand: fresh brussel sprouts with fresh lemons and butter, celery and the makings for Celery Soup a la Julia Child and Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and some instant vanilla pudding.
Visiting the local butcher was my next step. I was thinking about smoking a nice piece of meat as without an oven that works the smoking was the next best way to cook. The butcher suggested a N.Y loin roast and I had him apply a garlic rub.
So I smoked our meat, made the other dishes, got out the silver, lit the candles while Dale poured our champagne. Ah, a wonderful dinner with the man I love.
At Sunday’s farmers market I was working alone as Dale was working at his nursing job and the Silva girls were not able to help out. A man came along carrying his camera; he looked like a news person. This is nothing new as journalism students regularly take photos of us for one assignment or another.
This man introduced himself as David Karp, writer for the food section of the L.A. Times. He’d met Nate at the Thousand Oaks market but was covering the Santa Clarita market this time. He wanted to feature our products in his article.
During our interview Bekki arrived with Christabel and Zaya in tow so he snapped photos of them as well. I wish that he would have put their photos in as they are the ones who can really sell for the business. Everyone loves these darling girls.
The article is in the Times on-line but I think it might be in next week’s actual paper.
This is so great for Nate and his Fat Uncle Farms. He has worked so hard to make this business work and we are so happy for him. It wasn’t that long ago that we would try to go on Dale’s days off and whenever I could otherwise, just to help out. Now he is truly on his way and we are so proud of him.
Instead of blogging about cooking I’ve been living cooking. I’ve been so busy that every night I try to blog but fall asleep with the computer on my lap. Fortunately the computer has not fallen on the floor yet.
Christine’s Almond Delights has been officially launched and orders have started coming in!
Jenavieve works in the deli of a grocery store, one of a small chain. She had spoken to one of the owners who expressed an interest in our cookies. Dale and I flew up to Justin’s and Jenavieve’s last weekend to give a presentation to the owner with samples. One carry on was full of samples and the other contained all of our clothes.
On Sunday Jenavieve and I went to a wine store in Arcata and then on to Eureka. We went to a large natural food store and a co-op there. Managers were not in so we left samples, brochures and business cards. People seemed to be fairly interested.
On Monday we made our presentation to Murphy’s and received an order on the spot for 2 cases of cookies; 1 crunchy and 1 chewy, plus a case of nuts.
On Tuesday I called Wine Wisdom, a wine shop we’d gone into while in San Francisco International Airport. The manager ordered a case of my smoked wine nuts on the spot. Now today I returned a call to the candy manager at Eureka Natural Foods and they want 4 cases. They have never tasted anything like the cookies I make. 2 cases will go on the shelves and 2 cases, individually packed, will go by the registers.
Nate and I think that at some point we will move the baking to his kitchen but for now I bake, Dale and I package and then ship. This is a true mom and pop operation for today.
Dale and I just finished with the packaging expo over the past two days. The expo was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center this year, in 2 of their halls.
We were looking for packaging for the cookies, the roasted and smoked almonds, almond milk smoothies, the almond butter and Christmas boxes.
I’d gotten on line on Sunday, put in the info we were interested in and the computer figured out the businesses that we should visit at the expo. Then the computer mapped out our route so that we would not waste time looking.
This was all well and good until we got into Central Hall and went to the first vendor. There were machines that would take up most of our house, filling packages, sealing packages and labeling packages. $1, mil maybe each? Since we work out of the house this wouldn’t be real practical, unless we don’t need any space to live.
We made our way around and went to South Hall where we found so many vendors selling the bags that we could use that by today we quit looking for those.
We couldn’t find any vendors selling Styrofoam boxes so decided that we’d just quickly go up and down every isle looking for packaging for frozen cookie dough and icing, and cardboard boxes. We did find several ideas for shipping the frozen products that are quite exciting.
On the last isle we almost quit but then went to the end. Wouldn’t you know, there we found the little bags we use for individual cookies. They have several types which will work well for us.
We found that many vendors have minimum orders of 50,000 items but then we found some who said that they would work with us. One company will send me enough containers to ship the icing out for testing. They were so excited for us branching out with our products.
We were at one vendor looking at some packaging for the almond butter and the rep said she was gluten intolerant so I gave her a cookie just for fun. She then advised me that she works for a health food store in the Midwest. They are always looking for new products and would love to have a product that no one else makes. Since she immediately loved the cookie she said she’d like to get them into their stores. I’ll be shipping some cookies to them and we will see where it goes. Funny we went for packaging and ended up networking.
When we were at the Food Service Expo in San Diego we’d met a couple of people who were interested in the cookies so promised that we would send some. A woman in Lancaster also wanted a dozen cookies but it hasn’t worked out well to send any cookies until now.
On Monday night Dale and I went to Santa Barbara to bake. Nate and family were really sick so we worked by ourselves baking then packaged everything up and returned back home. We baked about 105 crunchy cookies and 70 chewy some plain, with chocolate chips and some with raisins. We haven’t tried the raisin cookies until now. The raisin cookies turned out so good, they are easily my favorite.
I sent packages to the people I’d promised the cookies to plus some friends and a niece. I also took some cookies to the kitchen that makes the dough for fundraisers and they said they’d like to discuss pricing for dough.
One of the persons from the Expo was a man that led the e-mail workshop. He has now offered to help direct traffic once the web site is up and running. What a lucky offer for me.
Yesterday was busy but Dale was off from his night job so even though we had a ton of stuff to do I decided to make something decent for dinner. I’d shipped out a bunch of cookies so on my way home from the post office I stopped by Fresh and Easy, a local grocery store. There wasn’t any wild salmon but I did find some scallops that were marked down as the “use by” date was the 30th.
Cookie business seems to have come to a standstill for the time being. Discouraging.
I am waiting for the packaging expo which is one week from tomorrow and hopefully I’ll be able to actually buy the packaging that I need.
I’d asked my niece Laurie for any info she might have regarding snacks for the sets but she didn’t have any names. She does want cookies for gatherings she has so I’ll bake tomorrow then send her some.
I still need to get more nutrition labels but have run out of money for the time being.
Then about a year ago or so I had this idea for a petites four cutter thing but it looks like someone beat me to the punch. I couldn’t find a fabricator to build off of our prototype so put it aside. Now there are ads for a brownie cutter. GURR!
I’ve had better times in my life but it could be worse so I can’t dwell on the bad, just focus on where we go from here.
It is a warm evening, a little breeze; Dale has the BBQ on the back lawn with corn on the cob and squash going. I put some chicken breasts with the olive oil, Tequila, and fresh chili peppers on to marinade. We will make a bunch of food so that we can have leftovers.
The corn we will cut off the cob and use in salads, use the extra chicken breasts in salads and as a dinner and the squash with dinners made with the chicken.
A good white wine will be good with the dinner. I think that I’ll start now.
Yesterday was all about almonds. I’d gotten one tray of almonds soaking in key lime juice and 3 more in a olive oil, salt and pepper mix. Everything was ready to go into the smoker when Nate called. Opps, it seems that the lime juice almonds are now more popular and I had the mix wrong. Too late.
Sunny, a neighbor girl Lauren and I rushed out the door and off to Santa Barbara where I needed to mix up cookies and pick up everything for the farmers market this morning. We were about 1 hour late but did arrive in time for dinner.
Then it was off to the kitchen where I mixed dough for 400 cookies, baked about 30 and wrapped the rest for freezing.
Nate reported that he sold all of the 30 cookies at today’s farmers market.
The vendor next to me had hoped that her sister would visit. Her sister works for food supply companies who supply the tv production companies. They apparently are always looking for a healthy snack to stock. The sister didn’t come but I’ll investigate on my own.
The cookie business is getting close to being a reality. Today I got my business license, city license and the permit to run a business from my home. We have a certified kitchen already. So now I only need to get my food handling certificate so that I can work at my own business not my son’s.
I was getting the permit to run a business from my home and the clerk asked if I had any samples. I replied yes as I had brought one in the event I needed the address of the certified kitchen. When I told him that there was no wheat only almonds he decided not to try the cookie, but another person asked to try. She tried the cookie and reported that they were really good. So good that she would like to give them out at her Adult Boot Camp that she runs.
I tried to shoot photos for the website but the photos of the cookies didn’t just pop. I’ll try again tomorrow using some different lighting. For tonight I’ll read everything I can find on the internet.
The two granddaughters, Sunshine and Taylor, plus the neighbor girl Kristin and I spent the early afternoon preparing for tomorrow’s farmers market in Santa Clarita. We’d picked up the entire product from Nate last night. He remembered the Almond Butter this time; he had forgotten it for the past two weeks and people were asking for it. But he did forget to bring the Roasted Almonds. They will keep but there are people who only want Roasted Almonds. So tomorrow we have Blister Almonds, Almond Butter, Smoked Lime Almonds and Smoked Salt and Pepper Almonds. We also have raw almonds, some right off the ground still in the hull and some already shelled. We had to pick thru the shelled almonds as water had gotten to some and caused them to spoil so we had to remove them. The girls found some bugs as pointed them out, poking on them and yelling EWWW. We’d hoped to have our cookies there this weekend as we had obtained the product liability insurance as required by L.A. County but now they have added another requirement to the list. Now I’ll try to get our evening going as we have a very early morning.
We have our nutrition labels for our cookies. Unfortunately I didn’t tell the chemist that the total amount of the recipe wasn’t what would actually go into the package so the label is for the total amount that a recipe makes not what I’ll package. The worse part about the nutrition label is having the info in front of my eyes. Each cookie is over 200 calories with 140 calories of fat! OMG that is so bad!!! I can’t even eat one of my cookies. I’d have to work out at the gym really hard for an hour or two. I hate to see how many calories I’ve devoured in testing these. I’ll tell myself that the cookies are really healthy!
Over the last couple of days I’ve called every bakery nearby and a kitchen rental business trying to see if anyone would rent some space to me. All I heard was NO, NO, NO. And the kitchen rental didn’t even answer. I was really discouraged. Well yesterday late afternoon the owner of the kitchen rental business called and we agreed that I would come by today. My inspection of the kitchen indicates that they have all of the equipment that I need. As compared to the kitchen in S.B. the oven is very new. There are 3 Hobart’s with the smallest being the size we have in S.B. After inspecting the kitchen I went back to the front office where both owners were. They told me that they made cookie dough for fundraisers among other things. The man told me that they are interested in carrying our cookie dough for their fundraisers. WOW! I must get this thing on the road.
Sunshine needed to make some money so I had her make almond meal and help with other products. We made another batch of bars but after they were baked I thought that they looked funny. I lifted them and the whole thing was like one large cracker. UGH. We’d forgotten to add baking powder. Everything went into the trash. I ran to the store to purchase more egg whites but once home I decided we’d quick mix up some cookie dough to get into the freezer. After getting one long roll in the freezer I thought I’d just bake one sheet for us. A timer went off and I glanced at the oven and saw flames in the oven. I opened the oven door and the paper under the cookies was on fire with ash throughout the over. Of course there were no oven mitts available but I did find some and sent Sunny out to get Dale. I got the cookies out and as they had only been in the oven about 3 minutes I sent them with the neighbor girl to finish baking them at her house. Dale is cleaning the oven now so we will see if that takes care of the problem.
I thought that I’d make up a batch of bar dough, freeze it then try making cookies from it. The dough is made with egg whites so it is difficult to know how it will bake after freezing the dough. I have made a big batch and frozen ½, the rest is in the oven in order to check of the recipe. My problem with these bars is that I have to take the number of egg whites to be used and translate it into cups. I did this at the Bakersfield kitchen but found that I needed more almond stuff. I didn’t write down what I did. GRR. Today I made the batch and added meal until I had the consistency I wanted. After giving this some thought I believe that I’d added more almond butter when I was at the kitchen than I did today. I’ll need to make another batch tonight using more butter and then I’ll compare the taste. It is never ending.
Nate didn’t need cookies this week so we came on home only to find out that my nephew David (Dale’s sister’s son) had started working on a cutter thing that I’d had an idea for. This idea came about 1 year ago and Dale and I had built a prototype but when we could not find a fabricator to make one for us we put the idea aside. I’d also made a video using the cutter and the video referred to a buttercream icing that I developed. David heard about the cutter at the Siemens Reunion and immediately had ideas on building one. So as we came home we got a message from David with some initial drawings. While Dale drove home I’d been working on the timeline for the cookies. Now I had to combine the cookies, icing and cutter must do list. Today I spent looking up companies who provide barcodes and who do nutrition testing. I want to get that done next week. I also sent out requests to friends and family members to test the icing. Friday I’ll make icing and bake some cookies to ship out that afternoon.
Wow, day 2 of the food expo and we are charged up. We had signed up for 3 workshops but only two were offered after all; e-mail 101 and advanced e-mail. I wasn’t sure how e-mail would be involved with business but decided that these were necessary workshops. The speaker owns a business that organizes e-mail clubs for large businesses. You may ask what an e-mail club is. This is a “club” or group that one may sign up for and receive special coupons or information on new products via e-mail. I get e-mails for specials from Rubio’s and Dave’s BBQ. The 101 class was to introduce us to the basics and Dale and I were amazed at the possibilities for Nate and me. Here we learned how to start an e-mail club and the basics on how to run it. In the advanced class we learned more details on what we need with the startup and what the site should look like. Between classes we ran into the speaker in the hall and started talking. I told him how we could apply his ideas to the cookies and almonds. He immediately took an interest in our business and gave more tips. He gave me his card and said to call with any questions. I in turn told him I’d send some cookies.
Today was the 1st day of the Western Food Expo. OMG!!! I left Bakersfield at 7am, picked up Dale and headed down to San Diego. After a stop to drop stuff off for Nate at the farmers market we got on our way. I was not entirely happy to be driving the Mazda with no AC in 100+ but lack of $$ this week made this a necessity. As it turned out we could not have made a better choice. The parking structure was very tight and we were able to park close to where we wanted to be with the Mazda. The truck would have been impossible. As for the food expo: there are 100’s of exhibitors there. For those of you who have never been to an expo the point is for exhibitors to sell their wares. They exhibit all or many of the items they sell but only one of each item. Buyers come and place orders for the items. At this expo many exhibitors are selling food products, hence the food expo, so they give samples of the foods they produce. When Dale and I walked into the expo we came into the Mexican Food area. We didn’t really know what to expect but found people picking up food at nearly every booth. We got immediately into a line and picked up food then went on to have every type of Mexican food that is made. After walking to the end of the expo we started back the other way sampling every flavor of smoothie, beers, wines, martinis, yogurts, beef from Canada and Montana, BBQ and an incredible salmon salad. I’m stuffed. Like Julia Child said, “I’m growing right before your eyes”. For 5 hours we sampled food but did manage to find some containers for the cookies. We have a ton of samples being shipped to our house in all shapes and sizes. Tomorrow we will attend our workshops after 2 hours of eating. The expo opens at 11 and our workshops start at 1. We wouldn’t want to attend a workshop with our stomach growing now would we?
Amazing the difference a day makes. I was going along minding my business, trying to get things in order for tomorrow. We will leave in the morning for San Diego to attend the Food Expo. The phone rang and it was a lady who had bought some of the cookies from the Carpinteria’s Farmers Market. As she spoke I remembered that she had been visiting Carpinteria but from Lancaster. I’d told her that I could deliver cookies when I visited my mom. The lady, and I didn’t get her name, asked if I’d be in Lancaster so that I could bring her some of the cookies. She said that the chewy cookies were “heavenly” and that I was an “angel” for developing a wonderful cookie that she could eat without fear of getting sick. She ordered 16 cookies. Wow!
I'm fighting discouragement and being overwhelmed. I’ve need to get the cookies approved by the USDA I think, but can’t find info on where the application is, or if in fact that is the place I need to go. Then I need money for all this stuff and today we have not a cent to our names. UGH. Then after getting all of the permits and ok’s I have to go to stores and get them to carry and then sell these cookies. And while the cookies sell at the farmer’s markets, that doesn’t mean that they will sell in stores. I also write this blog as I can but no one reads it. I know that I write for myself but it was just discouraging. Now kicking myself in the butt: Dale and I will go to a food expo in San Diego Sunday and Monday. We have 3 workshops scheduled, two of which are about setting up and running an e-mail business. I’m anxious to learn about packaging for the cookies, the icing and the petits fours cutter that I’m taking out of mothballs next week. Also we will look at marketing possibilities. I’ll write about our adventures.
We are off to Santa Barbara this afternoon to bake.
Nate and I decided that we will roll out the bars this week at the farmers markets. I’ll bake one batch but this time in two smaller pans. Now that I’ve worked with the ovens at the kitchen I’m more comfortable in baking a new product in them.
We will also bake only ½ of the cookie dough and freeze the remainder in rolls, and then Nate can cut the cookies off and bake them throughout the week. Cookies will be fresher at the markets. I’ll fill a pan with the cookies as I usually do then take the cookies off and measure the length of one cookie. After putting the cookies back together and into a roll I’ll measure it then we can use that for a base of what we need to make. I’ll wrap the rolls in plastic wrap, put them into the freezer and Nate will take them out, partially thaw them then bake them as needed.
This is the end of the 2nd day of the Siemens Reunion. Carolyn, Dale’s sister hosted this year and held it at her house. She had prepared sole food for the family; veranika and German sausage for Friday night, Jiaozi for lunch and pie and homemade ice cream for dinner.
Veranika is a dish that Dale’s mom use to make which consists of a ½ circle dumpling filled with hoop cheese, similar to cottage cheese. The dumpling is fried and then boiled I believe. Then gravy is made using more cheese and maybe sour cream and served over the veranikas.
In China the jiaozi is a Chinese dumpling. In this case the recipe comes from an old family friend who lived in China as a child. The recipe consists of a serving of cold cooked potatoes, bean sprouts and rice noodles is put in the bottom of the dish; then a layer of salad consisting of chopped celery, bok choy and some small chopped meat; then a layer of the jiaozis which are meat balls in a wonton wrapper boiled in water.
Carolyn’s specialty is pies and she made plenty; peach, pecan, custard and some others which I didn’t look closely at. Pie with homemade ice cream was a great ending to the reunion.
This evening was the 1st day of the Siemens Reunion but I won't blog about the food because I was starving after dinner. I had 1/2 of a Veranika with some gravy and two very small peices of German sausage. I always loved this food after being introduced to it but now it just makes me sick.
Fortunately I'd brought some brie and rice crackers and lots of wine. We are having our own party in our RV.
I'd brought some of the bars I'd made on Thurs, along with the cookies and after a day the bars are actually quite good. I did cut off the overcooked edges but the center is not so soggy. I'm not sure that they will sell but I'll make more and we will see how they do at the farmer's market.
And I thought that the Santa Barbara Kitchen was small, YIKES I went to the kitchen and worked this morning in Bakersfield. I’d visited the kitchen after meeting Carol and thought that I could perhaps work from there but can only work in the kitchen from 6-8am and 3-5 pm.
I went this morning; I didn’t remember that I was to call Carol before going. OPPS, but the woman working early made room for me. The kitchen is an L-shape with the stove visible from the dining room. A workroom is off the front about 6’ wide and 15’ long. There is a sink on the right and 2 small narrow tables to work on.
I’d originally thought that I could bake the cookies at the kitchen but since I was gone over the weekend and Nate needed them on Tuesday it made sense to bake at Nate’s. I’d have to deliver them anyway and could only bake a few at a time here so it was easier to bake them all at once and have them there at the same time.
I’d taken all of my ingredients today, arriving at about 6:25a.m. I wanted to bake some bars that I’d tried 1st. There is no Hobart but fortunately everything fit inside the kitchen aid mixer. I took up both tables with my ingredients so that the regular help had to work on other projects.
I mixed my bars and tried to spread them in the pan. I’d lined the pan with 6-12x12 sheets but put the batter all on one end so when I tried to spread the batter the sheets moved. Fortunately the sheets did not separate allowing the batter to run onto the baking sheet.
I had enough batter to fill one whole sheet and put it into the oven for 40 min. It was done baking with 10 minutes to spare. Carol kept some of the bars to give out as samples and I took the rest.
After arriving home I found that the paper was sticking to the bottom so that will need to be rectified. The end was baked to a crisp but the middle too soft.
I’ll see how the bars are tomorrow and how the Siemens family likes them.
