Demand increases for my gourmet products...

It's been a while since I was able to blog. It's been pretty busy over the past couple of weeks.

Late April through May, my gourmet products were selling out fast at several local retailers including Davenport Farms, The High Falls Food Co-Op and Fleisher's Grass Fed & Organic Meats. In addition to replenishing their retail sales inventory, several retailers have also requested my gourmet products in new larger size containers for a variety of uses. For example, Kevin over at Woodstock Meats and Erica at Fleisher's Meat Market plan to use their half gallon sizes of the Caribbean Hot Sauce and Portuguese Repolho Relish to give their customers free samples. Bruce at Davenport Farm Market is offering dinner's to go and has plans to feature my gourmet products on a Caribbean themed dinner menu perhaps once each week- at $8.95 per pound, it's a pretty good deal! If you've been curious about my gourmet international sauces and condiments and you're in the area, drop by one of these retailers and try a sample or pick up dinner to go. We know once you try them, you'll want to buy.

Though I've been just thrilled that you are all enjoying my delectably savory gourmet sauces and condiments, my challenge has been how to keep up with production to meet existing demand while continuing to nurture existing client relationships (and activity I consider paramount) while also simultaneously supporting our mutual business success via development and deployment of effective marketing initiatives and visiting new stores to grow the company. That the past 6 weeks have been a whirlwind is a tremendous understatement.

I've spent a lot of time in the kitchen cooking and also on the road visiting and talking with clients. It feels rewarding to build relationships with other local business owners and work together with them in support of both our businesses. It feels like a big support group where we share ideas and explore ways to meet your needs in a way that will also meet our needs...and all the time, I've been learning, learning, learning. What a rush!

In addition to cooking and building client relationships, there are other important related tasks that I've been attending to also. For example, I had to identify the right size and type of jar for the larger quantities that would meet my retailer's needs, develop new labels for these larger sizes, cook additional product to fill these jars, register these new container sizes with the FDA and list these new sizes on my website (I'm still working on this). In addition to all this, I'm planning to be an exhibitor at the Rosendale Street Festival this July and I've had to also start getting ready for that- July is fast approaching! I've already registered for the event and got a booth but I still need to get my insurance certificate in, decide on the layout and configuration for the space and start buying the materials I'll need to set up the space while also ensuring that I have enough inventory to sell at the event (this means...you guessed it, more cooking). I've been visiting online sites, visiting stores, pricing materials and talking with my network of experienced vendors to price and purchase those items but it's time consuming work and slow going.

So, in order to keep up with everything, I had to seriously start looking for a company to partner with to outsource the cooking. Much as I love it, it's just too time consuming for me to continue performing. I was interested in an organization similar to Hudson Valley Foodworks, a commercial and incubator kitchen in Poughkeepsie, NY that provides small and start up gourmet and specialty food producers like myself with not only kitchen space and equipment but also full scale production services. I learned that Hudson Valley Foodworks was no longer operational but that a new organization called Farm 2 Table (F2T) was providing the same services and they're located right here in Kingston NY. At Farm 2 Table's helm is Jim Highland and Luc Roels who I got to know during the time I spent working at Hudson Valley Foodworks. I had a meeting with Jes who coordinates all the activities and it looks like F2T will be able to help significantly by meeting my production needs at a reasonable price. I'll keep you posted on developments as they unfold and I'll try to not wait another 6 weeks to do that.

Finally, I wanted to share 2 things quickly before signing off...

First, some of my retail clients have some really interesting products, services, discounts and special offers that I think you might find beneficial or useful so I've decided to blog about these as they come up. Go ahead and visit the featured retailers if their products and services meet your needs and take advantage of their discounts and special offers especially on that unique or hard to find item. It would be great if you shared your experiences here not only for the benefit of other readers and also so I can know if and how these are working for you.

Next, I've heard about some of the delicious meal creations many of you have been inspired to make with my gourmet products and I'd really LOVE it if you could blog about the meals you've made and the culinary experiences you've had with my gourmet products. I think other readers would also be inspired by your recipes and may even want to make your creative meal ideas.

OK, well, that's it for now. I've had my hands full as usual but it's all good and I'm still having fun.

Here's to great tasting gourmet food and summer time fun!

Terry