Never Know Who You’ll Meet at the Market
Lexie, who has been working the tent at the City Market in downtown KC, had a lovely encounter with this gentlemen recently. She said this was one of the coolest dudes she’s met this year.
Living With A Startup
Here are a couple of pictures from our first week at the Overland Park Farmers Market. How cool is Valerie’s apron? And, no, that is definitely not our Lexus in the background.
Let me tell ya, seeing Hippie Chow in the wild, NEVER gets old!
I Got a Promotion!
Not only am I the Head Labeler, I now am in training to be Head Date Stamper! Still waiting for that officer title. Yeah right.
Coffee Delivery!
Someone, and I won’t mention any names, needed a little boost to get through a full day of production…
It’s has been a crazy busy holiday season (definitely a good thing!) and the folks at Hippie Chow are now gearing up to do their first trade show. The Fancy Food Show in San Francisco is in a couple weeks and Valerie and Lexie are hard at work making all the groovy granola to pass out during the show. So, as I use up all my vacation days at the end of 2011, I thought I would provide a little caffeine boost to help them get through the day.
Cheers ladies!
It means…
…making a dinner delivery for a late night production run.
A Day in the Kitchen
I spent the majority of my holiday away from the cubicle at the Hippie Chow Production Facility. It was the first time I helped out in the kitchen since the days we were renting out space out in Lawrence, Kansas, just when Hippie Chow was getting its start.
Had such a great time pestering Valerie and Lexie (HC Production Manager) with taking pictures and asking questions. I also was able to help out in some facets of production with labeling all the bags and taking a stab at the heat sealer (with mixed results).
It was a monumental day because two Hippie Chow Granola Lab flavors “graduated” to full time status! (Hippie Chow Granola Lab is the flavor testing division of our product line. We have black and white unmarked labels that we can customize with new flavor combinations.) Our Chai Spice and Cafe Blend flavors have been a hit at the Farmer’s Markets and with everyone we tested them upon.
So, both flavors now have beautiful new colors to go along with their wonderful and unique flavors! Say hello to the new creations!
Lexie measuring oats for a batch of Peanut Butter Banana…
And these little guys are waiting in line for the heat sealer…
Don’t want any of the granola goodness spilling out!
“Day Off”
On a day off from my number-crunching cubicle job, thought I’d come in to the Hippie Chow offices and put on some labels!
There is a full day of baking for the folks at Hippie Chow. I plan on seeing just how hard they work.
Our Wonderful Farmer’s Market
Hippie Chow got its start at the Overland Park Farmer’s Market. It was the perfect spot to see if other folks liked the wonderful granola that Valerie started making in our kitchen. We have been a vendor now for two years and have met a lot of amazing farmers and other local food vendors. This weekend was the last market for the season, so Valerie and I went to pay a visit (our last weekend was in late September) to all those vendors attempting to stay warm in the cold fall morning in Kansas.
Going on this late October weekend reminded me of how unique and eclectic a farmer’s market can be. As we talked to our tent neighbor about all his wonderful squash he has in season (we picked up 5 different varieties, I believe), I looked around the market, seeing everyone in their stocking caps and coats, and I thought how just a few weeks ago everyone was dripping in sweat in the 100 degree weather. Every single weekend at the market brings a unique experience, from the weather conditions (windy/rainy days are not so fun when you are trying to keep everything dry and holding the tent down so it doesn’t blow away) to seeing all the produce in season at varying times of the year. It’s fun to walk thru and soak in all the local goodness.
The above is an example of that varying experience at the market. The first picture was taken last year at the height of the growing season, in the middle of summer. You can see just how packed the pavilion gets with all the vendors and people lining the aisle. So many interesting people come through the market. It is a whirlwind trying to keep up.
The second picture was taken this weekend. As you can see, only the die hards are out at this time of year. But there were a lot of pumpkins and squash to choose from!
Web Development = Fun!
Got the opportunity to check out the mechanics of the new Hippie Chow website that is in the works. It was a lot of fun talking with the folks developing the site. It is still in development mode, but we got the keys to the WordPress kingdom so we can start practicing with adding/updating content.
Valerie was worried about how difficult it might be to make changes on our own. But we were shown just how easy it is. I have this blog on tumbr and a blog on Blogger, so it was my first time seeing the inter workings of WordPress. It was much more intricate and user friendly (which sounds counter intuitive, but its true) than Blogger. Can’t really compare it to tumblr since I think each site plays a different role in the blogosphere, WordPress being more of a web development tool which also happens to handle blogging.
Once the website is live, I will pass along the url. Here is our current site. Can you tell we did it on our own (with a little help from our graphic designer)?
