Market Research and the comedy hour

OK, so it was just the comedy minute -

We very happily pay some well-educated folks to help us get Strawberry Vinegar, Strawberry Dressing and Vegetable Dip (forgive the shameless plug) into your hands. And it's working - we went from shipping 360 cases of product in 2005, to 1,300 in 2006. Occasionally, our Consultants feel the need to educate us - and that's where the fun begins.

I had just finished hauling a new piece of equipment off the truck when the phone rang - I'm told to take a look at the info on my email when I get a moment. In order to answer the phone, I loosened my grip on the rope, dropped some metal on my foot, scratched the bumper, and yelled at the dog. Then the rain started, and we rolled a half ton of wet, slippery machinery into the barn quickly so lightning wouldn't strike the thing and kill us all.

So our truly wonderful Consultant (we always capitolize that) sent us a link to Packaged Facts - a site where people like her keep up with trends. Here are the scintillating headlines (good word that - scintillating)

Pickles, Relishes and Olives in the US

Ketchup, Mustard and Mayonaise in the US

Vinegar and Cooking Wine/Sherry in the US

Spices and Seasonings in the US

Salad Dressings in the US

And my personal favorite:

MarketLooks: The Changing Face of Nut Butters (Nut Butters, who knew?)

The punchline to all of this is that to read the full text of any of these exciting studies, I'd have to cough up between $1995.00 of my own dollars. That's a lot of Strawberry Marinade.

Our "in house" market research goes something like this: Go to Post Office to ship an order. Postman says "Hey, you're from that farm, right? My wife uses the strawberry stuff on chicken (Marinade, I assume), but I like the hot stuff better. " (Strawberry Jamaican Jerk).

Works for us.

And now the work begins

Picking season is just about done - and now the work begins. Strawberry Vinegar, to be exact. Many of the other product use this as a base, so it's a big deal for us.

It's been a good season, with little rainout - though what we DID have was more like a Monsoon-out..... I was brushing splashed mud off walls for days.

The people at the farm who know how to cook posted some great recipes on our site - Very grown-up stuff. I stick to Strawberry popsicles - the kids like 'em. We added a splash of Strawberry Balsamic Vinegar instead of the lemon juice in the original recipe - happy tummies with sticky red faces, to boot.

Strawberry Popsicles

1 cup of Strawberries (I use them frozen)

2 Tbs sugar

2 tsp Strawberry Vinegar

Place all in blender container and liquify (you can use your food processor, but it doesn't grind up the seeds as well).

Pour into Popsicle molds, or small cups - insert sticks and freeze.

Enjoy.