More Marketing
Dear Ann,
Our second market at Warners Bay for the new year soon came round again. It was a beautiful day with plenty of sunshine bringing along a hot day. However, with the new venue on the foreshore the breeze off the Lake could not have made it a more perfect day.
This venue is very popular for folk to do their walking & indeed was my own stomping ground a few years ago when I was exercising in a serious way. It is a great spot for the family pets to get their exercise too & heaps of people have their dog on a leash, which adds to the day & brings more folk along.
Charley is very much a pet lover & even though she specialises in cats herself, she gets a lot of pleasure watching the little dogs, the big furry dogs all brushed up, the cute dogs & every kind of dog as they pass by trotting their stuff.
Charley in charge of the Warner’s Bay stall.
At this market we have a permanent stall looking out on our beautiful lake, which couldn’t be nicer especially on a lovely summer’s day. The walkers & their dogs are immediately in front of us as they pass, as are the general public.
On this second market for the new year there seemed to be more people than ever at our new venue, which is great for us. Our stall seems to attract the onlookers & is certainly one of the most popular stalls. Of course we do our bit in enticing them to come & have a taste of our products, especially as we have introduced two new products. The credit goes to Charley for this new venture as she is keen & has been looking forward to taking this plunge all through the Christmas Pudding season.
Her Dad has been making a delicious tomato chutney made from his home grown tomatoes as he had so many he needed to use them. He has been giving it to friends & neighbours over a long period of time. The lucky folk have given many accolades about it, so Charley had her mind set on giving it a go.
Her first batch, which we introduced in January at Warners Bay Market, did indeed get good response. We had it displayed in the lovely coffee jars with the glass lids & it did look good. It was so well received that we took it to the first Maitland market in February, where it continued to be so popular that we sold out.
We were so excited about this that before the next Warners Bay market Charley introduced her Mango Chutney which requires green mangos. She has a huge mango tree outside her back door where she is now living that was loaded with green mangos. Rather than let the possums eat them all she confiscated a few for the chutney.
When she gave me a taste of the new product I was all for it as it was really delicious. I could visualise it, particularly with lamb & chicken. It was popular also & we could see that we needed to make larger quantities. We put a good price on the small jars & no one was heard quibbling about it. The new product sold well.
So with a week to go before the next Maitland market we needed to be very active & very busy. I can’t do justice in telling you how hard we worked on our production.
Just a small portion of our shopping.
We went shopping at the not so popular Fennels Bay market which isn’t so good for sales, but certainly the green grocers there had what we needed at the right prices. We came home with a car loaded with cases of tomatoes, a case of zucchinis, green & red capsicums, & onions, which were most of the ingredients we needed.
Then to add to our list what should our local supermarket put before us, but green mangos at a very good price. As Charley’s supply had diminished by the little animals, we made hay while the sun shone!
My little kitchen had never seen so much work to be done. For starters we had forty kilos (over 88 lb) of tomatoes to be peeled before we could continue with our work. Â Then we chopped, cooked & chopped again, particularly for our Curried Zucchini Relish as we had almost run out of that as well.
I can honestly say that for the whole week Charley & I stood on our feet for almost eight hours daily, but we had no trouble sleeping!
So after introducing the Mango Chutney at the Warners Bay market, we also took it along to Maitland market last weekend. It was just as well we had a good supply of everything as the Smokey BBQ Tomato Chutney as well as the Mango Chutney took off like a rocket. We almost sold out of both.
The fruit of our labour.
This was great, particularly for Charley, as when she introduced these I told her they were ‘her babies’ & that I wasn’t even going to learn to make them, which is adding to her enthusiasm. She is certainly looking after ‘her babies’.
I make it a point of introducing Charley to our customers as the instigator & manufacturer. I am just sticking to my own relish & Christmas Puddings. In this way she will handle it herself as we grow gradually & will be the one to manage it all when I am too old to go to markets.
So, having had such success &, as is the case with a growing business (or hobby), we are back to manufacturing again this week for the next Warners Bay market in just over a week. We haven’t got much time for getting into mischief, but ‘busyness’ is better than boredom.
Both Charley & I are loving what we are doing. We have always had a special bond that is even stronger now as we enjoy the closeness in doing markets, as well as planning things together.
With regard to jars: after being given hundreds of them for reuse over a year & still being given them from all walks of life including Prime Timers, line dancing friends, customers from the markets & individual friends, we completely ran out of them.
Apart from the cost of buying them, it is a good step forward. We are now constantly on the lookout for jars being advertised on the net & other retail outlets.
And to conclude my letter Ann I will let you into a secret which might make you smile. When Charley made the first batch of David’s Tomato Chutney that has to be boiled for hours, it stuck to the bottom of the big saucepan with a vengeance, which took a lot of removing.
David wanted to know why we gave it the name of Smokey BBQ & this is the real reason as it gave it that smokey taste, which gives it even more appeal. You probably are wondering how we get the smokey taste again without burning the saucepan, but we have promised never to reveal this secret!
Fondest Love Always. Dawn X O X O