Food Entrepreneur Profile: The Cookie Department Requests Your Appetite

By Susie, 24 March, 2011,

When The Cookie Department, based in Emeryville, CA, called me in to taste their new selection of grab-and-go “functional” cookies, it didn’t take much for me to show up for a meeting. That was before I knew founder and baker Akiva Resnikoff could give Don Draper a run for his money in the eyes department (see Exhibit A).

Exhibit A: The Blue Eyed Baker

I’d gone gaga over their fun, retro office-themed branding. Akiva explained: “A lot of time was put into the concept and all of our marketing is geared towards “50′s and 60′s office America”. While it hasn’t quite made the leap to the current packaging, you can see a young cookie company in motion as they figure out what works.

The product is well made too, with inventive, natural flavors – some geared more to adults and others to eaters of all ages. They’re not your decadent bakery style cookies but what you might look for as an energy-bar alternative. Here’s the skinny:

Peanut Power – 10 grams of protein, it made a perfect breakfast snack and tasted like homemade.
Awaken Baked has the equivalent caffeine as a cup of coffee, from organic coffee and big dark chocolate chunks. My friend wasn’t that into it, but I can totally see eating this on the go or as a roadtrip snack.
Smart Cookie (Vegan) includes sweet potato and has the pumpkin spicy flavor of a healthy cookie. (Not for the decadent minded.)
Sexy Cookie (Maca Chocolate Chip Cookie) – Tasters agreed: We’ll wait to see if the slightly bitter Maca root increases our vitality before getting hooked on these.
Gingersnaps (new flavor) – 3 out of 3 who tried ‘em loved these firm, gingery ditties.

Exhibit B: Making Healthy Cookies Fun

Entrepreneur’s Lessons Learned

After a few years testing cookies in various Bay Area cafes, Akiva had just received his packaging and had some experiences to share:

Printing packaging early on is expensive and perhaps too much of a commitment. Making slight changes to the design can rack up change costs. (I’ve heard this over and over. Investing in a printer yourself is often a good thing.)
Pick packaging based on distribution. High barrier plastic increases shelf life. It may not be sexy but when the eater bites in, they won’t care. (As you can see here, attractive labels overcome the functional aspect of the package.
Find a kitchen you like. Akiva found a flexible place with a pleasant ambiance that charges based on the amount of storage and refrigerator space. (It’s important to ask for those if you’ll need them!)
Look to family and friends. Akiva started out in his cousin’s bakery and attributes his branding to help from family: “My brother and his wife are my graphic design and marketing professionals.” Lucky him!

Verified “Good:” Look for The Cookie Department, coming soon at cafes across San Francisco and beyond.

The Art of Winging It In Food and Business

By Susie, 20 March, 2011,

The last 2 weeks has been a whirlwind of food events, from fun to educational. How to recap it all? I realized most inspirational are stories of those who have made big leaps forward by “winging it,” sailing along as events unfold through smart, rapid decision making. (Or officially: “to accomplish or perform something without full preparation or knowledge; improvise.”)

To most effectively “wing” something, you must have a vision of your end goal. Your vision lets you think and act quickly as opportunities and pitfalls arise. Read through these stories and you’ll see how you can master The Art of Winging It In Food and Business:

Launch a Product Without a Package (learned @ ExpoWest)

There’s nothing like a “hard deadline” to force a project launch, and the semi-annual food trade shows such as ExpoWest and the Fancy Food Show are the ultimate, for food entrepreneurs ready to make a splash.

While many booths screamed with glossy backdrops, glowing displays, and sexy packaging, the most memorable to me was Gardenbar, a new savory meal bar from the maker of Garden Burger. One of the team members offered a cellophane wrapped sample, running to grab mockup of their yet-to-be-printed packaging. No matter. The bars, which they’d worked to develop for 2 1/2 years, spoke for themselves.

Sure it’s easier to make an impression when you have a track record of a successful previous business, but when good food is involved, being genuine and personable is just as good as glossy, if not better. Not to mention, getting feedback on product before printing packaging from all the attendees is an invaluable opportunity.

Preserve a Bumper Crop (@ California Farm Conference)

My life revolves around farms, food products, and connecting the two. So it was only natural that in the last two weeks I heard from a couple of people whose lives also revolve around these:

Todd Champagne from Happy Girl Kitchen spoke at the Value-Added Products session at the Small Farm Conference. I didn’t know that they can co-pack for organic farms, transforming produce into preserves, without the hassle, cost and regulation of doing it yourself. But they can and do!

At ExpoWest, I learned that Just Tomatoes really does have a tomato farm, which is how their freeze dried vegetable business got started. They dry the tomatoes right after picking. Nothing like a crop of produce to get you to wing it, not to mention a crop of sheep (see Bellwether Farms‘ story) or goats (see almost every goat cheese maker’s story!)

Make Fondue Without a Recipe (@ Cochon 555)

See how you can wing it with this quick fondue making session with Ray Bair of Cheese Plus (a San Francisco shop), at the Cochon 555 event in St. Helena. Note how well he wings my questions!

Start a Small Street Food Festival (@ Delilah Snell’s in Santa Ana)

Patchwork, in Southern California, has got to be one of the coolest websites and neatest art / craft / food street fairs I’ve heard of.

While the logistics and cost of getting permission to block off streets might seem overwhelming (to me!), Delilah Snell – master preserver and manager of the first Eat Real Festival in Los Angeles – has it down:

Find a block and a timeframe that overcomes any obstacles the city may find to granting a low cost, effortless permit. Essentially, do not block major traffic through-ways and avoid inconveniencing local businesses and residents. For huge festivals, it becomes more of a challenge. But this approach makes a seemingly difficult aspect of a small street food and craft festivals very wing-able.

Start Selling Your Candy (@ dinner with p.o.p. candy)

There’s nothing more interesting to me than hearing how a successful, growing food company put the stake in the ground to get started, let alone choose what they’re making. It was to my delight that p.o.p. candy, Santa Monica-based maker of nut butter crunch run by an uber-organized team, followed the time-honored method: winging it.

In fact, their name, branding, and step into the public eye at the Mar Vista farmers’ market followed happenstance. Rachel Flores had been making the butter crunch for years, as holiday gifts. Several times a respected shop keeper suggested that she sell it. The opportunity arose to share a booth at the market and test the public’s reaction.

Several heated brainstorms later, she and her partner Bill had settled on the name, pulled together packaging, made a few batches (which they do themselves on a stove to this day), and took flight. The rest will be history.

This is how so many small food companies get started, is exciting, and it works. Totally inspirational for the winging-it inclined.

5 Ways to Wing It While Reducing Risk

I wrote these 5 ideas in a general way as they truly can apply both to your business and life.

Ask for feedback from your target customer / audience before making the leap. I recently had 20 people taste and review some new food products, and fill out a survey along with a discussion, as a reality check on what seemed like good ideas.
Minimize expenses – Borrow, rent or share whatever resources you’ll need to get the job done. Again, ask others how they’ve done it. When a local cookie maker lost her commercial kitchen, she knew she needed to keep baking – wherever – and tapped into me and her network to quickly find a location.
Have a Plan B – What if winging it doesn’t work? While you may not want to think “negatively” from the get go, a Plan B may help you realize Plan A isn’t so scary after all, and really go for it. Know that Plan B does not signify failure, but learning, adapting, and capitalizing on unforeseen opportunities. Note: The development of Twitter was not a Plan A.
Focus – Know your key objectives for what you’re trying to accomplish. Back to Gardenbar, they wanted to get their new bars in as many mouths and their story in as many ears as possible. Wowing people with finished packaging was less of a priority.
Question perfectionism – The most artisanal food entrepreneurs I know master the art of perfection. The only downside is this may slow you down if you’re not ready to leap at opportunities. The upside of course is making an impressive first impression. Ask whether perfection outweighs winging it, and if you can achieve the appearance of perfection through “hacked together” means. “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”

How have you winged it in food and business for success…or as a learning experience?

Starting a Successful CSA – Tips from the California Small Farm Conference

By Susie, 19 March, 2011,

The California Small Farm Conference brought together growers, farmers market managers, and government entities to share behind the scenes insight from several successful small farms who have run CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) programs. The main goal of a CSA is to get farm-fresh products to people – vs. the people going to the market – with minimal time and energy on everyone’s part.

You can download the conference presentations.

CSA Tips from California Farms

Tom Broz from Live Earth Farm (Watsonville, CA) said goodbye to city life ala Green Acres, went through UCSC’s eco farming program, and found some land 16 years ago with a goal of raising his family in the country and growing healthy food. After starting with 2 farmer’s markets and the CSA, today Life Earth Farm has 60 acres and 800 CSA customers.

As his customer base grew, Life Earth gave up pen and paper for tracking and adopted Farmigo software, developed specifically for managing CSAs. The software gives customers choices about what to include in boxes and set vacation schedules etc, as well as make it easy to comply with governmental rules surrounding CSAs.

TIP: Produce as much as you can yourself, such as compost, to be more efficient and reduce costs.

Fellow recovering city slicker Shawn Seufert of Terra Bella Farm (Pleasanton, CA) had only recently heard of chard and kale when he started his farm. The CSA began old school style on a shoestring: He traveled door to door, introducing himself. Now 300 families buy their produce, farmed on 7 acres.

TIP: Small upgrades in customer experience make a big difference: They invested in nice wood rustic stands at the farm store, which boosted sales.

Thomas Nelson of Capay Valley Farm Shop (Guinda, CA) started a farm shop in 2008, with the idea of an artisan marketplace on Hwy 80. The store lasted less than a year but in the meantime they’d put together the infrastructure for farms to work together cooperatively.

They had been approached by the product design company Ideo who wanted to get closer to farmers (or for the farmers to get closer to them). The idea was for Capay to stop at farms, pick up product, and end up in Palo Alto where they’d set up a private farmer’s market with a CSA. The city of Palo Alto took notice and loved the idea so much, they set up outside of city hall for employees. This led to a model for targeting institutions with mini-farmers’ markets. (Learn more.)

TIPS:

1) Band together numerous farms to enable a wider variety of products – fruits, veges, eggs, olive oil, honey, meat products, grains, beans – year round.

2) For efficiency they now pack the farm shares centrally.

MY TIP: Involve subscribers in setting drop off points. In Palo Alto a CSA subscriber allows the farm to drop off boxes on her porch, for neighbors to come pick up. No muss, no cost, and gives locals an excuse to commune.

Other Interesting Ideas for Farms from the Conference

Charitable co-packing: In the Bay Area, the Pacific Farmer’s Markets are working on a plan to train disadvantaged people (through a local nonprofit) how to process fresh fruits and veggies from the farmer’s market into canned foods that can then be sold by the farmers. Talk about a virtuous cycle!
Funding from the FDA for Farm Grants to create value-added products: Download the presentations from the event for details on licensing, processing regulations, and other rules for farms creating products. It is truly a quagmire of exceptions and guidelines (such as, it’s a different registration if you store the product separately from where you make it.)Additionally the grants, which are project-based, can be expensive, requiring accounting oversight. Still totally worth it to get a major initiative off the ground.
Finding rural commercial kitchens: Becky from Frog Hollow (Brentwood, CA) had a great idea for farmers to tap into restaurants in their communities who may have kitchen time to spare. The farms could hire the restaurants to make products using their produce or the farm could rent the space. (Everyone in the room had a huge chuckle when one grower said they “heard” it was OK to process farm food at home. Talk about California dreamin’! We all wish.)
Approaching new stores to sell your produce: Jim Cochran of Swanton Berry Farm advised: “Never call someone and ask if they’d like to buy strawberries. Bring the box into the store unannounced and you get your reaction. If the first word is ‘How much do they cost?’ you’re not going to make a lot of progress. If they first say ‘Wow these are beautiful!’ that’s going to be a good customer. Also, it’s hard to give credit to a store when they ordered too much; but it’s to his advantage to give the store credit so they have fresh berries on hand.

Overall this conference bringing together farms, experts, vendors, and advocates likely planted the seed (how could I help that) for future collaborations and farming success.

Food Entrepreneur Profile: Nory Locum Turkish Delight

By Susie, 18 March, 2011,

Nory Locum first came to my attention at an international market in Van Nuys, California, where stacks of locum (Turkish Delight) in plastic clamshell containers beckoned with a riot of powdered sugar coating what lay beneath: thick coils of candy bulging with pistachios. Upon closer examination, I knew this was something special – a nutritious high protein snack that my family would love.

I asked the store manager where it was from and was shocked to not only discover Nory Locum was local to the valley but there was a small town called Winnetka right there in the Reseda / Canoga Park area. After one bite, I had to pay them a visit.

Exhibit A: From my visit in January 2009

Tucked in a classic strip mall, I learned the kindly couple behind this tiny operation had churned out hundreds of pounds of candy daily for decades, the old world way, sourcing nuts and other ingredients from California and as local as possible — no fanfare about “artisan this.” Yet I immediately recognized their colorful gift boxes as ones I’d seen at international markets through the years.

Upon my next visit a year later, I learned from a new owner Armand Sahakian that Nory Locum is pretty much the giant in the U.S.’ tiny Turkish Delight industry.

I will focus on what fascinated me most: Lessons learned by a man who found his calling in nutty sweets.

Most Interesting for Aspiring Food Entrepreneurs

Food business can be learned. Armand hopped through many careers before happening upon a small local culinary program, where he discovered his joy of cooking and food. He’s never run a food product business; if you buy one, plan to train with the previous owners.
You can produce big in a small space. Having seen his products at various small markets around the country (if you ever go to middle eastern stores you may recognize the name), I was surprised to see that just a couple of kettles churn out his production.
Be resourceful and follow the signs. Once Armand decided he wanted to start a business, he turned to the “for sale” ads. While in “real life” it doesn’t seem like this is possible, the LA Weekly describes how “Sahakian says that he just saw the ad for a business for sale, not realizing the connections to his own heritage: he later found out that the previous owner’s “nephew’s sister is married to my cousin.”
Take time to self-promote. Armand tweeted to me, wrote to me on this blog, and followed up on an email I’d written the previous owners. His tenacity kept Nory Locum on my radar. Between the time I visited Armand, the LA Times Food blog wrote a great article and the LA Weekly also wrote a hilarious account of the operation much to my American Delight.)
Take time to innovate. Despite a full schedule for daily production and shipping, when I visited Armand was already experimenting with alternatives to corn syrup, ways to eliminate any non-natural ingredients, and gifty packaging. Many of his flavors are new since my visit.

It is simply luck that Nory Locum really “owns” this niche which recently was made even popular by the Narnia tales. However it is also a testament to focusing on a need and desire, and doing it well.

What other niche food product businesses are waiting to happen?

Good Cashews, Bad Weather – That’s Nuts+Nuts

By Susie, 18 February, 2011,

As a big fan of Nuts + Nuts cashews, run by two Indonesian sisters who work directly with farmers and grow their own Kaffir lime leaves, I was stoked to hear about their new mini storefront in the DUMBO area of Brooklyn at 145 Front St. Cyrilla, one of the owners, explained that an office space with the storefront just happened to open. It has pop-up written all over it.

I was also sad to hear, when I asked if they had raw cashews, that the cashew crop they normally source from was totally wiped out in 2010 due to rains — which even affected the chiles they use in my favorite flavor, the spicy Thai.

For now they have to source from another Indonesian island. I’m perfectly capable of imagining where US-grown nuts such as almonds, pecans, pistachios, hazelnuts and walnuts grow but the farms who grow the nuts you might buy in bulk or in tins, grown in tropical countries, often seem a little more “hazy” as to the origin. Nona Brooklyn recently interviewed Cyrilla, revealing the source of their nuts: “ Mr. Lilik and Mr. Suraji.”

Cashews in the U.S. are never local!

When I first met Cyrilla she shared how hard it was selling their nuts since they are made and packaged in Indonesia (in very cool silver vacuum packed bags). “We want local,” people told her. What they meant was they wanted “packaged in the U.S.” or “made in the U.S.” meaning roasted or prepared in the U.S.

Obviously knowing the people who converted the raw cashews into a delicacy like Oren’s Kitchen’s Ajwain Cashews is the next best to knowing the growers.

Nuts Plus Nuts is the poster child for “good food:” Fresh healthy ingredients, relationship with the producers + growing some themselves, paying a very fair price, and excellent quality. Rather than read labels to determine the goodness of a product based only on location, consider the supply chain, accountability, etc. (like Madecasse chocolate and Fair Trade). Shall we coin “Better than local.” ?

Go nuts!

Read Nona Brooklyn’s interview, try Nuts + Nuts via their website or Foodzie or order them wholesale.
In New York? Visit 145 Front St (limited hours) or the New Amsterdam Market.