artisanal food

Lots of Summer Ramblings: Strawberry Moon to Strawberry Festivals

Several years ago the bulb in our yard light burned out. It was one of those dawn-to-dusk lights set high on a line pole and even though my husband’s job is to regularly climb such poles, he just never got around to climbing ours.

At first, I’d go out at night and it seemed unnervingly dark. We don’t have immediate neighbors so nothing but the celestial sky lit our yard. Oh, but let me tell you, there’s no going back. The event of that burned-out bulb has totally heightened my appreciation of the night sky and I’m now a moon-gazing habitué.

Given that, here’s to a happy Strawberry Moon (Tuesday night) and upcoming Summer Solstice (Friday night). I love them both. With the full days of summer ahead, it’s a wonderful time of festivity and adventure.

Speaking of Strawberries…

They’re finally here! We live on a windy hill and it seems my patch is always a bit behind. But they’re here now and as delicious as ever. Just look at how red and juicy they are, unlike those so-called “strawberries” you find in the grocery store.

Hey folks, shop your local farmers! Eat real food!

Strawberry Festivals and More

One of my tastiest childhood memories is of a strawberry festival we attended while camping in northern Michigan. If I recall, it was a community church serving shortcake piled mile-high with strawberries and cream. Oh, so good!

Quite often such festivals are benefits for a specific cause (like these upcoming festivals here and here). Joining the celebration not only creates fun memories but also supports grassroots working together at its finest.

Food festivals have become one of the fastest growing forms of tourism and there’s a good reason why. They offer a sensory overload of the landscape, ethnicities, history, and food cultures of their given community.

Food lovers love food festivals; ask me how I know!

Which Leads Me To…

When it comes to festivals, I’m proud to help promote two Wisconsin biggies: The Soil Sisters in August and Fermentation Fest in October. These are annual celebrations that each draw thousands of people and have great social and economic impacts on their rural communities. Needless to say, a lot of organizing and marketing goes into these events.

Do you know of a festival looking to grow in its success? I’d love to help. Let’s talk about what makes a good festival and how to get the word out to all those fun-loving, destination travelers!

Successful Entrepreneurship Takes a Village

What do FedEx, AirBnB, and Evernote have in common? We can all agree they are hugely successful companies. They’re also companies from which most of us benefit on a regular basis. Interestingly, all three also were once startups on the verge of collapse when they were saved by investors who cared enough to lend a hand. So when I heard one of my favorite specialty cheesemakers, Landmark Creamery, needed a hand, I immediately donated to Go Fund Me and I then went shopping for three of its cheeses.

Landmark Creamery is a labor of love for Anna Landmark and Anna Thomas Bates. Since 2014, “the Anna’s,” as they’re known, have been churning, and rubbing, and aging small batches of cheese made from local, small, family-owned dairy farms. You can find their products online, and at Madison area specialty stores, co-ops and restaurants. Two years ago they opened their own retail shop in the quaint village of Paoli, where they sell not only their own cheeses but also those of other Wisconsin cheesemakers. Coincidentally, in the next few weeks you can find them featured on PBS’s Wisconsin Foodie.

So, it seems Landmark Creamery has recently found itself in a bit of a bind. According to the Go Fund Me page, the ladies lost over 1,000 pounds of cheese after their cold storage company threw it out. The Anna’s had fallen behind on payments and owed the company $1,000. According to the page, they told the company owner they would pay as soon as possible, but the owner declared the space abandoned and threw away the cheese. The cheese, valued at $20,000, is a hand-crafted product needing six months to age, so it’s not easily replaced.

Seeing Both Sides of the Cheese Wheel

As a small business owner, I understand the importance of being paid. The storage facility provided a necessary service to Landmark Creamery and it was right to expect the agreed-upon compensation. You bet I’m all about responsibilities and holding up one’s end of the bargain.

But I also remember those startup days, struggling to succeed and stretching money to pay the bills. I appreciate all the help I received back then (my husband’s support was and still is a necessary component to me staying in business). I firmly believe when we uphold one another, we all stand stronger; that supportive action today generates positive reactions tomorrow. Kudos to the Culinary Ladies Collective for setting up the Go Fund Me for Landmark Creamery. This network of female chefs, food and beverage producers, growers and artisans is an example of how we go far when we go together.

I’m also a believer in communication. In Adunate’s 14-year running, I’ve only had a few clients fail to pay me on a timely basis. Those who respected me enough to talk to me about it are still my clients today. Those who ghosted me, well, you can bet I now refuse to work with them. According to the Go Fund Me page, Landmark Creamery had just made a payment on the balance and had communicated with the storage facility they would pay the rest as soon as possible. If this was the case, I just can’t see how destroying $20,000 of product for a $1,000 bill was beneficial to anyone, including the owner of the storage facility.

Be Part of the Village

Folks, if you’re a fan of small businesses and local foods, if you love Wisconsin specialty cheese, if you have a minute and a few extra dollars, please consider supporting Landmark Creamery. You may very well be benefiting more people than you know, not to mention keeping some fantastic cheese in production!


Appreciating Artisanal Foods

basket of organic strawberries

While relishing the 10-year cheddar he received as a Father’s Day gift, my husband commented that he can only remember eating processed cheese as a kid.

Are you kidding? Ye, who has lived in America’s Dairyland all of thy days?

Truth is, back when we were growing up in the 1960-70s, food selections were much different than they are now. In some ways they were better. High fructose sugar and super-gluten weren’t major ingredients. Nor were the fruits and vegetables genetically modified and void of flavor.

On the other hand, nowadays some of our foods are actually better. As the dairy and strawberry days of June come to an end (wow, so fast!), I can’t help appreciating the culinary artisans we have now that we didn’t back then. Cheesemakers, like Chris Roelli of Shullsburg, WI, have moved beyond mass-production boredom and back to the traditional handcrafting of age-ripend cheese. Farmer’s markets and CSA farms, like Hillsong Ridge Farm, of Springfield, WI, get us out of the over-processed grocery stores and into cooking with locally grown fruits and vegetables. All in all, both food consumers and producers are much more sustenance savvy.

But consider this:

Creating quality food takes time and effort. The mouthwatering strawberries in that basket? Fresh-picked today and completely organic? Just saying—a lot of back-bending, manual labor went into producing them. They’re so worth it, but I can’t imagine doing this at a scale larger than I do for my family. Knowing this, I wonder about the work that goes into running a CSA. Or an organic bakery. Or pasture-raised pork. These food artisans certainly aren’t doing it for the money—after all, we all know Americans don’t want to pay much for their food.

Will the day come when these hardworking foodies simply get tired? Will they someday decide they need to make a more lucrative living? Is this just a passing culinary moment in time?

I sure hope not. What communication can we do to make sure this doesn’t happen?

Research is Like Picking Strawberries

strawberry leaves

You know how when you’re picking strawberries, you think you’ve gotten them all but as soon as you turn around you see spots of red you’ve missed? You really have to look from different directions to see all the berries.

This past week I’ve been working on a project for a new client. He’s an AICP certified consultant to city planners and, in a remote way, his project is related to picking strawberries. I’ve peppered him with questions. I’ve checked out his competitors’ websites, as well as thoroughly reading his own. I’ve even called planners from a variety of cities. In essence, I’ve looked at his project from many different directions so I can better understand it.

All this “looking in different directions” is considered creative research and, oh, it’s so important. In fact, when I participated in The Pricing Group, an exercise in pricing, creative research was the portion of the design process my seven peers and I spent the most time on. The exercise’s project was for a relatively small website of 6-7 pages, yet the time designated to research ranged from 3-15 hours. For many, it was more time than they designated to the actual building of the site.

What is creative research and why is it so important?

Creative research is the studying a designer does before even opening up a sketchbook. It’s the getting to know the client—his business, industry, target market and competitors. Creative research is the foundation for the overall project, because, really, how can we successfully communicate a business if we know nothing about it?

When shopping for a designer for your project, whether it’s a website, printed piece or logo, be sure to ask about creative research. A professional designer will know what you’re talking about.

In the meantime, stay tuned for the interesting projects I’m working on with the consultant. He’s got a great product and you’ll be interested in learning more. I know I am (in addition to picking strawberries, which are in full force this week on our little farm).

dew in the morning

Early morning has special gifts for the ambitious, get-your-butt-out-of-bed types. Not only is it a photographer’s Golden Hour, it also offers dewy vignettes seldom seen later in the day.

Oh, the joy of looking in every direction!

(By the way, if you’re looking for a designer who is ambitiously out of bed and does creative research, drop me a line:-)

Pie is More Than a Chart

One of the unique selling points (USP) of my word and design business is the personal, down-to-earth attention I give my clients. Working from a home office deep in the heart of Wisconsin’s dairyland sure sticks this idea. When clients meet here, they always comment on the pretty setting and how fun it is to get out in the country.

They especially like when I serve pie.

Now, pie is a good thing. I don’t profess to be an epicurean baker, but my pie is pretty tasty. And it makes an excellent visual as my clients and I formulate a plan for their communication and marketing needs.

When I ask them the six questions of journalism—Who? Where? What? Why? When? How?—I refer to them as the six pieces of the pie of good information gathering.

Who is your target audience?

What is your marketing goal?

How can we use communication to accomplish this goal?

And so on…

Examining each of these questions helps us better understand not only the project itself, but also how it relates to their business, their goals and their overall success. Each piece of the pie works together to create a whole.

Right now it’s strawberry season in Wisconsin and the berries sure are bountiful. I’m picking bowls like this every day from my little patch. I gotta say, the pies have been mighty good!

Want to stop on by and discuss communications for your business? Email or give me a call!