promotion

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, when I’d go out at night 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!

A Wolf Moon Welcome

Happy upcoming first full moon of the year!

Interestingly, not only will this be the Wolf Moon, it’s a Super Wolf Blood Moon. Super Moon, in that it’s closest to the earth in its elliptical orbit; Wolf Moon, because that’s the name given to January’s moon; and Blood Moon because of the reddish tint that’s going to appear when, yes, a lunar eclipse occurs. 

Barring cloudy skies, here in Wisconsin this stargazer’s phenomenon should appear this Sunday, January 20, between 10:41 and 11:12 p.m. You can bet I’ll be outside watching for it!

Back when people named moons according to the seasons, our northern ancestors hunkered themselves inside near a fire while wolves howled distantly in the January cold. Wolves are a common metaphor for hunger, yet families kept this wolf—hunger, that is—from their door with the food they’d put up earlier in autumn. 

These days, while in the cozy warmth of our homes, we’re browsing garden catalogs and dreaming of the spring months ahead when we can plant those first seedlings. The plans we make now shape the crops we grow in summer and the food we put up in fall, which in turn keeps “the wolves from our door” next winter. 

Preparedness: It’s ongoing through the seasons

For self-employed farm entrepreneurs, winter is time to plan your seed purchases. It’s also time to promote your farm and sign up members for the upcoming growing season. 

Next month is the Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) Conference and I’m presenting a workshop that offers great ideas for promoting your farm. The workshop is Marketing & Branding 101 and will be Saturday, February 23, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. We’ll talk branding, because you have to brand yourself before you can market. We’ll then discuss marketing and how social media has become the easiest and most cost effective way to promote your small business. 

Hope to see you next month in La Crosse!

Packing Our Bags for Octoberfest 2016!

Octoberfest Brewery Tour 2016, promotional posterThe days have been on fast-forward lately and I’m working feverishly to wrap up several projects. On top of that, I’ve been doing some creative work for myself. As you can see, our annual Octoberfest Brewery Tour is just around the corner!

I’ve Perfected My Google Map (layer upon layer)

Octoberfest Brewery Tour 2016

This year our roads will follow the downpours of beer taps and waterfalls. It didn’t take much research on my part to find there are plenty of both along the shores of Lakes Michigan and Superior. The falls have been long been nature’s gift. The breweries? Well, it’s über exciting to know the handcrafted beer industry has spread to even the remotest peninsulas of U.P. Michigan. Prost! To those crafters who go forth with entrepreneurial (and tasty!) gusto, you have our love!

And to the Lake Express ferry: We’ll see you bright and early for a 6 a.m. sail. Heading into an eastern sunrise will be a glorious start to this year’s tour!

Stay tuned and catch my pictures on Instagram.

Award-Winning Heritage Homes Hosts Art Auction

A "water-painted" photo by Adunate Word & Design

Photoshop actions are one of many tools in a designer’s box for creating communicative art. Here I’ve taken a photo I used in this post, merged it with two more photos, tweaked here, colorized there and with the help of an action—violá—I’ve brought spring’s watercolor to my message.

Now let me promote communicative art of another kind—real watercolors. Communication with real connection. It’s called Memories in the Making® and it’s a fine arts program designed for people with memory loss. Long after their words have faded, these loved ones reach out with a brush, canvas and watercolor paint to convey their thoughts. Heritage Homes, an award-winning health and memory care facility in Watertown, Wis., finds the program to be a meaningful bridge between residents and their families.

This Sunday, April 19, 5-7 p.m., Heritage Homes is hosting a Silent Art Auction for works done by its memory care artists. These are beautiful expressions of the person within and are accompanied by descriptive stories. Proceeds from the event will benefit memory care programming at Heritage Homes.

In the meantime, let me refresh a press release I wrote on Heritage Home’s award-winning program.

Heritage Homes Helps Residents Communicate with Art, Watertown, Wi

Wednesday Webs: A Great Rural Art Project to Support

Indiegogo project by Fermentation Fest and Shimon & Lindemann

I’ve been enamored by Shimon & Lindemann since I saw them years ago in their Unmasked & Anonymous exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Once, I even suckered my husband into helping me emulate them for a photography class assignment, which involved him sitting in a rocking chair outdoors in the middle of winter. So when Donna, of Wormfarm Institute, asked me to help promote the project they’re doing together, I was happy to jump on the wagon. The bandshell wagon, that is.

Harvestore Bandshell

According to their Indiegogo page, “Artists John Shimon and Julie Lindemann designed the Harvestore Bandshell as both an homage to Wisconsin’s agricultural history and as a unique and mobile performance venue.” This half-a-historic-Harvestore-silo stage will showcase poets, musicians and drama performances at the 2104 Fermentation Fest, a 9-day festival of art, agriculture and fermented food in Sauk County, Wisconsin.

In case you’re wondering, Indiegogo is one of those super, people-minded crowd funding organizations that enable even the little guys to pursue their greater purposes. Perhaps you might consider contributing to this very cool project?

Anyway, I know I’ve been orating endlessly on the Fermentation Fest (when I take on a project I give it my all, including in-your-face, excessive promotion of my client!). I’ve talked about the food, but have I mentioned there’s art? One of the highlights of Fermentation Fest is the 50-mile, self-guided tour—DTour, as it’s been branded—through the rolling farmlands of Sauk County. But it’s not just farmlands. There’s art. Like 3-D art installations in the middle of hayfields. And performances—Pasture Performances—in, yes, animal pastures. And artisan food stands in the middle of nowhere.

This week my list of Wednesday Webs is a sampling of art in Sauk County, either during Fermenation Fest or any other time. You’ve got to come and see!

Pasture Performances at Fermentation Fest:

Sauk County Art Attractions

Bring Culture to Your Autumn with Crock-Pot Yogurt

Homemade Yogurt in Crock-Pot Recipe

I’ve sometimes thought it would be fun to be a food blogger. You know, experiment with recipes all day and shoot stunning photos that everyone drools over. I tried it for about a week and quickly realized it’s a ton of work. Plus, I don’t know that much about cooking.

What I do know is marketing. And healthy food. And a simple, artistic way of life. I’m really proud to promote my work for the upcoming Fermentation Fest because the festival embodies so many things for which I stand. Like the sponsors say in their event guide (which Adunate designed, by the way), Fermentation Fest is “a live culture convergence where farmers, artists, chefs, poets, cheesemakers, canners and eaters converge to celebrate food, farming and fermentation.” All done in the beautiful hills of Sauk County, Wis., in October, the most colorful month of the year. Do try to make it!

So, to give you a foretaste of Fermentation Fest and to satiate my desire to be a food blogger, here’s a recipe for homemade yogurt. It’s easy-peasy and a good first step to bringing healthier, homemade food into your diet.

Homemade Yogurt in a Crock-Pot

Serves 8-16

Ingredients

  • 1/2 gallon milk, preferably organic (I use whole milk, but you can use others as well)
  • 1/4 cup plain yogurt with live-active cultures (store-bought Greek yogurt is good)
    or
    1/4 teaspoon freeze-dried yogurt culture

Instructions

  1. Pour milk into your crock-pot and heat at a medium temperature to 180° F (depending on your crock-pot, this takes 30-90 minutes)
  2. Turn crock-pot off and allow milk to cool to 110° F (30-60 minutes)
  3. While waiting for yogurt to cool, measure out the yogurt culture  and bring to room temperature
  4. When milk reaches 110° F, add yogurt culture and whisk until fully blended
  5. Cover crock-pot with lid and wrap completely in towels (someday I’m going to make myself a quilted mini-sleeping bag for this:-)
  6. Leave it undisturbed for 6-8 hours  in quiet location. The longer you let it ferment, the tangier it will be. Sometimes I’ve accidentally let mine go for more than 12 hours and it’s still good, just a bit “wow” on the tang.
  7. After fermenting, refrigerate for at least four hours to allow it to fully set.
  8. Serve with fruit and granola. Enjoy and be healthy!

Last Note:  Save at least 1/4 cup of your homemade yogurt to make your next batch!

Looking for a designer or copywriter for your next food event? Let’s talk!

Frogs and the Art of Self-Promotion

Eastern Gray Treefrog

So this cute guy showed up on my porch the other day. Look how assuredly he sat while I took his picture—I think he’s actually smiling at me! I was looking for a way to show him off and then, eureka, he became the perfect spokesperson for a conversation I was having with my client.

But let me back up a bit.

Here in Wisconsin spring came a little late. On top of that we’re having some heavy rains, so that means it’s frog heaven. Lots of frogs. Lots of nice chorusing going on. Although I love listening to them, unless I’m with my more amphibian-educated son who helps me identify their call, to me they’re just one unified voice. None of them stands out from the others.

Except this cute guy above. He is cute, isn’t he?

The thing about this guy (by the way, he’s either a Cope’s Gray Treefrog or Eastern Gray Treefrog, according to another frogophile) is that as handsome as he is, I wouldn’t have noticed him if #1) he didn’t separate himself from his army, thus making himself stand out; and 2) he didn’t speak up.

Which takes me back to my client…

Recently she mentioned she has trouble promoting herself. She knows she should—she offers a wonderfully beneficial service—but she feels uncomfortable doing so. I think we all can relate to that, don’t you? Self-promotion feels like bragging. Unless we’re millennials and we’ve grown up talking about ourselves, most of us go by the old adage that self-nods are, well, self-centered.

Nowadays, we can’t think that way. There’s an army of competition out there and if we don’t make ourselves known, we’ll be lost in the pond. I can’t take credit for these words of wisdom, but here’s what I passed along to my client: Self-promotion isn’t talking about your self, it’s talking about what you do. It’s talking about how you can help others.

I haven’t seen this little guy again, but I know he’s still around. I hear him. No, he’s not bragging, he’s brightening my day.

Pondering the Passion

Pondering the Passion, St. Mark's Lutheran, Watertown, WIThe women at St. Mark’s Lutheran in Watertown, WI, are planning a special program to help prepare for the Lenten season. It’s an awesome evening of fellowship and reflection.

Program author Susan Bondow wanted a poster that would not only communicate the upcoming event, but also show the solemnness of the season. I love designing posters and we printed the 11×17″ images at Kinkos for the amazing price of $1.89 each!

Need help promoting your upcoming event? Drop me a line and together we can do so in a most cost effective way!