10 Opportunities to Grow Farmer’s Markets in 2011 and Beyond

I saw a Tweet this morning that introduces the 2010 National Farmer’s Market Directory.  The quick takeaways for me are:

1. Farmer’s Markets are growing like wildfire – up 16% YOY, continuing healthy growth every year since 1994 (the first year on the accompanying chart);

2. NC is in the Top 10 in the nation for number of markets, with 182.  That’s a market for every 44,000 people.  By those numbers, Cary should have 3 markets, and it kind of does (if you count the State market).

That’s good news, it really is.  We sell a lot of coffee in farmer’s markets, and spending every Saturday in multiple markets has had numerous benefits for us personally.  We eat better.  Our children have favorite farmers for every food.  We enjoy a sense of community with the vendors and the customers.  Our lives are enriched in ways we had never even considered.

But it could be better.  It really could.

Because in my experience, many (most?) farmer’s markets are missing a LOT of opportunity.  So I offer my unsolicited advice to any market manager willing to listen.

Opportunity #1: Ask your customers what they want.  Sure, you can guess.  But you don’t need to.  So ask.  Then do what they ask.

Opportunity #2: Be willing to shake things up. The fact of the matter is that most markets are squatter’s markets.  Once you’re there, you’re there forever, if you want to be.  The argument for this behavior is loyalty to vendors.  They come every market day, rain or shine, good day or bad. Shouldn’t we respect that and allow them to continue participating?  My answer is, “of course”.  To the extent that customers still want that vendor more than an alternative.  Fact of the matter is that markets have finite space.  Use it for the vendors customers want the most.

Opportunity #3: Let the brutally efficient capital market sort the winners from the losers. Market managers play God every season by determining who gets in, and who doesn’t.  Most of these decisions, in our experience, come down to vendor protectionism.  Market managers want to make sure vendors have a good season, so they keep coming.  Understandable.  And we’ve even benefited from that behavior.  But I hate it.  Take on more comers, and let the customers sort it out.  If there are too many vendors of something, some of them will go away.  Let it happen.

Opportunity #4: Be more expansive in terms of product lines.  People today are busy.  They don’t necessarily need one-stop shopping, but they are not going to The Lettuce Store, then the The Tomato Store, then The Bread Store, etc.  You’ve got to give them as much as possible in one stop.  That means meeting ALL their food needs, not just the things you think are important.  So even if your vision, Mr. or Ms. Market Manager, is The Ultimate Produce Stand, recognize that there are MANY customers who also want cheese and butter, cakes and breads, prepared foods, and more.  And accommodating them will help you achieve your mission, too.

Opportunity #5: Embrace modern communication technology. Most markets are starting to get this.  But there are still many opportunities to improve.  Part of the problem is that people involved in markets seem to believe that everyone thinks/cares about markets as much as we do.  Nope.  Not true.  Sure, we all have our die hard customers who do care as much as we do.  But most are more casual consumers of what we offer, and they need to be reminded, stimulated even, to engage in unfamiliar routines.  Remember, for us it’s a habit.  For them, it’s a chore.  Really.

Opportunity #6: Engage community. Many markets are situated near retail businesses.  Invite them to participate in your market.  To come tell market customers what it is they do, and why customers should care.  Most will be happy to do so.  And customers will benefit.  It’s a virtuous cycle.

Opportunity #7: Keep your petty squabbles in the family. In our experience, farmer’s markets are like families: they’re all dysfunctional.  Some are openly nutty.  Others appear normal until you get to know them.  But make no mistake, there’s no such thing as normal.  And like any family, there are all sorts of squabbles.  “So and so took my space.”  “He’s selling his tomatoes too cheap.”  “She didn’t grow that stuff, she bought it somewhere and is reselling it.”  The list goes on.  The thing is, customers come to the market for peace, tranquility and organic lettuce.  They live dysfunctional every day of their lives, too.  They want a little slice of Norman Rockwell from the market.  Let them have it.  No squabbling after the opening bell.

Opportunity #8: Embrace modern financial tools. Basically, this means find a way to take credit cards.  Customers in the US just don’t carry cash.  Quit complaining about it.  Either make all your vendors take them (unreasonable, probably), or find a way for the market to take them.  There is a 21st Century Farmer’s Market program – join it.

Opportunity #9: Dump the non-food. In a desperate attempt to have a parking lot full of tents, many farmer’s markets go the way of flea markets.  All manner of pottery, jewelry and soap crowd out the lettuce tents.  Some amount of this stuff may be desirable, but in many markets, it’s too much.  Now, there is a caution to accompany this opportunity.  Many markets categorize vendors as “growers” or “crafters”.  If you’re not a grower, you’re a crafter.  Hmmm.  We’re not coffee growers.  But we’re not crafters, either.  We’re artisan food processors.  We recommend you amend your categories to “food growers” and “food processors”.  Then maybe reallocate the mix – in many markets, it’s 75% growers, 25% crafters.  How about 60% food growers, 40% food processors. That’s a more accurate reflection of consumption patterns, too.

Opportunity #10: Have some fun! Ultimately, that is what it’s all about.  Create a party atmosphere.  Invite everyone.  Let your hair down.  Because in the end, life’s too short not to dance to a fiddle and have a watermelon seed spitting contest.

http://www.muddydogcoffee.com

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More Money, Less Choice. Welcome to the Grocery Store.

The first two years of our business, I followed local coffee pricing pretty closely*.  I monitored local groceries every couple months, noting changes in pricing and availability.  This past summer, life started getting pretty crazy, and my last price check-in was in July 2009.  Given that we do all our food shopping in farmer’s markets, that was probably the last time I was in a grocery store.

Until yesterday.

My first reaction upon returning to the grocery store was to be glad I’m not in the ice cream business -  Breyers blowout in progress, but 2, get 3 free.  Man, that’s some tough competition.

My second reaction was, “What happened to all the coffee?”.  It was immediately evident that there was a much smaller selection than I saw in July.  Consulting my spreadsheet later, the numbers revealed that there was fully 33% smaller brand selection than in July 2009, and the brands that remained were large, national brands.  I’ve never tracked the SKU level, but my sense as that even within the remaining brands, the number of individual SKUs was reduced (essentially, there was just less shelf space devoted to premium coffee).  Bottom line, if you buy coffee at the grocery store, you have a lot less choice than you did just nine months ago, and you will be selecting from major national brands.  This isn’t entirely surprising, except that exactly the opposite has occurred in the beer aisle. Given there are just about 500 craft brewers in the US, and 1600 craft roasters, this is a little counter-intuitive.  My best guess is that structural aspects are driving the difference, e..g, beer has a better distribution network, and the profitability to retailers is higher.  But that’s just a guess.  Maybe people just like beer more – some days, I do.

The final unpleasant surprise came when I entered the prices into my spreadsheet.  In the past nine months, the average price of coffee has increased 3.7%.  This, in a period where the inflation rate was 1.06%.  The average price of premium coffee when I calculated it last night was $13.91 per pound, up from $13.44 per pound on July 27, 2009.

Interestingly, in July there was only one 16 oz. put-up.  Now there are none available in the grocery.  Most of the put-ups are 12 oz., a couple are 10 oz, and one is 11 oz.  This smacks of the incident with propane sellers about a year ago, where tank exchange companies quietly decreased the fill weight of tanks while keeping price constant.  It seems that coffee sellers are using the same cleverness to hide the fact that small increases in package price translate into large changes in the per pound price.

Now, you may think I’m going to argue that coffee prices are too high.  Well, I’m not about to argue that; in fact, I think coffee is still too much of a bargain, as are many food items in the United States.  Read the book Cheap to get some perspective on food prices.

But I am going to argue that if you buy premium coffee in the grocery store, you should be buying from us instead.  You like variety?  You like fresh?  You like local?  You like a good deal?  Our coffee averages in the low 12′s per pound.  We have about three dozen SKUs to choose from.  We roast fresh weekly.  We roast date the packages.  We can tell you about the pedigrees of the coffees we buy.  We are a local bricks-and-mortar merchant and tax-paying member of the community.  The only thing we’re not is as convenient as a grocery store.  So what’s the problem?  Why are you still buying coffee in the grocery store?

Break the habit of buying bad, stale coffee from the grocery store.  Come visit us and let us show you a real value.

http://www.muddydogcoffee.com

*Comment on methodology: I follow coffee prices in a few “mid-range” groceries in my area, e.g., Harris Teeter, Lowes.  I look at coffees I think of as “premium”, that is, comparable to what we sell – coffees like Peets, Starbucks, Green Mountain, and a few local roasters.  I do NOT include what I think of as commodity coffees, e.g., Dunkin Donuts, Folgers, etc.

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This Little Piggy Went to Market. This Little Piggy Stayed Home.

A basket of goods from the Western Wake Farmer's Market

Farmer’s Market season will soon be upon us.  This post will update you on our market plans for the season, including some commentary on markets we will not be doing, to answer questions I know many of you will have.

We WILL BE AT the following markets this season:

Western Wake Farmer’s Market – Opening Day Saturday, April 3, 2010.  Saturdays, 8:00 AM till Noon.  In my opinion, WWFM is the best market in the area, and I would stack it up against the Carrboro-Durham Food Mafia any Saturday of the summer.  I’ve admired the organization of the market, and think they’ve recruited a great vendor base.  You can do your weekly food shopping here, easily.  Note that WWFM is usually a briskly attended market, and the best stuff often sells out by 10 AM or earlier, so make it a point to get there at the beginning of the day.  You can also follow the market on Twitter, @WWFM.

Duke University Farmer’s Market – Opening Day Friday, April 23, 2010.  Fridays, 11 AM – 2 PM.  The Market is held weekly through the end of July. Then the Market occurs every other week on August 13, August 27, and September 10.  The Duke market is a nice little market, not very convenient if you don’t work at Duke, but well-attended with a surprisingly large complement of vendors.  Less intense than WWFM, it is later in the day and therefore more subject to adverse summer weather, e.g., hot temperatures and the occasional thundershower.  Parking can be a challenge, too, but if you pull right down to the market site, there are a few spots reserved for market customers where you can leave your car for an hour without being harassed.

North Raleigh Farmer’s Market (Falls River, at Durant Road). Opening day  Saturday, April 24, 2010, Saturdays 8 – noon.  We started at this modest, but growing market at the end of last season, and we’re going to give it a try again this season.  We hope you’ll come out to make this one a great success.

On the topic of markets we will NOT be doing… Here’s some commentary on those where people probably have some expectation we’ll serve.

Downtown Cary Farmer’s Market (DCFM): deciding not to return to DCFM was one of the most emotionallydifficult decisions we’ve had to make as a business.  We love the people at that market, both vendors and customers.  But the business at that market is just terrible, and after speaking with several vendors, I know it wasn’t just us.  In a season where our overall market sales more than doubled, our performance at DCFM was down substantially year-on-year.  There are several reasons for the decline, but the big three according to our customer survey are lack of variety at the market, an extremely unfortunate choice of new location, and competition from Western Wake, which has a great location (6 miles from DCFM) and a nice variety.  I think everyone reading this understands that while there is an element of passion to what we do, we also need to make at least a little money doing it.  On the balance, we LOST money serving DCFM last year.  So we are not returning.  We hope our DCFM customers will buy from us at WWFM, which is just six miles west.

Durham Farmer’s Market.  Many of our customers asked that we sell at Durham.  We applied the previous two years and were declined, but you all started a letter-writing campaign to the market manager, so we applied again.  It didn’t work.  Our rejection letter said they have their quota of “crafters and prepared food”.  While we are neither crafters nor prepared food, we get the message.  I’m pretty sure there is more to it than what’s contained in the letter, but there’s really no point to me speculating, or being upset (though I am).  Bottom line, that’s that.

Regarding other regional markets I didn’t mention, know that we have investigated and applied to most, and for a variety of reasons none of them are the right fit for us (most of them resulted in the same kind of letter we got from Durham).

We do hope that you will come out to do your shopping at one of the markets we serve.  In addition to it being a great way to get your food, and a pleasant habit to develop for a Saturday morning, it’s the only way to assure that these types of markets continue to exist.  Trust me when I tell you that this is NOT an easy way to make money for any of the vendors.  But we enjoy doing it.

http://www.muddydogcoffee.com

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Who Moved My Samples?

This is one of those brutally candid conversations I may regret later.  But some things need to be said.

Those of you who have seen us for the past two seasons at the Downtown Cary Farmers’ Market have noticed some changes recently.  Less inventory.  Fewer Selections.  No more samples.  Teenagers running the booth.  What kind of way is this to generate new business, you might ask? It’s a fair question.

The answer is, it’s not, really.  It’s more a kind of staying tactic, to be completely honest.  Because for us at least, the performance of this market this season is terrible, plain and simple.  And I don’t mind telling you, since you are the only ones who can improve it.

I was willing to suffer quietly, blaming it on the overall economy even while our other channels perform at or above last year’s levels, while waiting to see if the traffic picks up.  Until this past Saturday, when a market patron expressed dismay to our folks about the lack of samples.  While they admitted they had no intention to make a purchase.  I can only take so much.

Here’s how it works, folks.  I really don’t mind providing a culinary journey around the world, even to potential customers who wind up buying nothing.  It’s cool, really, I enjoy seeing you enjoy the experience.  But I can only afford to do it if the venue has enough volume to at least break even overall (and we all know in the long run it needs to be at least modestly profitable.  Last season it worked.  This season it ain’t working.  For the past few weeks, the total cost of servicing this market (which includes the opportunity cost of having infrastructure there that could be profitably deployed elsewhere) exceeds the profits earned from it.  It doesn’t take my Duke MBA to figure out that ain’t sustainable.

I hear from many people that they like having a quaint downtown, with character and quirky, independently owned businesses.  Hell, I do, too.  And I’m doing my part to make it happen.

So if the problem is me, tell me so.  But to be fair, I’m thinking it’s not me.  As I mentioned, our other venues are performing well.  We have dramatically increased the quality of our offerings above what was already a high standard.  We added one new relationship coffee that I traveled 20,000 miles to find, and I’m abnout to add a couple more.  We increased the breadth of our product lines to include the finest loose leaf teas you have ever tasted.  We invested in new brewing infrastructure, including state-of-the-art instrumentation and software to assure we brew perfect, SCAA Gold Cup standard coffee each time.  We increased shop hours, decreased shipping costs, and increased the number of ways we communicate with customers.  All between November and April.

No, I’m thinking that you just don’t care about the Downtown Cary Farmers’ Market anymore.  There is another high profile alternative market six miles away that opened this year and is going like gangbusters (and we thank you for that, and appreciate your patronage there).  Or Downtown Cary, period.  We have friends with downtown businesses that have suffered terribly this winter because they are anchored to their location.  And while that makes us sad, I think we would all rather just know the truth.  If you’re not coming back, just tell us and we’ll fold the tents and move on, too.  It would be better than waiting for an improvement that is never going to come.

I’d really like to know what you think about this.  Please leave a comment, or if you’re uncomfortable with that, please email me.

http://www.muddydogcoffee.com

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Western Wake Farmers’ Market = Success!

WWFM Opening. Photo courtesy of Sandra's Kitchen Studio, http://www.sandraskitchenstudio.com

Asses and elbows.

I just don’t know how else to put it.  That was the scene Saturday morning at the opening of the new Western Wake Farmers’ Market.

And it was wonderful.

Mia, Jennifer, Pali, Natalie, Amy (both Amys), Teri, Cindy, Heidi and Juliann have done a great thing for West Cary.  These women decided a year ago that they weren’t satisfied with the status quo of Cary markets, and set about organizing the market they wanted.  And they have done a spectacular job.  Hats off to all of you!

As a vendor, it was invigorating to be part of someting that was absolutely alive.  I was so busy that I only got to see the market from the inside of my tent, and that’s the way it should be.

Yours truly, from the inside of the tent. Photo courtesy of Sandra's Kitchen Studio, http://www.sandraskitchenstudio.com

Like many (most?) vendors, we were pretty much sold out of everything by 11 AM.  None of us anticipated a crowd that we were later told was about 1100 people.  I think we’ll all be better prepared next week.  There will probably be some “settling out” period, for us at least, where we learn the balance of what we’ll sell in a given week.  I will try to overshoot the mark a little next week.

I’m told that there is an amazing compliment of vendors there.  Certainly the tents strectched as far as my eyes could see.  I did manage to get my meat shopping done with Grandview Farms, as they happened to be set up right next to me – grass fed beef and free-range chicken, yum.  Maybe next week I’ll bring some more help and get out to explore.

See you at the market!

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OT, or maybe not: Louisiana’s Last Shrimpers

Photo credit: Garden & Gun Magazine

Ok, this one is off-topic.  Or maybe not.  It all comes back to buy local.

Yesterday I got my new edition of Garden & Gun.  Yeah, yeah, get the jokes out of your system.  I know it sounds ridiculous, but this is a magazine I really like.  Think “Southern Living”, but for men.  And the kind of women I find interesting.

Lots of good articles in this month’s edition.  But the one that caught my attention was the one I mentioned in the title of this post: Lousiana’s Last Shrimpers (click HERE to read it online).  I was captivated by the story, and thought about all the parallels I’ve seen just in my adult life: US steel, NC textiles, and of course, food of all sorts.

The gist of the article, as you might have guessed, is that Louisiana shrimpers are getting killed by Asian competition.  Hardly news, I suppose.

But it makes me angry.

This fall, in our sad and tragic (on so many levels) presidential election, both of the leading poseurs (err, I mean “candidates”) made a great show about how they would “stop rewarding corporations who ship our jobs overseas”.  That statement is ludicrous on so many levels, but most obviously because politicians have no power over this situation whatsoever.  Companies, mine included, respond to customers, not to government.  They tolerate government, they influence government, they take advantage of government, but they respond to customers.  So at the end of the day, the only power resides with… YOU.  You vote with every dollar you spend.  Do you think if every shrimp consumer walked into their seafood purveyor, and asked for gulf shrimp, and turned around and walked out in disgust when presented with a Thai alternative, that Thai shrimp would threaten the very existence of Louisiana shrimpers?  Of course not.

I also hear it with many of the wanna-be local foodies I encounter (no offense to the many, many genuine local food advocates we know), who think that eating local was invented in 2008 (nuevo-locavores?) .  By them.  They talk a good game about wanting local food, but when it becomes even a little more inconvenient or expensive to eat that way, bam, ideals are out the window.  Back to Whole Foods they go.

Take a stand, people.  We ran out of eggs this week.  What am I supposed to do, buy some from the grocery store?  I don’t think so – the answer is to go without until Saturday when I can buy them at the Market.  I stand in a freakin’ parking lot every two weeks to get raw dairy from a farmer in South Carolina because my government chooses to stifle my freedom by making it ILLEGAL to buy it in North Carolina.  Ridiculous.  My kids are sick of eating kale and sweet potatoes (ok, maybe not sick of sweet potatoes) because that’s what’s in season and grown by our farmer friends.  You know what I tell them?  Tough shit, suck it up or be hungry.  Tomato, squash and watermelon season is coming, and you will appreciate it more when it gets here.  You’re not getting asparagus from Peru in March just because Harris Teeter stocks it.

It’s fair to question whether I’m being hypocritical when it comes to coffee.  I say not, and here’s my thinking.  First of all, coffee doesn’t grow here, with the exception of Hawaii, and they can sell all they grow for all the money and not meet the total US demand.  So my buying coffee from the rest of the world (in addition to Hawaii) is not hurting my countrymen.  I feel the same way about bananas and pineapples.

It’s also fair to question whether it’s sensible to avoid local food because it’s more expensive.  I think if the disparity were so big that it was the difference between being hungry and not, then I have to say buy the alternative.  But I think the flip side of that question is important, too – what are you going to do with the money you save by buying that Thai shrimp that grew up in its own sewage?  Buy a bigger TV?  An iPhone?  More collectables?  Then I think you need to examine your priorities.  Yeah, I know that my neighbors work at Best Buy, own McDonald’s franchises, and service BMWs.  But whether we care to admit it or not, having a local agricultural community is more important to our health and safety, and long-term well-being, physically and mentally.  Job One, as they say.   And our way of life, candidly.  It’s as much about safety, security, culture and community support as it is about food.

And it’s not just shopping, it’s restaurant choices, too.  I was talking to one of our restaurant customers last night who told me that the last two weeks were the worst they have ever experienced in the history of their restaurant.  Yet when I drove by Carraba’s the place was asses and elbows.  That’s sad on so, so many levels.  Everyone I talk to tells me they want downtown to be relevant, and likes to have small businesses with personality in their community, yet when it comes time to vote with the wallet, they choose MSG-laden foods of unknown origin over small, fresh, locally sourced and competitive priced alternatives.  Why?  Main roads, habit, uniformity, etc etc… all shitty excuses.

Yes, being committed to a local food system is sometimes difficult and inconvenient.  I admit it.  I wouldn’t even argue too much if you told me it was more expensive, although I could show you that for our family it isn’t.  But dammit, anything worth doing usually is difficult.  So stop paying lip service, and put your money where your mouth is.

Buy local.  As local as possible.  If that means from your neighbor, great.  If it means from a neighboring state, ok.  If it means buying from a fellow countryman, better than not doing so.  But be committed.  With every dollar.

</rant>

http://www.muddydogcoffee.com

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Muddy Dog Coffee: Official coffee of The King’s Daughters Inn

Saturday marked a very special occassion: it was the grand opening of  The King’s Daughters Inn, in Durham NC.   In case you missed it, here’s a clip of the ribbon cutting.  I’ll bet you’ll recognize the guy holding one end of the ribbon!

The Inn is the result of the vision of Colin and Deanna Crossman, who purchased the property and spent the past year restoring it to its 1920′s splendor.  The building was formerly a home for elderly women, run by The King’s Daughters, a Christian organization.  With the advent of modern nursing homes, the original purpose of the facility became less relevant, and the home was ultimately closed several years ago.  It remained vacant until Colin and Deanna saw its potential to become a luxurious Bed & Breakfast and conference center.

And what a B&B it is!  The Crossmans have merged the best of tradition and modern technology to create an elegant, smart, efficient destination.  The main house is comprised of 17 guest rooms, each with its own special decor.  The annex, built in the 1950′s serves as a full service conference center.

We were pleased and proud that the Crossmans selected us to provide coffee and tea for the Inn.  It doesn’t hurt, of course, that we’re all Dukies, but the real reason we hit it off so well is that we share a number of values.  As their work preserving this historic structure shows, Colin and Deanna believe in preserving tradition while enhancing it with the application of modern technology.  We do, too, having invested in ultra-efficient roasting technology that emits no smoke out the stack, and cuts power consumption by 90%+ vs. conventional roasters.

The Crossmans also believe in local sourcing wherever possible, and their selection of a coffee provider was with that in mind.  We knew it would be a big challenge to come up with a house coffee that reflected the values and character of the Inn and its proprietors, while pleasing guests with a wide range of tastes, but we think we’ve pulled it off.  Please read the descriptions for the both The King’s Daughters Organic House Blend and The King’s Daughters Decaffeinated House Blend.  We hope that you’ll give them a try, and do plan to stay at the Inn if you find yourself traveling to Durham.

And if you were at the Open House Saturday, or were one of the guests who stayed for the Inn’s first night, we want to hear from you your impressions of the property (and the coffee!) – leave a comment!

http://www.greenroasting.com

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A Tale of Two Markets: Farmers’ Markets in Cary this year

Talking to our customers over the past couple months, it’s obvious there is a bit of confusion regarding the local farmers’ market scene.  Let’s see if we can clarify.

Cary will have TWO farmers’ markets this year: Downtown Cary Farmers’ Market, and the Western Wake Farmers’ Market.  We will be vending at BOTH of the Cary markets.  Here’s the 411 on each:

Downtown Cary Farmers’ Market

The Downtown Cary Farmers’ Market is the returning market.  This market is the one that USED TO BE at the Amtrak station on between Harrison and Academy Streets.  I say USED TO BE because that market is relocating this year.  The reason it’s relocating is that the train station will be expanded, and we were not allowed to stay for the season.  The NEW LOCATION is 744 E. Chatham Street, in the Chatham Square shopping center, across from the Circus Restaurant.

The hours of the downtown market are Saturdays, 8 AM – 12:30 PM, and Tuesdays, 3-6 PM.  Opening day is this Saturday, April 4th.

The official website of the Downtown Cary Farmers’ Market is http://www.caryfarmersmarket.com

Twitter @CaryMarket

Map:

View Larger Map

The Western Wake Farmers’ Market

There will be a new farmer’s market in West Cary this year, the Western Wake Farmers’ Market.  That market is a Saturday-only market, opening Saturday, May 2.  Hours are 8-12 noon.  The location of the Western Wake Farmers’ Market is Carpenter Village, on Morrisville-Carpenter Road.  The market will be located about half a mile west of Davis Drive on the south side of Morrisville-Carpenter.

Official website of the Western Wake Farmers’ Market: http://www.westernwakefarmersmarket.org

Twitter @wwfm

Map:

View Larger Map

We will not be keeping shop hours on Saturdays during market season.  C’mon down to the market of your choice and see us there!

Hope that clears up some confusion.

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Fire in the Hole!

<Read this post in your best Anthony Bourdain voice and I promise you it will sound better>

Tonight I made my first fired tea.  In several batches.  It was harder than I thought it would be, and it didn’t come out exactly right each time.  In fact, it came out exactly right only once, curiously enough the first time I tried.  My shop smelled like a 1970′s Pink Floyd concert.  But it worked.  And thus begins another life-long obsession, I suspect.

What is fired tea, you ask?  It’s green tea, roasted.  The one that got me started on this is hojicha, a tea I first tried while Japan.  Hojicha, the traditionally charcoal-fired version of bancha, or second blush of sencha, sounds like a romantic, artisan creation.  And it is.  But in that uniquely Japanese way, it is also eminently practical.

You see, bancha is an inferior tea.  The first of seasonal green tea is called sencha, and it is universally prized around the world.  After the branches are bare, the second push arrives, and is harvested.  This ugly duckling of a tea, coarse and twiggy, is called bancha.  If bancha were coffee, it would be Vietnamese robusta.  Yuck.   So in true Japanese fashion, they take something undesirable, and turn it into something prized.  With fire.  Hojicha.

Sencha

Bancha. This is actually the best looking bancha I've ever seen; it looks better than some sencha. I wouldn't fire anything that looked this good. Well, OK, maybe I would. Fire, heh heh.

It’s understandable why the Japanese were driven to do this.  Any of you who have been to Japan know that real estate is at a premium.  They can’t just farm more land and harvest more sencha to make enough to earn a living.  No, they need to utilize the land to its fullest.  And hojicha is one way of doing that.  Hoji magically transforms the rough and relatively flavorless bancha into a beautiful, less astringent tea, with lovely grain and cereal flavors.  It’s just short of miraculous, really.

Hojicha. This one is a little twiggy.

So once again, I had the distinct advantage of knowing just enough to be dangerous, and not nearly enough to be useful.  If there’s one thing I can do, I figured, it’s roast.  And roast I did.  How hot?  How long?  How much air?  How much agitation?  All complete mysteries to me.  And they pretty much still are.  But I got it right once, and that was all it took.  I am hooked.

It turns out that hojicha is usually pan fired over charcoal.  In retrospect, I can clearly see the wisdom of this technique.  As you might have guessed, that’s not exactly what I did.  What I did… is to remain a secret.  Why? Well, the obvious reason is proprietary competitive advantage.  And that’s true, to a certain extent.  But the real reason is embarrassment.  I know I looked like Rube Goldberg, but with enough BTUs to torch a house.  What I did tonight was dangerous and silly.  And fun.  And unexpectedly productive.  And my secret.

I would offer you some of my hoji to try, but the batch I got right yielded just enough for a few servings.  I sent what was left after my sampling to a friend in Atlanta with his coffee order.  I look forward, as always, to his sometimes harsh, but always honest feedback.  I suspect he will encourage me to continue.

And as I research the field, I realize that hojicha is but one type of fired tea.  People have been doing this to all kinds of beverages for a very long time.  Looks like I have some catching up to do.

http://www.muddydogcoffee.com

WWJD (What Would Jim Drink today?): Hoji!  I drank all of the batch that worked, now I’m working on some of the less perfect batches, and they’re still good.

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Old School: That’s How They Roll

I’m talking about my parents, of course, and how they make coffee.  No method is too labor intense, no device too archaic.  And, not suprisingly, the apple has not fallen far from the tree.

We visited the folks at the Pennsylvania farmstead in between Christmas and New Year’s, as those of you who

Here's the Muddy Dog herself, down on the farm. Who said a dog can't smile? That is literally a sh_t-eating grin - I saw what she was eating right before the photo.

placed orders that week now fully realize; of course, I needed to bring coffee.  So as I was getting ready to turn out the lights in the roastery Christmas eve, I assembled a couple boxes and gathered up every roasted bean I could find in the shop to give away to my family.  All the Friends & Family trimmings that the walk-in customers have come to love (walk in and buy a couple pounds, and I throw in a bag of trimmings for free!).  All the unsold bulk coffees.  All the retail finished goods.  Everything.  All told, I boxed up about 35 pounds of coffee (mind you, I had been concentrating on depleting the inventory for about a week at that point).  I was determined to start 2009 with absolutely no inventory – a gesture that my accountant loves.

Upon arrival, my brothers descended on the boxes like a pack of ravenous wolves.  Still, my parents were left with a pretty amazing array of coffees.  And we drank a lot of them over the week.  And as interesting as all those coffees were, it’s how they were brewed that was more interesting.  All those who think you need fancy new technology to make great coffee, prepare to be amazed.

Those who know me know that I have a hard time starting the day without a simple, straight espresso.  Mom and Dad have no fancy espresso machine.  Nor do they want one – no space in their kitchen.  So we went old school: moka pot.  For the uninitiated, a moka is how most Italians in Italy make their coffee at home (at least the ones I know).  The device is simple, just three pieces.  A bottom vessel to contain the water, a filter basket shaped like a funnel, and a pot to catch the finished coffee.  The principal of operation is simple, too.  Fill the bottom vessel up to the pressure relief valve.  Fill the basket with finely ground coffee, in this case our Classic Italian Espresso, strike it level, do not tamp.  Assemble the pot.  Place onto a heat source.  As the water heats, the air above it heats.  As the air heats, it expands, pushing on the water.  The only place for the water to go (path of least resistance) is up the funnel, through the coffee, into the pot.  It makes a really good, stiff coffee.  You don’t get the same oil emulsification (crema) that happens at 9 bars of pressure, but it’s still damn good.  And cheap, and simple, and easy to store in the cabinet.

Moka pot, and espresso blend. That stove was new sometime in the 70's.

Here's what it looks like apart. This is a plain, old, aluminum Bialetti brand moka. We sell a fancy stainless steel version, as well as the aluminum classic.

Basket filled, struck level, no tamp, ready to assemble.

Pure Magic...

Still, a little tedious if you have a crowd, which we did at times.  In that case, we drag out the old vacuum pot.  Yeah, we could have used the percolator, but as I established in a post last summer, that one actually takes some skill to use well.

Vac pots date back to the mid 1800′s, purportedly invented by a guy named Napier, a maritime engineer.  Principle of operation is the same as the moka – bottom vessel for water, top vessel shaped like a funnel, with funnel rod extending to bottom of water vessel.  In between there is a filter of some sort.  Water heats, air heats, air pushes on water, water follows path of least resistance up funnel and mixes with ground coffee in that vessel.  Only difference in this case is that you keep it on the heat as long as you want the coffee to steep.  Then remove it from the heat.  As the bottom vessel cools, it creates a vacuum (this is, basically, how a canning jar works, too).  The vacuum sucks the brewed coffee through the filter and into the pot.  Done.

Vac pots were hugely popular before WWII.  Restaurants had huge gangs of them.  They were in every household, in numerous brands – Cory, Nicro, Sunbeam, and more.  All types of filter mechanisms.  At one time I had a collection of them, but I try not to pack rat and sold them all except one or two.  Even today, they are available if not popular.  Bodum makes the most mainstream of them, the Santos.  The device in the movie The Bucket List was a vacuum pot (the Royal), a different configuration but same principle.

Here's Mom's Vac Pot. She's clumsy, so stainless is how she rolls. I think this one is a Nicro, but not sure. It uses a Cory glass filter rod, probably not original.

Put the filter rod in, then add the coffee. A bit of technique - heat the water a little with the pot unassembled, then put them together. It's more viscerally satisfying to seethe thing work as soome as you assemble it, and you can start timing your agitation, otherwise you're waiting for the water to heat, in which case I get distracted then the next thing you know it's been gurgling for who knows how long.

Assmebled, water starting to move into upper chamber. Stir a little as the water rises to get all the coffee wetted.

Let it steep, on the heat, for about three minutes, then remove from heat and watch the vacuum work almost immediately

It's done when the grinds are sucked dry. remove the upper vessel and serve.

My favorite coffee of the week was the Mexico Organic Dry-Process Nayarit.  I’m a sucker for a good natural.

Even if you don’t use these methods every day, it’s fun to experiment with them and inexpensive to buy the equipment – look on eBay to get what you need.  They work great, they give you infinite control, and you’ll feel good about mastering a new technique.

http://www.muddydogcoffee.com

WWJD (What Would Jim Drink today?): I’m working on a couple new blends for a potential new coffee shop customer.  The dark house blend is a variation on the Christmas Blend theme.  I’ll keep you posted.

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