Crafted, Crafted, & Crafted.

We are already half way through May, where did the time go!? Since my last post, we had visited Maui for 10 days, Chelan for a weekend getaway, and have officially launched Crafted at the farmers markets. This past month has been a little bit insane. During Maui, which was supposed to be my "relaxing" trip, I was the busiest bee filing applications, talking with health department, finalizing menus, and ordering packaging for Crafted. While my stress was at an all time high, the storm has passed and we are now smooth sailing!

Last summer, I was just day dreaming of what is now Crafted. Kirk and I went out in our front yard, had a bottle of wine, and watched the stars (Woodinville is really amazing for star watching FYI). We started talking and planned some goals that we wanted to hit by the year mark, June 2013. The goals were to have a couple of wholesale things going (which we did with Dirty Bucket Brewery and Liberty) and to be in three farmers markets. 

Getting in farmer's markets during the summer as a dessert co. is actually quite challenging. It's challenging because at each market, they only allow a certain amount of vendors in each category. With the baked goods category, there are usually only 2-6 companies welcomed into the market depending on how big the market is. Being in our first year also welcomed new challenges since I didn't have seniority over other vendors. I had to wait six awful weeks until I heard back from the Department of Agriculture to get one final permit before I could even finish applying to the markets which helped bring my stress to an all time high. I heard from them the day before Maui so you can imagine how crazy that day was meeting with them, heading to my commercial kitchen for inspection and yada yada yada. Crazy. Long story short, we were finally accepted into three markets :) Crossroads, Duvall, and Juanita. I was accepted into Juanita while we were in Maui, and Duvall a couple days after returning home. Proud to have met our first round of goals, now on to the next! What's next you ask? Launching our dessert of the month club, as well as getting more wholesale accounts. I will keep you posted, of course.

First day at the market!

Another shot of our booth. Our booth has one side of  baked items and the other side has all of our packaged items. Also side note, Kirk built my little chalkboard to right. Precious.

Some of our baked good items: Brown Butter Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies, Cocoa Nib Brownies, and our Itty Bittie's. Our Itty Bittie's is my take on classic candy bar flavors. I hand dip each one in Organic Theo Chocolate. The one pictured is "Snicker's".. peanut butter nougat, salted caramel, dipped in 70% topped with roasted peanuts.

Packaged items include our caramel corn line, mallow line, ganache's, s'mores kits (with house graham, mallow, and a jar of chocolate ganache), and our Brown Butter Caramels. 

Close up of our Peanut Butter Ganache (made with 45% Theo Milk Chocolate) and our Classic Ganache (70% Dark). And the lovely Brown Butter Caramels. 

We have now finished two weeks at the markets and it is getting easier every time. My stress level is down, and I have a normal schedule once again. And I am not staying up till 2 AM labeling and packaging product anymore, so that's always a plus ;)

A website is coming soon, but in the meantime make sure you "like" Crafted on Facebook.

I will keep you updated as the weeks go on with all of Crafted's exciting developments. Thank you again for everyone that has helped with Crafted along the way, it means the world. xxo.