The Driveway Is Coated

I would have gotten the seal coat on in a solid five hours. Unfortunately the block of time had a two-hour crack in the middle. Once again I’d underestimated how much material I’d need, and went back to the suburban big box for three buckets of sealer. I would have rather gone to River-Lake Hardware, two local guys who’ve been at the same address on East Lake Street since before Barbara and I hit town. They were the ones who sent me to the ‘burbs, and I have to admit that stocking as much petroleum product as I used (twenty-four gallons of asphalt and additives in various proportions) would take too much space in that little, old-fashioned hardware store.

The numbers favor shopping locally when you can. The 3/50 Project says that sixty-eight bucks out of every hundred spent stay in the community when you spend locally, but only forty-three when you buy from a national chain. Beyond that, I’d say that keeping the local economy healthy has other advantages. Multiple local competitors mean you’re not at the mercy of a home office that might mothball a store that wasn’t sending enough cash back home. One store out of many closes, and you can shop across the street; the local big box shuts and supplying your project or dressing your kids gets more involved. Family businesses model commerce for children. Once, long ago, I read that millionaires were more likely to have been the children of family businesses, restaurants, taxicabs, etc. Not that I approve of concentrated wealth, but we’re a commercial species, and business is an art.

Barbara had taken the car, so I got on the train, grabbed the care, and picked up three more buckets of seal coat. I almost got it all covered with two, but had to grudgingly pry open the last pail for less than ten square feet.

In a can’t-learn-less moment, I saw that the salt I’d put in some of the cracks had risen through the tar to whiten spots on my clean, flat, black surface. I have a couple of other reservations about my job, but they’re more like questions. I’m pleased and curious to see how the driveway fares this winter.

And Barbara told me I’m brave.

Minnesota Flavored Almonds

Darned good Almonds. Darned good marketer. Barbara had a recipe for smoked almonds she’d tinkered with over the years. Family and friends looked forward to getting them for Christmas. We won’t say the big gun’s name, but Barbara’s have a meatier taste, almost bacony (they are entirely vegetarian, vegan even).

Co-worker Jason and she decided to try selling them at the Midtown Farmer’s Market in the spring of 2008, and they were a hit. Over the course of the season, they developed three new recipes, “Sweeties” (chai or “pumpkin pie” flavored), “Naughties” (cocoa and cinnamon, with a snap of cayenne), and “Hotties” (cayenne and chilli, with molasses, vinegar, and smoke giving them a lot of depth). Meanwhile, they found retail outlets (Seward Co-op, East Side Co-op, Mississippi Market Co-op, Anoka Lakewinds Co-op, Kiki's Simple Abundance in Red Wing, The Golden Fig, with more on the way). This year they’ve expanded to three other farmer’s markets (Kingfield, North East, and New Hope).

The flavors are all complex, and a little on the adult side. They’ve made it to Iraq, and Barbara and Jason proudly display a photograph of a squad of GIs eating Barsy’s Almonds in front of a Baghdad palace.

Barbara and Jason are engaging sales people, and like to play and flirt with customers and prospects. They have regulars who seem like friends, and Barbara and Jason are popular with the other sellers. When one of them has a conflict or they get triple-booked, I step in as baker or seller. Baking is fast-paced and engaging, but selling is a gas.

The next recipe will probably be “Babies,” and will use hazlenuts, aka “filberts.” The idea is to diversify, but also to use a local product (there ain’t no Minnesota almonds). Most of our filberts come from Turkey, but the trees grow like weeds out in the country here. There is the beginning of a hazlenut industry, with local arborealistas tinkering with processing machinery, and marketing networks.

Barsy’s has a website, but mail order is pretty ad hoc still. At current scale, what would be nice would be somebody else whose business would be mail order fulfillment source for artisan-food start-ups.