Winter’s over.  We’d better get to it.”  Thus begins the saga of how Dungeness Gold is evolving. 

Starting with the idea for new labels for our product, we both stirred up our creative juices and met with the really creative person, Jessica, a graphic artist who guided us down the path of our “new look.”  It’s clean and simple, with lots of clear space so our customers can see the yummy spices in the bottle.  We’ve even got our own logo, which, I must say, is pretty cool.

On to how we’re going to display our stuff on the tables at the various markets and bazaars we attend.  That involved painting and, ever the martyr, I volunteered to paint a wagon and some wooden crates.  Now I hate to paint but, to my astonishment, I got it done with minimal spills and splatters anywhere on my body, and that part is ready to go.  Shannan, on the other hand, took on the job of painting the shelving ‘gold’ for Dungeness Gold.  There’s a job that I was happy to avoid, but she did it with nary a complaint.  Now we’ve just got to find some cool fabric for the tablecloths and we’re there.

One of our (or I should say Shannan’s) major projects this winter was rebuilding our website, which she did beautifully.  As soon as we get our new labeling we’ll be updating the pics of the bottles and it will be good to go. 

We went through the jurying process for the Sequim Farmer’s Market and while we were nervous, we were prepared and passed inspection with no problems.  Next on our list is the inspection process by the State of Washington Department of Agriculture.  That’s a bit more nerve-wracking, and involves an 80+ page application which is daunting.  Shannan is lead on that project and God bless her.

We’ve scoped out the commercial kitchen we’ll be using and the best part is that it has a gorgeous view of a marina.  We’ll keep you posted but I guess when you see us selling our wares, you’ll know we passed.

Now comes the fun part – the mad-scientist part!  During the winter we had one of our “business coffee” meetings at Suzon’s Coffee Lounge and we made a list of the types of blends that we’d like to add to our repertoire.  We’ve noticed that we have only savory blends at this point and since we both have a sweet tooth, we’ve started experimenting with flavored sugars.  Even as I write, they’re infusing and if they taste half as good as they smell, we’ll be bottling soon.  Who knew that the sugar infusion process could take weeks?

So much for the evolution of the new Dungeness Gold.  We’re excited to begin our “season” and hoping for the best.   See you at the Market!