Now that we’re experts at cooking FIVE + GALLONS of Smoked Salmon/Mushroom chowder and serving it in 2 ounce cups to hundreds, we’re ready to tackle anything! Yes, our experience at the Chowder Cook-Off proved that we can do it all. Or at least Shannan a/k/a #1 can! She did the cooking while I cut, sliced, dipped, and otherwise filled the gaps. Truthfully we had a ball, no one got ill, and we won 1st prize for the best-decorated booth. What fun… but never again! Ironically, my husband, Jim, just came in to tell me that he ran into a couple on Three Crabs Road who recognized the Dungeness Gold sign on our van. Turns out they met us at the Chowder Cook-Off. Oh well, exposure is everything…
Not sure where the time has gone. Already we’re on to our next venture which will be four holiday bazaars starting this weekend. We were talking this morning on our daily dog walk about this time last year, how we’d just purchased Dungeness Gold and had no idea how to set up and run a booth at a holiday bazaar. As we loaded the van for tomorrow’s move-in at the Jefferson County Holiday Fair this weekend, we realized that we’ve come a long way. We weren’t worried about what to take, didn’t obsess about lists, and we calmly made decisions about how to dress our tables with holiday flare.
Owning Dungeness Gold has been interesting. We’ve made some mistakes, changed several things including our website and labeling, added new products, designed a great new sign program, but most of all, we’ve had fun.
As we talk to various people we encounter, we realize how blessed we are to be a mother and daughter who actually want to be together. We work so well as a team, sharing ideas, developing the good ones, tossing the crazy ones (except for cooking chowder), and exploring where we can go with this business that we bought on a whim because we thought it would be fun. Truth is, we’ve had lots of fun this year, we’re closer than ever, and we both believe that 2017 will be amazing. Who knew that a little spice company could be such a blast?