Getting Ready for Vegas

September brings with it lots of things. Cooler winds, shorter days, delicious Fall produce, the start of school, and, inevitably, the beginning of the Fall tradeshow season. This year we're heading to SuperZoo (Sept 15-17 Booth #1863) and HH Backer Christmas (Oct 2-4 Booth #4134) and can't wait to show our products to retailers. In the coming days I'll do a little writeup on the two new products we have this year. Not only are the new products creative and delicious, but they are also eco-friendly!

Today may have been Labor Day but with SuperZoo starting in about a week, a good portion of today was spent getting our pallet ready to ship off to the shows. It's always exciting to get that on it's way as it means that Tradeshow Season has begun!

Since I anticipate the rest of this week will be pretty quiet in advance of the show, now is the time to spend some time and energy thinking of what food we'll be bringing with us to the show. Tradeshows are always fun and a great chance for us to meet and catch up with new and repeat retailers as well as share stories with our favorite manufacturers. But the days are also really long so we like to bring a few human treats with us to help us get through the days.

In addition to our perennial tradeshow favorites of Gary Poppins White Cheddar popcorn (www.garypoppins.com - handmade popcorn that is just better then you've ever tasted before! This provides us with a 'salty' fix when needed) and Chukar Cherries (www.chukarcherries.com - chocolate covered cherries from our home state of Washington. I like to think that not only do they give us a 'chocolate' fix when the 3pm slumbers hit, but since they're made from cherries then they also qualify as 'fruit,' don't they?), this year I've been playing around with pretzel bread. True to form, I first tasted it at a local bakery and became hooked. So in my free time I've been experimenting with recipes and have finally found one that tastes just like the bakery. So this week I'll be baking up a bit of that as well to bring to SuperZoo as well. Though for anyone who is looking for a truly delicious bread at SuperZoo without the hassle of making it themselves I highly recommend stopping by Red, White, & Blue in Mandalay for their morning croissant. They are addictive!