What’s Cookin’ with Granny Lala?
July 2, 2009Below is the text of my most recent email newsletter sent on June 28th. If you would like to be on my email list, it’s really very easy, just go to the contact page of my website and type your email in the “join my mail list” box. I promise never to sell your email address, (unless I find out you sold mine then I’m going to sign you up for all the weight loss programs, enhancement products and credit repair companies I can find…. Ok, not really.) Hope you enjoy reading my ramblings. ~L
So much has happend since my last email, I decided the simplest way to start was with a timeline, so this is what has been going on since you last heard from me…
March 11 – The last Granny Lala email was sent
March 12 – Granny Lala joined the growing number of Washington’s unemployed.
March 26 – signed 14 month lease on a 2600sqft commercial kitchen space in South Tacoma Special thanks to everyone who helped move and install equipment! Lindsay, Robbie, Joe, Josh, Raymond, Kurt, Sierra, Dylan, My Dad
April 15 – Licensed by WA Dept of Ag for wholesale food production – (This happened so fast I wasn’t prepared to begin baking. Usually it takes 4-6 weeks, but I was approved in just 10 days!)
April 27 – First batch of samples delivered
May 9 – First order delivered to Woody’s on The Water in Tacoma
May 24 – First weekly account delivered to Mud Bay Coffee Company in Olympia
May 29 – First specialty account delivered to Garlic Jim’s in Tacoma
June 1 – First Health Food Store Delivery to McGregor’s in Tacoma
June 13 – First Sample Saturday event at GF Joe’s in Tumwater
Sales have doubled every week since May 24th!
What else has Granny been doing besides baking, packaging, delivering? Lots of marketing and networking… a press release was recently sent to the local press (if you have any contacts, please feel free to let them know you would like to see them publish info about Granny Lala.) You can read the press release for yourself on Granny’s Blog… Yes! Granny has a blog! And you can follow Granny on Twitter and please become a fan of Granny Lala on Facebook!
So, what is on the horizon for Granny Lala? Since my first non-Tacoma accounts are in the Olympia/Lacey/Tumwater & Yelm areas I will continue to build my market there to help cover the cost of delivery. I am also building my Tacoma/Puyallup/Lakewood/UP area accounts. If you have specific contact information for an owner or manager who you have spoken to about carrying Granny’s products please let me know by sending their company name, contact name, phone number and email address. I will follow up on the contact you have made on my behalf.
I will be expanding to the North soon, but I need to be careful at this stage of my start up that I don’t grow too quickly. It is very important to me that the quality of my products never suffer because I have spread myself too thin. If you are looking for my products North of Tacoma, please be patient, they will be up there soon. Keep an eye on the retail outlets page of my website as it is frequently updated as new retailers are added.
I have recently met several wonderful caterers at the South Sound chapter of the National Association of Catering Executives. If you have any special events and that require an extra level of care due to dietary restrictions please consider a NACE member, and be sure to ask for a Granny Lala special order cake or dessert for your event. I will be speaking to them about dietary restrictions at their September chapter meeting.
My motivation and inspiration: I must admit I was pretty nervous when I signed my lease without any customers lined up in advance. Due to the nature of my products, I could not sell them without samples and I could not bake samples until I was licensed, which of course required a facility. Within about an hour of placing the sign on the door (thank you to Signs by Tomorrow for making such a lovely sign and to Sonja at Snakebite Graphics for designing it), a young man with a huge grin walked up to me and pointed at the sign and asked if that was me. I said yes…. He said, “You are my new best friend. I was diagnosed two months ago and was thinking I was going to starve. Thank you for opening your bakery.”
A lovely photographer, Kim Halinen, (check out her website) that I met through the Puyallup Celiac Meet up Group contacted me last month and said it’s almost my daughter Katie’s birthday and she has so many allergies that she has never had a birthday cake. She saw one in the Curious George book and really wants one this year. Can you help us? Katie’s list of allergens included not only gluten, dairy, soy, eggs, tree nut, peanuts and several other items, but members of her family had additional allergies including rice (a fairly routine substitution for gluten flours). I developed a recipe for a chocolate quinoa cake, we now call a Katie Cake, that was so well received by both those with and without dietary restrictions that I get regular requests for it.
At the GF Joe’s Sample Saturday, I met a little girl about four years old who appeared to be very happy and healthy, all smiles and full of energy. Just after she left the store I was told that three months ago she was carried in to the store recently released from Children’s hospital and too weak to walk, still on oxygen. She had just been diagnosed with Celiac Disease. In only three months of a gluten free diet she had made an amazing recovery.
These are the reasons that I bake gluten and allergen free… for the health of it!
253-961-4928
www.grannylala.com
