The Great GORP Project

Oh Canada:)

Thank you God for our wonderful country. . ..for every 1 thing we grumble about help us remember there are 1 hundred more things to be grateful for.

I can't keep this under my hat for one more second. This is the very first bit of Gorp advertising ever made:) It will appear in the Winnipeg Free Press on Saturday July 6th in the Manitoba Made BBQ Guide!

Look for it:) Thanks to ClarkHuot/Cocoon for doing an amazing job:) I can hardly wait to see this baby in print!

whoo hoo!

Today our rambling family of 6 will be wandering around the farmyard. . .trying to set up our moody pool for the third time, then going to a backyard Canada Day party:)

. . .I'm also ironing out some details for the Gorp challenge and contacting those of you who kindly offered up your services!

Happy Canada Day everyone!

Gorp out.

Gorp Grandma's

My mom has awesome friends:)

They went on another one of their hiking adventures last weekend and my mom had taken some gorp bars along for the girls to try. I don't know which one of them suggested it, but they figured they would do an impromptu Gorp Ad for me!! I gotta say. . this is the kind of advertising that's in my budget right now:)

Thanks for letting me share ladies. . .you rock!

I can't stop smiling when I look at this picture:) You guys encapsulate exactly what I am trying to promote with Gorp. . .getting outside. . .and having your own customized adventures. . and best of all, doing it with friends!

Thanks for the truly grass roots advertising;) Love it!

Grateful for small town life:)

Poof.

600 misshapen bars gone. That was awesome (and shocking)! Thanks to everyone who messaged, phoned, emailed and dropped by to help me recoup some of the ingredient expense from my night of giant mishaps!

Every time someone came by today to pick up the misfit bars I reminded them. . ."no judging and no sharing!" I don't want people who haven't tried the bars yet getting any wrong ideas;) Really. . .they are supposed to be square, and not so compact. . .and a little more moist. .. .really!

That's the beauty of living in a small town. . .and it's why I chose to set up shop here in the community instead of renting space in the city. . .I love my town and all the encouraging souls in it who have no idea how much their kind words and high fives mean to me. Hopefully someday Gorp will be a huge blessing here and employ tons of people and then we can have staff trips to Peru to build schools. . .and dig wells. .. but that's also another ramble:)

I really wish I could sell these bars at the 20 buck price point in real life. . .maybe someday when I've got volume and big contracts I can;) There's a goal for me alright. . .look out Power Bar!

AND. .. .the replacement part for my cracked housing should be here Friday, all because of Richard from Sperling Welding, who did the legwork for me and found exactly what I needed. Yes!

I should be able to pay for the part with the $$ from the misfit bars:) I guess there goes my big idea of recouping my ingredient expense. .. oh well!

onward and upward. . .

Thanks again:)

 

Just when I get all confident. . .

I worked my butt off yesterday trying to get bars made for a few orders and for presenting samples to retailers. .. .the goal. 600. The reality. . .I mismeasured the wet ingredients for the Peanutbutter & Apple batch, so they are a bit dry. That's 200 down the drain. When I went to go make my Cocoa batch I thought (like an idiot. .. .but to my defense it was midnight and the only radio station I could get to come in was some weird talk show with a very angry host and he was influencing me to do aggressive things;) So I think to myself. . ."i wonder. .. .wonder. .. what if. .. I put the mixer on HIGH?????!!!!Then my alter ego trouble maker started clapping her hands and turned the dial." What the WHOOPS.That mixer has P.O.W.E.R. This recipe is very tricky. The mix has to be handled just so, or else it does bad things, like refuse to roll, or worse. The result of turning the mixer on high was bad news bears. That was another 200 bars down the drain, they are too compacted and weird looking.

The only bars that turned out were a Peanutbutter and Wild blueberry test batch, that I don't even have the proper packaging for. But they taste darn good. Blarney! (hope that's not some terrible swear word in Ireland?)

By this time it was way past midnight and I figured, why not cut and package the bars anyways and put them in the farm lunchroom etc. . ..plus I need practice with Grandpa Snazzy anyways. . .so even though it was a VERY EXPENSIVE night of mistakes I tried to look up. UNTIL. . .. crack!

What you are looking at above is the cracked housing for my custom made (not easy to fix) bar cutter. DOUBLE BLARNEY. I WAS NOT going to throw out hundreds of dollars worth of ingredients so I marched/stumbled angrily over to the farm shop and robbed a few tools and nuts and bolts and such and fanangled it together again to at least get these bars cut, even if they are a bit crooked.

Grandpa Snazzy (my moody packaging machine) behaved like a true gentleman and the bars were packaged and boxed by 1:45a.m.

Long story short. . .

What I'm trying to say is. . .CHEAPO (not perfect) ENERGY BARS FOR SALE.. . .they still have all the good stuff in em. . .they just aren't 100%. If you don't care, and won't judge, send me an email, message or comment and I'll blast them out for 20 bucks a box.

Live. Learn. and stop listening to weirdo late night radio;)

NOTHING good happens after midnight. . .that's what my husbands grandpa used to say. . .I'm inclined to believe him!

Good thing I gave this business to God a long time ago, or I might be a tad more crazy by now. Man.

The Gorp Challenge. . .hmmmm

Sooooo! It looks like I've got at least 10 volunteers for the GORP challenge (whoop!). . .I've got some ideas percolating around about how to write this thing up. . . they will simmer in my brain for the next 24 hours while I attempt to blast out 600 bars from this little kitchen. Then I'll unveil the bones of it after the weekend!

THANK YOUto all you who volunteered here and on Facebook. . .I am so pumped that you are willing to be part of this experiment:)

Time to crank up CBC radio and put on my sexy hairnet and gloves and get gorping. . .

. . .oh and the hairspray worked a bit on the black marker. . .chair is still on life support. . .I might lose her, or she will have to wear a moo moo for the rest of her life:(

. . .the thinkings in my brain today will revolve around women. The longer I live the more I love them, which sounds stupid to say, but over the last few months something has been happening in my heart. . .a softening, an appreciation, a letting go of past judgements (mostly against myself), I'm falling in love with what it means to be female. . .now that I've freaked you all out. . .I better go:)

I'll ramble more about this another day, when there are less bars to make!

Gorp out. give someone a good old fashioned slap on the back followed by a nice arm squeeze today. . it's old school and makes you feel a bit like a car salesman. . .but you'll get a smile out of someone for sure. . .just try it!

 

 

 

boom!

 So. . .I'm sorry and secretly not sorry at all to report that Grandpa Snazzy slayed it! 400 energy bars came rolling off the line last weekend. . .WITH NOT ONE SINGLE BLASTED PROBLEM. .zing. . .and BOOM!

So while I can't offer any mispackaged cheapo energy bars for sale. .. I'm thrilled and shocked to report that those suckers sold out in a matter of days thanks to my zealous "unofficial" sales people.  ..you know who you are. . .THEY ARE GONZO. . . thanks to everyone who snatched these babies up. I'm making another batch of 600 over the next 2 days. . .if you want some I'm offering them at a promo price of $2.67 per bar before tax. . .after tax that's 3 bucks a bar. .. and these guys aren't all packed with corn syrup and crisps with a few almonds thrown in for looks either. . .they are uber filling and filled with locally grown super foods like ground flax, hemp, honey, sunflower seeds, oats, pumpkin seeds and pea fiber! All grown right here in Manitoba:) Not to mention the organic chocolate chips and sprouted brown rice protein. . .they pack a high quality punch. .. for realz.

An idea is brewing. . .it's the result of a conversation I had with a few friends the other night. . .We were talking about how crazy filling these bars are, (cause they are filled with healthy fats, loads of fiber and nutrition from REAL FOOD) and we came up with an idea for a CHALLENGE. . .what if you replaced one meal a day for one month with a gorp bar and a piece of high fiber fruit or veggie? What would happen? Hmmm. . .so I'm doing some research and writing something up. .. I need a few volunteer test subjects (free gorp bars of course) and we will see if Gorp could be used as a tool to drop some excess poundage! Half the battle is satiety. . .I think this could work.

. . .Oh and any tips on how to get black PERMANENT marker out of my much loved midcentury modern camel leather chair would be much appreciated. .. any ideas? It was attack of the Moses. While I was scrubbing (unsuccessfully) at the marked up chair he proceeded to the bathroom and dumped all his wooden blocks into the toilet. . .and I just have to add that a little boy who shall remain nameless forgot to FLIPPING flush.AGAIN. .so yeah. FUN. .good thing grandpa snazzy worked or else I may have been a little less forgiving that day. . .. man alive!

Anyways. . .better get gorping;)

Have an awesome day!

kittens, birthdays and bars

So, I hosted my wonderful, hilarious bookclub gals on the last wednesday of May. Of course that's the day Ninja, you might remember her from such posts as. . "I almost birthed my brains out in Colleen's truck while making nasty death noises". . .you can read about that here.

Anyways. . .she decided to give birth during bookclub. . .which made for an eventful night of women randomly wandering through the mudroom checking on the status of the "situation". It was a warm and fuzzy kind of night, I'd never been privy to kittens being birthed and found myself feeling very proud of our NInja and in awe of this amazing gift that is life:) 5 little cats are now huddled in a corner of our house, nursing and growing and mewing. 3 black with white boots, and 2 that are freakishly white, but somehow adorable. The father is from the north side of the yard, we call the wild mammoth cats that live in the north bush, "The Others". . .(ya know, like from Lost?). . .cause they only come out at night, are stupidly large, long haired and so completely wild that they actually gallop. .. I'm not kidding either. .. I'd literally run if confronted. For real. So these kittens are HUGE PAWED and slightly primal looking. .. .should be interesting. . .

Today I'm making 400 bars or BUST. (If Grandpa Snazzy doesn't co-operate I'll be blowing them out at half price again. . so keep an eye open. .. there might be some gorp bars for sale soon. . .and cheap!

Darn moody Snazzy.

At 4:00 sharp Georgia's birthday celebration begins. ..

 

Georgia Kaye Dyck. You are nine years old today. I love you more than you can know. You are obsessed with horses, wood carving, and drawing. Carving? Only you my sweet girl! Happy Birthday to my generous and wonderfully spirited daughter:) I'll always have your back. Always.

Love your momma.

Gorp out!

Taming the beast. ..

This is "Grandpa Snazzy". Today it is me against him. As soon as I can get this guy co-operating I can start selling my wares:)

. . .needing a techy angel to land on my doorstep. . .or some divine knowledge, one of the two will do.

Guess I better go face the music.

I think Grandpa Snazzy likes to polka. . .he just seems like that kinda guy.

Cue the music.

Enjoy your day, I'm going to try. . gulp.

Pictures are worth 5 million words;)

The good stuff.

The mixer thang.

Cutting it up.

Stacking them high.

No comment Grandpa Snazzy. No comment.

Yesterday was my 35th birthday. It was also the "unofficial" date I set to launch Gorp. Translation: to have a successful production run that would end in a sellable product by the end of the day.

It was a day full of success and a bit of failure (just to keep me humble I'm sure;). I produced 200 bars. The scale up recipe was fantastic in the taste quotient. Yes. The air powered cutting machine worked like a charm. The packaging machine (whom I dearly and not so dearly refer to as Grandpa Snazzy) co-operated for the first 150 bars, then proceeded to self destruct. Grrrr. It was a day full of thinkings. . .. maybe cause it was my birthday and I'm feeling like I'm halfway to heaven. . .maybe it was because of the bittersweet turnout to my BIG day.

BUT. In the end, even though I was ready to pull my hair out, the phrase LIFE IS GOOD was impressed on my heart. Not in the narrow minded sense. But the broadest one there is. LIFE IS GOOD. My faithful daughter was beside me during the last 3 nasty hours of fighting with Grandpa Snazzy, I had dear friends drop by to see how things were going. Flowers arrived on my doorstep from a far away friend who is so supportive that I felt downright unworthy of her friendship. Every time I feel like I want to throw in the towel God is shouting back at me. . .DON'T YOU DARE, AND I'LL SHOW YOU WHY. And He does. Every time.

As I look around my kitchen the morning after. .. there is a huge mess to clean up, an angry machine to contend with and a few boxes of bars that are packaged a little crooked, but I can consider them "sellable" to the people that will forgive my learning curve. Not the GIANT success I had hoped for, but I'll take it:)

Gorp out.

 

me-ow

"Ohhhhh! What the. .. wait. ..ummmm. . . freaking stink!"

That's what was going through my head when I opened the back doors of my truck and saw these freaked out yellow eyes peering at me from beneath the stroller tossed in the back. I was backed into the loading dock at Bee Maid honey, picking up some of the sweet stuff for my first test run of energy bars, there were a handful of guys standing on the loading dock, so I was already nervous about backing up in the right spot, not getting into the way of the semi driver beside me, and basically looking as professional as I could. (you know, so they didn't suspect that I was a hick mom from the country who didn't know how to act in the big city;)

Well, apparently my cover was blown when my extremely pregnant and scared out of her freaking mind cat leaped into my FACE and attempted to run into the plant. Nice. Professional. . you bet? Stink.

I totally got all weird and couldn't think straight. .. all I could focus on was not letting Ninja (prego cat) escape while at the same time getting my honey loaded. (No logic entered brain) So I raced to the front of the truck, tossed her in. .. .ran like snot to the back of the truck to quickly load a barrel of honey before she came screaming over the seat into my face again. SCRATCHING ALL THE WAY. I'd catch her and start the whole process over again, painfully aware that I was being watched, but too dazed to even care. It worked the first time. .. for the second and third barrels Ninja was onto my game and upped the ante with her lightening speed. After a few more failed attempts to get the other barrels loaded I chanced a frazzled look up onto the loading dock. . .yup. All the guys were staring at me as I feared. I zeroed in on the one with the kindest (least disgusted eyes) and asked if he's either load the honey for me or hold my pregnant cat. I felt like such a winner, let me tell ya. He laughed and said he was just waiting for me to ask:) Nice. Teach me to be all independent and stupid.

He opted for loading the honey. I don't blame him.

I still had two more stops that day, but had to cut my city day short due to the "sounds". .. coming from Ninja. I can't even really say they were sounds. .. it was more like a ghost giving birth. .. yeah, without an epidural either. I raced home listening to the horrifying harmonies of what I thought were crazy cat birthing pains. But she must have just been writhing in fear, cause she's still prego. Whew.

I'm sure I made an impression over there at Bee Maid. Better luck next time?

Tomorrow my goal is to have the first batch of bars through the factory, packaged and ready to present to retail FOR SALE! We shall see, the technical challenges thus far have almost done me in. Lord help me.

HERE WE GO!