David Crabill: Welcome to the Forrager Podcast, where I talk with cottage food entrepreneurs about their strategies for running a food business from home. I’m David Crabill, and today I’m talking with Joan Eppehimer and Jason Madison.
[00:00:13] But real quick, I wanted to check, have you created a website for your business yet? And if you have, do you pay for it? A lot of entrepreneurs still think they need to spend money to get a good website and that is simply not true anymore. I am a really big fan of Square Online. my fudge businesses website and I created a free tutorial that will walk you through how to set up a totally free website in less than one hour.
[00:00:37] And in case you think free also means cheap, it’s actually quite the opposite. I think Square Online is hands down the very best website tool for most cottage food businesses. So if you want to learn more, you can watch my free tutorial by going to forrager.com/website. All right, so I have Joan and her nephew Jason on the show today. Joan lives in Jamestown, New York and sells flavored popcorn with her cottage food business, Aunt Joan’s Pearl City Popcorn. Joan started her business almost 10 years ago as a way to raise funds for different charities And although she has now donated to many different causes, her current focus is giving back to an organization that has helped her husband with his rare disease. though her popcorn has always been extremely popular, In 2021, Joan decided to reboot her business with a new business name and brand, her nephew Jason, has taken it to new heights. And with that, let’s jump right into this episode. Welcome to the show, Joan and Jason. Nice to have you here.
[00:01:46] Joan Eppehimer: Thank you for having us.
[00:01:49] Jason Madison: Yeah, thank you very much.
[00:01:50] David Crabill: Can you take me back to the beginning of this journey? How did it all get started?
[00:01:56] Joan Eppehimer: Well, in 2013, my husband was a pastor and, um, we were in ministry and I was in charge of the children’s program and I took a course from Kidology. com it was their coaching course. And one of the assignments that the coach gave us was they sent us 10 and they said, you need to multiply this and then do a children’s ministry project with it because you’re never going to have much money in children’s ministry because people don’t value it as much. So you need to find creative ways to come up with money yourself. So I was like, what am I going to do with this 10? And then I thought about this popcorn. The recipe actually came from Jason’s mom and she had given it to us and we used to make it every Christmas and give it to our doctor and our dentist and our insurance people, just everyone.
[00:02:44] And they loved it. So I thought, I’ll make that popcorn and I’ll sell it. So I did, and Wayne took it in with him. He gets an infusion at the hospital every week, and so he took it in with him, and the nurses were just clamoring all over him to buy it. And I raised 250 in a couple weeks, which wasn’t bad for a project like that, and did my project. And then the idea just kind of sat in the back of my mind, you know, like this is what was a way that I could raise money for different things. In 2015, I just felt led to go to the farmer’s market to do this, and our local college happened to offer a course called Small Potatoes, at JCC.
[00:03:23] It was wonderful. It was two days, and this guy from Syracuse was beamed in and he told us about how to go to a farmer’s market, how to set up, how to make your display, and all different aspects about a farmer’s market. So my daughter had just graduated from college, and I said, you know, do you want to do this with me this summer?
[00:03:39] You can sell your photography and I’ll sell my popcorn. So She was really excited about it. And so That’s how I got started at the market that summer.
[00:03:47] David Crabill: So you were participating in this Kidology program and raised some money, and you sat on the idea, so when did you actually start to sell at the market?
[00:04:00] Joan Eppehimer: So it was two years, the program was 2013, and it was 2015 that, we actually started. Started at the market and I didn’t know how much to make cause I hadn’t been in quite a while. And I didn’t know how much to even price it at, so I think I made four batches. And my upstairs neighbor wanted to go with me, so she came with me. We sold out, I think, in about an hour and a half.
[00:04:28] So I sent her home at noon, but you’re supposed to stay at the market, you know, until it’s done. And they didn’t say if you could go home if you sold out. Plus I figured I still had samples I could give out and then the people would come the next week. So, Anyway, I stayed and gave out samples and the next week I think I made six batches and I, it lasted for two hours.
[00:04:48] The market is four hours long. So the next week I upped it even more. I don’t even remember how much I made. All I know is that I sold out every single week of those five weeks. And by the end, I think I made it to almost to the closing before I was selling out by the end, but it was, it was just, it was wonderful.
[00:05:08] It was incredible. And it was don’t know, it was so exciting.
[00:05:11] David Crabill: Now, when you started in 2015, were you aware of the cottage food laws? Like, did you set yourself up as a processor in New York?
[00:05:21] Joan Eppehimer: Yes. that course that I had taken, at the college, I’m not sure if they’re the ones that told me about it or whether I just Googled it and found it out, but they call it a home food processors license in New York state. but I didn’t know, and that you have to charge tax on The popcorn of sugar is the first ingredient.
[00:05:40] So I had to get a New York State sales tax license too.
[00:05:43] David Crabill: I can’t remember how New York’s system was set up back then. Was it pretty easy to get a license?
[00:05:51] Joan Eppehimer: I thought so. I shocked. that you could get something like that for free in New York State.
[00:05:58] David Crabill: You know, One thing that’s always been unique about New York is that they don’t allow chocolate, Is that something that’s limited your business?
[00:06:06] Joan Eppehimer: Well, I’ve had people tell me, you know, why don’t you make this popcorn where you drizzle the chocolate onto it? And I’m like, I can’t. Now I have found, and I haven’t tried it yet, a recipe that uses cocoa powder, because I, I believe I’d be allowed to do that. You just, you can’t melt the chocolate or temper the chocolate in any way, shape, or form.
[00:06:25] David Crabill: Now I know that charitable work is a big part of what you do. was that the case from the beginning?
[00:06:32] Joan Eppehimer: Yes, and that was the whole reason when I started to do it that summer I think I wanted to do it more for that reason than I did to make popcorn and sell it. And I started out giving the money my husband, or to the church for a project that they were doing. But within a month we had a little girl in our church that wanted to go to camp They just, the money was very tight for their family.
[00:06:55] So the church paid her whole way, but she had to get to camp and she had to get back. And It’s a five hour drive to get to the camp that our church belongs to. It’s in Rome, New York, offered to drive her away and said, you can take her one way, but you can’t go back and pick her up, it’s just too time consuming.
[00:07:10] I thought, well, I have this money from the popcorn, and I gave them 100 so that they could rent a car, because they just didn’t have a vehicle that was reliable enough to drive that distance. So I gave the family 100 to rent a car so they could go and pick her up and bring her home.
[00:07:25] and then at the end of the summer, I did a couple events. And then From that point on, I never went back to do the farmer’s market full time. But from that point on, if the kids were going to go on a retreat or um, they have a conference every three years, it costs a lot of money to go to.
[00:07:42] I would do it with them as a fundraiser. so we did that, I think, twice for a missions trip, and I belong to a sorority that also gives to different charitable things, and so that sorority, one time we did it together,
[00:07:53] David Crabill: If it weren’t for the charitable aspect,
[00:07:57] Do you think you ever would have started the business?
[00:08:00] Joan Eppehimer: No, I don’t. I always did it just, you know, to raise money for something that we were doing. and now
[00:08:08] David Crabill: How much are you giving of the revenue?
[00:08:12] Joan Eppehimer: So, uh, I almost quit the business. We retired in 2019 and every year you have to report to the New York State how much sales tax you collected and send it in, and if you didn’t collect any sales tax, you still have to report that so that you keep your license. So I hadn’t sold for about two years at all, and I believe it was right when COVID started that I was going to turn the license in.
[00:08:41] And so when I went to file year it said, you know, do you want to quit or whatever? And I said, yes. And then it said, well, you have to do this and this and this. And I had to go find where my license was and I didn’t know where my license was. And I had to find the original paperwork and I’m like, Oh, I’ll just do it another time.
[00:08:56] And I submitted the stuff. That was 2020, I think. In 2021, I got the urge and all I can say is it must have been from God. I got the urge to go ahead and sell again at the market the reason I wanted to do it is my husband and Jason both have a rare disease rare diseases MPS type 2.
[00:09:18] It’s also called Hunter Syndrome, and the society has helped us a lot over the years. Medically, they helped Wayne buy his first CPAP, they helped him buy hearing aids, they just had done so much for us that I wanted to give back to them. And so I talked with Wayne about it, and I said, how about if we sell at the market, August is really free, we’ll just do it the whole month of August, and we’ll give all the money we make don’t need to pay for the bags and stuff, we’ll give all the money, To the MPS Society.
[00:09:46] And he was really in favor of that. We had gotten some money for something extra. So We bought labels and we bought a banner. I had never had a banner before. And I, I went on Facebook and I had a contest and we renamed the business. Pearl City Popcorn. Before that, I called it His Corn. So we renamed the business and I had a banner month at the market. In fact, the market has never had as good a summer as I had that summer because it was the year when things were like really opening up again after COVID. They had so many visitors that summer. I sold out every week.
[00:10:18] David Crabill: Okay. So it sounds like there are two phases of this business that you started in 2015 and then maybe took a break around 2017 or so, and then you picked it up again in 2021. Is that right?
[00:10:31] Joan Eppehimer: it wasn’t, um, like some of those years I would maybe do three events or I would go two times to the farmer’s market in the summer, but I wasn’t doing it on a regular basis at all and that’s why I almost quit it because I thought, you know, I’m just not doing this anymore, we’re retired, but I didn’t because it was too much work to quit.
[00:10:51] David Crabill: And then, yeah, that’s so funny that you almost quit, but then the actual process of shutting down your business was more complicated than just continuing it. So let’s just say that that weren’t the case and you were able to shut it down. then we move into 2021. Do you think you would have gotten this?
[00:11:10] Message from God to start start it. Do you think you would have started it all up again, or do you think you needed to have that business structure already in place
[00:11:19] Joan Eppehimer: yeah, I don’t know if I would have gone to the trouble to start it again. Because it was already there, that’s why I felt, if it hadn’t already been there, I don’t think I would have felt that leading. I sure wouldn’t have wanted to do the work again. I did have to reapply for my home food processors license, because we had moved, and I, I don’t know what the case is now, but back then, I think you had to do it every three years anyway.
[00:11:43] I
[00:11:45] Jason Madison: think it’s interesting that maybe God, told you, ah, you’re frustrated, you don’t want to quit it, because down the line, he knew that that’s the best way to get you started again. It seems like a setback, but since you don’t know where that path leads It actually, in hindsight, turns out to be actually a beneficial thing, even though at the time it’s a frustration.
[00:12:05] Joan Eppehimer: So at the end of that summer when I sold that August, I think we raised, you were asking about how much I gave. Back then we actually, put our own money into buying a banner and we bought professionally made labels for the bags and they really looked nice because before what I made I would just print myself and, it was just not that great.
[00:12:24] when that five weeks, it was five weeks in that August, when that was done, I think we raised like $700.. It was just incredible. And then friends saw it on Facebook that lived in New York State and they said, hey, you know, I’d really like to buy some of this popcorn too and give it to you. So I’m pretty sure it was pretty close to a thousand dollars by the timtime people just kept buying and everything. Girlfriend, Julie Mills, that went to our church we retired, so we don’t go to that church anymore, but we still were in touch, came to me, and this is a girl that was a nurse all her life.
[00:12:56] She had bought, A store here in town that sells decorated home decorative items and some antiques And she had this vision for her store that she also wanted to include people that made things locally And so she wanted to include local vendors in her store and would I?
[00:13:13] Do my popcorn for her store. And my husband just went to the wall and banged his head because it had been so much work to make all that popcorn those five weeks. And he thought he had, you know, he was going to get a break now. and that had changed, right? With, New York’s law is that don’t think you could have done that in 2015, but by 2021, wholesale is allowed,
[00:13:36] correct. We couldn’t sell in any permanent location.
[00:13:41] David Crabill: And then what happened next? You started to put your product on shelves
[00:13:46] Joan Eppehimer: Yep. So I put it in her store it didn’t sell that well until Christmas. It sold real well at Christmas, but then it didn’t after Christmas. And. so rather than just quitting like I probably should have, I went to another store in town called the Biodome, that they sell all local products, and I’d met them through the market, and they actually started the same year I did in 2015, and they were thrilled to sell it, so they sold it too.
[00:14:12] And um, I was still like just plodding along and not doing really well. And I sold, for that next summer, only one week a month at the market, I sell well at the market, but it’s a lot of work to make it here at the house. And I listened to another girl that you had on, the German baker girl and how that’s, there was a problem for her too you, you’re limited to the amount you can make because you have one stove in your house.
[00:14:37] because this is oven baked popcorn. I couldn’t do tons at the market, so I just did it once a month then. And that fall, another store opened up here in town called CHQ Plus, and our resource center opened it. The resource center helps people that are handicapped, they’re huge. they have daycare programs and they have facilities that, people live in, that they man, and just a lot of programs. So they opened this store and it was all vendors, a hundred percent vendors. And then the people from the resource center work in the store, so it benefits them. I got a note from them asking if I wanted to sell there.
[00:15:13] And so I went into their store. Uh, Right around Christmas and it was selling out. Like it was phenomenal. I couldn’t keep it on the shelves there. that’s when things really started, like I wasn’t just felt like I was being a dead horse. That’s when I felt like things really started to move along a little better.
[00:15:29] David Crabill: And what year was that?
[00:15:31] Joan Eppehimer: 2022.
[00:15:34] David Crabill: So I know that, you know, you felt sort of reinvigorated to start this again in 2021, because you wanted to raise money for the National MPS Society due to your husband’s disease. Why wasn’t that a focus when you started it in 2015?
[00:15:53] Joan Eppehimer: because then we were in the ministry and, um, the needs were so great in the ministry, that I, couldn’t see beyond it. And when we were in it, We were in a church, and there were just so many different things, you know, to help within that church, like that little girl to go to camp, the kids going to the conference that they held every three years, a national conference, missions teams to go overseas oh, I think we even did Operation Christmas Child, I raised money so we could pay the shipping on the shoeboxes that we would send. I did do the MPS Society one time. I remember doing them at least one time,
[00:16:32] One other thing I remember, I don’t know if I did this more than once, but like even I gave, when there had been a hurricane, Irma, I think it was the denomination we belong to had a fund that you can give to to help victims with that. So it was all that type of thing. After we did the MPS Society that summer, I felt I’d always been very scattered. I wanted to focus, but I didn’t want to just do the National MPS Society, because that’s a national thing, but it’s also a very narrow thing.
[00:17:02] So I wanted to do something local and I chose UCAN, which is our, our mission for the homeless here, for the men here in town. I chose that because it’s a Christian organization I thought was really trying to do a good work, really trying to help people that were down and out
[00:17:17] David Crabill: joan, I know that your business is really focused on MPS now, and this is also something that Jason deals with in addition to your husband. So, Jason, I was just wondering if you could share a little bit about this disease. I know it’s very rare, so probably listeners aren’t going to be familiar with it.
[00:17:37] Jason Madison: uh, Hunter Syndrome is part of a wide range of different disorders where basically our body doesn’t produce enough or at all a particular type of enzyme that breaks down just natural cellular waste products. So it’s kind of like if you’re in a kitchen and you’re just doing normal kitchen things, but you never take out the trash just kind of accumulates over time and all of a sudden the kitchen doesn’t work.
[00:18:04] So it’s a, It’s a disease that affects every single part of the body, but there’s also a wide variation of severity. Sometimes children don’t live very long, a couple of years. Sometimes they have cognitive issues. Wayne and I, our particular mutation doesn’t affect that, as much, so over time it’s difficult and they’ve come up with a, enzyme replacement therapy, which slows the progression.
[00:18:29] So it has allowed us to live longer. We can trace it back four generations my great uncles, died in their 40s, my great uncle died in his 50s, I think a large part of just understanding with the researchers and all the work that the MPS Society has done Has allowed, my uncle Wayne e to live far beyond what people expected.
[00:18:52] And he also had a family, you know, wife and two beautiful daughters so that’s part of it. So I also serve on a board of the National MPS Society. And our family has become increasingly more involved as a way of paying back for all the help.
[00:19:07] That they have provided for us. Because it’s so devastating.
[00:19:11] David Crabill: Now, I know that this is a pretty rare disease. How rare would you say it is?
[00:19:17] Jason Madison: I would say one out of every couple hundred thousand births, maybe?
[00:19:24] Joan Eppehimer: Yes, I know that when I did an interview before, for the radio, they said it’s ultra rare, like it’s not just rare, it’s ultra rare.
[00:19:33] Jason Madison: And unfortunately it’s so rare. It’s hard to. Raise enough awareness in order to provide the fundraising opportunities so the work can be done to help. So things like what Aunt Joan is doing is, is amazing. I’m over the moon how much Jamestown community has accepted that. I think Joan can tell you more of what her connection and her outreach with the city, how much that has affected how MPS is known within Jamestown and uh, Chautauqua County
[00:20:04] Joan Eppehimer: yeah, one thing, that was very cool, that summer when I did, the August five weeks, which was 2021, I got a message and it was from the mayor and he said, I love caramel popcorn.
[00:20:17] I’d love to have you come and sell it at city hall sometime. And I’m like, is this really from the mayor? You know, I didn’t think it was really him, but it was, cause I got a phone call from him a little while later. And so I said I would love to come but could we wait until May because in May the MPS Society always has a National MPS Awareness Day and I said that would be perfect.
[00:20:40] I could sell it there and we could also, you could declare it National MPS Day and we could promote that and so we did and they even, turned the, city Hall has lights, you know, they can light it up different colors. They even light it up in purple on MPS Awareness Day, because that’s the color for the National MPS Society is purple. so now I do purple bow sails and I had my sister make these little tags to go on them for me. And She did a phenomenal job. to explain what MPS is in about two sentences. And on the back, she put this little tagline helping the world one bag at a time. And I thought that was so cool. So we’ve done that. we have a new mayor now. We did it two years with the former mayor, and now uh, the new mayor also is a huge fan of my popcorn, so she did it for us this year, too.
[00:21:27] David Crabill: Now, Jason, I’m curious, is, the fact that this business is focused on supporting MPS, is that the reason why you’re involved or feel compelled to be involved in the business?
[00:21:39] Jason Madison: No, not, I mean, that’s a bonus, but really it’s, cause my aunt Joan, you know, she asked me for some help and I’m like, yeah, I got to help my aunt Joan. So, you know, It’s part of the whole family thing. I’m very close with her husband, Wayne. And it just, It was part of just family help. And, I know I have uh, my skillset can help in ways, uh, bolster what Joan is trying to do as far as communications and uh, figuring out a way to effectively share her message I’ve always been driven by the idea of helping a community it’s always, that’s where a lot of people seem to get a lot of life satisfaction or contentment when they find a home and a place that Their influence helps make it better for everyone.
[00:22:33] And I believe that’s overall what Joan’s message or mission is with this. And it’s a, it’s a wonderful product and it just brings people happiness when they try it and eat it. It’s a great way for them to share something with their family. If they go to the farmer’s market or just have a moment watching a movie together on TV, they can eat some yummy popcorn and, you know, Also that they know that it’s all locally sourced.
[00:22:59] It’s very much a part of the community. It’s all these things together that just for me is a, an important part of why I put the energy or assistance in this endeavor.
[00:23:12] David Crabill: So, Jason, When did you start to get involved in the business?
[00:23:17] Jason Madison: know, I think it was right around the time, shortly after when Joan restarted doing it uh, a big part, I know, was she had found that Pearl City Popcorn was used by uh, another small popcorn place uh, where was that?
[00:23:33] Joan Eppehimer: In Iowa, they had, they had the web domain.
[00:23:39] Jason Madison: So even though different states and all that, Joan wanted to, you know, was trying out different ways of rebranding just to avoid any potential future, conflicts if you know, the business decided to expand. And my head automatically was like well, that’s my Aunt Joan, that’s my Aunt Joan’s popcorn.
[00:23:57] Let’s call it Aunt Joan’s popcorn. And I had this idea of drawing a little, cause I’m a cartoonist, of drawing a little picture of her and adding it to the logo and everything that she had before, just making it that way. And also my head was like, that makes it easier for people in the community to associate the brand, Pearl City Popcorn.
[00:24:17] So When they go to the farmer’s market, they see the little caricature and they see my Aunt Joan, and that gives it much more of a personal connection. There’s a lot of power behind a very good brand that’s really hard to quantify, but it’s there, you know, the symbolism, people enjoy the symbolism.
[00:24:36] So For me. It was just my way of sharing my love of my Aunt Joan for the community and for what she’s giving that community.
[00:24:46] David Crabill: Now, Jason, did you come into this with a p rior business experience.
[00:24:53] Jason Madison: Sort of. I’ve been to business school. I’ve been to marketing. I have done a lot of work trying to start up my businesses. I’m currently in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and I had a friend here who wanted to start a brewery. and he has a similar mindset. Uh, Aunt Joan that he wanted it to be a very giving back to the community kind of business.
[00:25:16] so he came up with an idea of doing 10 percent of the profits to a charity around there and everything. So I was heavily involved with writing up the business plan, talking with potential investors. So. When Joan needed help in some of those areas, I’m like yeah, yeah, sure.
[00:25:34] I’ll do this. And it also gives me a certain sense of accomplishment, I thoroughly enjoy doing anything that I can to help Joan in areas that my strengths can facilitate her vision, her mission.
[00:25:48] David Crabill: Now, Joan, I know you said you were very involved in the ministry when you started it initially in 2015. Do you feel like there are aspects of your background that you brought into this business that helped it succeed.
[00:26:05] Joan Eppehimer: maybe I mean, the product sells itself when people taste it, but, would do a lot of visitation in the ministry, when new people came to your church, you know, you always went to visit them to get to know them, and the market reminds me of that, because I really enjoy interacting with the people at the market, and, especially when you have regulars, you get to know them, and you get to know the other vendors too, and so Maybe that aspect of learning how to, meet new people and get to know them.
[00:26:35] maybe that Carried over. I’ll tell you, I pray a lot about it just because, I’m never sure of what direction to go and stuff. And, and god does seem to open doors up for different things along the way.
[00:26:48] Jason Madison: And another thing, if I can add that you might not be thinking Joan is I know you’re a lifelong student. You love learning. You love experimenting. And I get such a kick out of just seeing how focused and interested you are when you’re trying different flavors. And you just really get into just like tweaking the recipe because you want to get the best flavor, you know, I just get such a kick out of watching you do that.
[00:27:17] Joan Eppehimer: he’s right, and sometimes I get the worst flavor, He’s right, on the CliftonStrengths finders, my number one strength is learner, and it’s very, very strong. I have to really be careful that I don’t waste too much time trying to, find new things and new ways to do things. It is a good skill, and I actually developed two flavors of popcorn because of it,
[00:27:40] David Crabill: So Joan, can you just walk me through what flavors do you offer right now?
[00:27:44] Joan Eppehimer: I always offer the signature caramel. That was the original recipe I’ve had to double and triple the recipe, so I’ve tweaked it a little bit in doing that, but Signature Caramel is the first, and all of them are oven baked, just about.
[00:28:00] I’ll tell you if one isn’t. So I do signature caramel. I do caramel apple. the caramel apple uses boiled apple cider. They call it boiled cider and they make it in Vermont. And I thought, wow, you know, that would be really cool on a popcorn. I wonder if I could put that into the sauce that I make and make a caramel apple popcorn. I ordered some and I just couldn’t taste the apple in it at all. And I was actually ready to quit it. Just like I’ve been ready to quit other things. And I remember I was supposed to be making signature caramel popcorn, and for some reason, I must’ve put the apple cider in. I did something. So somehow I thought, well, I’m doing this, so I’m going to just finish making it.
[00:28:41] And I made a mistake in the measurements, but I knew what the mistake was. And when I tasted it, when it was done, I could taste the apple. And so that’s how the caramel apple came about. I would credit that mistake To God, but that’s how Caramel Apple came about. Then I do the white cheddar cheese, and then I do a brick road blend, we call it, because in Chicago they mix orange cheddar cheese with caramel.
[00:29:06] Popcorn to make a salty sweet popcorn and sometimes they’ll call that Chicago style. Garrett’s is the first company that did it, but other companies do it now too. But I use a white popcorn and mix it with the caramel popcorn. So to me, it’s unique. I wanted to call it Jamestown style, but I had a contest for that one too.
[00:29:25] And we have a lot of brick roads in Jamestown. So someone suggested Brick Road Blend and I’m like Brick Road really says Jamestown to the local people. So we call that one Brick Road Blend, salty sweet. Then I do the cinnamon one I just use cinnamon oil, which is. Pure from cinnamon and then I make a Lucy stomped grape and we sell that during the Lucy Fest here because Jamestown is Lucille Ball’s hometown and the difference between the stomped grape and the Concord grape is to the stomped grape I add grape oil flavor and it’s a pretty natural product but if you’re a purist it’s not totally natural but it gives it a beautiful flavor.
[00:30:03] It tastes just like Jolly Ranchers, or just like a grape candy. The one with the Lucy Stomped, the one with the grape oil flavor in it, and the Concord Grape is just more of a true Concord Grape flavor. And I think, I think that’s it.
[00:30:16] Oh, nope, I have another one called Chili Cheese.
[00:30:18] David Crabill: Grape popcorn is like very unique flavor. I’ve never heard of grape popcorn before. Maybe it’s a thing and I don’t know
[00:30:27] Joan Eppehimer: No, it’s
[00:30:30] David Crabill: come from?
[00:30:31] Joan Eppehimer: Well, I actually in the back of my mind I had tried to do one A few years ago and I can’t remember what the year was but I had tried to do one and I had googled Recipes and I was using like grape jello and I it just it wasn’t cutting it So I gave up on it and I took a class Two years ago.
[00:30:50] It was a food business Boot camp or something that our local business office offered, and in that class I met this girl, Melissa, from Westfield, New York, and she runs a packing company that packs Concord grape juice. And She said to me, Joan, I bet you could make a popcorn with this. She said, they make one, somebody makes one and they sell it during our grape festival, but it’s really not that good.
[00:31:15] And I’ll give you a bottle of my grape concentrate for free, and you can try. So she did, and that’s, where that came from, and she would like me to sell it up there. They have a, a grape discovery center, it’s called. She’d like me to sell it up there, but my biggest problem is the time to produce the amounts of popcorn that people would want, you know, if I sold it at all the places that I could sell it. Do it. So I just have to learn to say no and I just make the grape here and there and especially when we have the Lucy Fest and I want to try to make it now because this is the time of the grapes are getting harvested.
[00:31:47] So this is Concord grape harvest season. So It’d be a good time to have it now.
[00:31:51] David Crabill: So Would you say that you have quite a lot more demand for your product than you have the ability to produce it?
[00:31:59] Joan Eppehimer: I think there could be, yes, I know there’s more stores that I probably could sell it in if I went, you know, sell it wholesale, but I just can’t produce it. And then, on the other hand, Another problem will happen, like say, I made the grape, For the Grape Discovery Center, if it doesn’t sell fast enough, it only has like a shelf life of three months max and really I think only about two months that I would feel comfortable selling it.
[00:32:25] It’s a two edged sword. If I could make that much, I’d need to be sure that it all sold or I’m going to have to pull it off the shelves and that’s not good either.
[00:32:33] David Crabill: Now, Where do you get your corn kernels from?
[00:32:38] Joan Eppehimer: There’s a local farm. In Chautauqua County called Abra’s Acres, so when I first started way back in 2015, Mary Maxwell, that worked for the Renaissance Center, said to me, Joan, when you sell at a farmer’s market, they usually like you to have something, you know, part of your product to be from a local farm.
[00:32:57] So, you know, I figured popcorn. So My daughter actually found it for me because I was going online trying to find a local farm that grew popcorn and she was in North Carolina at the time and she called and said, Mom, Avery’s Acres has popcorn. And They’re the only certified organic farm in Chautauqua County. And, uh, that, That’s who grows my popcorn for me.
[00:33:19] David Crabill: So your popcorn is organic, is your oil also organic?
[00:33:25] Joan Eppehimer: It’s not actually, I don’t use oil. I air pop it, but my butter is not organic and my sugar is not organic. right now, I don’t think I have any other organic product in it. And, I know you have to be careful when you label organic there’s different rules and regulations and I’m not totally familiar with them, but I’m pretty sure one is it would have to be more than 50 percent of the product organic.
[00:33:49] David Crabill: How much more expensive is it to buy this local organic corn that versus, buying from a large Department store, non organic.
[00:34:00] Joan Eppehimer: You know, I haven’t priced it in the grocery store recently, but when I do like my cost analysis, the cost of goods, the popcorn is the most expensive thing in the popcorn. because of the proportions, it’s the most expensive item. And I buy 16 pounds at a time and it’s 55 for that. So I don’t know how that compares because I haven’t bought it in the store for so long, but I’m feeling like I paid maybe a dollar a pound at the store. I know I pay a lot more than a dollar a pound for Abra’s Acres. It’s probably closer to four dollars a pound but I mean it’s a local product and not only that they went to bat for us because as I was making the popcorn and I kept researching it and I discovered that there’s two different kinds of popcorn.
[00:34:46] There’s mushroom popcorn and butterfly popcorn. And Most of the people that make caramel popcorn use the mushroom popcorn. And Mushroom popcorn pops in a ball and it looks like the top of a rounded mushroom, so that’s why they call it mushroom popcorn. And the snowflake popcorn or butterfly popcorn pops out in all different directions.
[00:35:05] And at the movie theater you get butterfly popcorn and what you buy in the store is butterfly. I wanted to get the mushroom because when you’re mixing the sauce on it and you’re using butterfly popcorn, it breaks apart and you lose a fair amount of popcorn or you can put a lot of crumbs in.
[00:35:20] The bag, which I don’t like to do. So I asked Abra’s Acres if they could get any organic mushroom popcorn to grow. And she’d never even heard of mushroom popcorn, but she researched it. She said, you know, it’s going to have to be a good company that I trust and love to see if any of my companies have it.
[00:35:36] And she found mushroom popcorn and they grew it for us.
[00:35:39] they were selling it on the market too because she didn’t think I’d be able to use enough and she calls it gourmet mushroom popcorn. She pulled it off the market because I sold so much this summer and kept buying so much from her that she pulled it off the market and she won’t let people buy it anymore except for me now.
[00:35:56] David Crabill: Wow. Now, do you think that your customers care about the fact that it’s organic?
[00:36:02] Joan Eppehimer: I do not know because Sometimes I used to put organic popcorn on the label, but like I told you, I think that’s not allowed unless there’s a certain percentage. So, I don’t know that they know that it’s organic, but they know it’s Abra’s Acres, and they know Abra’s Acres, and they like that.
[00:36:20] David Crabill: Or do you feel like you’re able to charge more for the product because it’s organic?
[00:36:24] Joan Eppehimer: no, I don’t, I tried to. Make my price so that I can cover my costs and I had to hire someone to help me this summer too So I have to cover my costs. I have to pay her and I try to pull off. I do 10 percent now instead of what I used to do because I’m paying someone so that money that I pay that person probably used to go to charity and it doesn’t anymore.
[00:36:47] So now I just pull 10 percent off the top Charity
[00:36:50] Jason Madison: Do you think you do that price point also because you want everybody to be able to enjoy the popcorn?
[00:36:58] Joan Eppehimer: Charity? Well, yes and no. I also don’t wanna price myself out of the market.
[00:37:03] truth be told, I probably should charge more than I do, but I know that people around here couldn’t pay that. So, I charge as much as I think I can, and the price has gone up over the years, even since I started back in 2021. I think I sold it for 3 a bag at the market and now I’m selling that same size for 4.
[00:37:23] 50. That’s not a terrible increase. The popcorn actually has doubled in cost. So, that’s not a terrible increase.
[00:37:31] David Crabill: I’m just thinking about like, theoretically you could buy regular popcorn. It’d be a lot less expensive, I would imagine, and then you could even potentially lower your price a little bit to your customer, but still be able to give more to charity.
[00:37:49] Joan Eppehimer: yeah, you’re correct, I could, But Abers Acres is a good popcorn, and I want to support a local farmer, and they love us. They grew our own popcorn for us, and they actually asked me if I might sell through them wholesale next year at the markets that they go to. So no, it’s a good relationship with them. And I’d rather be where I’m at, not making as much money and using Abers Acres.
[00:38:13] David Crabill: I did want to ask you about the rebrand, I know, you started up again in 2021 and you said that you changed your business name at that point. How you feel the need to change it and rebrand yourself at that point?
[00:38:29] Joan Eppehimer: It’s hard to explain cause I’m not even sure myself. I could say it was a direction from God. I mean, Sometimes he just leads us to do things and we don’t even realize it. But I had this strong desire to, Make it more public or more local because his corn it stood for his, God’s corn and there was a story behind how that came about, I didn’t want to take God out of the picture, but I wanted to make the name so that it said Jamestown.
[00:38:58] I guess that’s it. And Pearl City is the nickname for Jamestown. Has been for years. It’s something to do with the Pearl City ash tree or something when they used to make steel here. But there are a lot of local businesses that have picked up on that Pearl City name and used it. So it, you know, it said Jamestown to use that name.
[00:39:16] So I think that’s why I wanted, I wanted to really bring it to Jamestown.
[00:39:22] David Crabill: And then beyond that you decide to double down on creating a brand, right? I think you said you put a lot more effort into the labels, into the design. How did you feel compelled to do that at that point?
[00:39:35] Joan Eppehimer: I know this is not the answer you want to hear, but I’m really not sure. It just, felt like I wanted to really make it look professional, and I don’t know why.
[00:39:45] David Crabill: Do you feel like, Making it look professional has caused your business to be a lot more successful.
[00:39:53] Joan Eppehimer: Definitely, it, it looks so much nicer than it used to look.
[00:39:58] David Crabill: Now, did you, I mean, I’ve seen your labels, your logos, they look fantastic. Did you hire someone to do your logo?
[00:40:07] Joan Eppehimer: Thank you. the original, the Aunt, the Pearl City Popcorn the man that owns Register Graphics, where I had them printed, goes to our church. And so I had approached him and I said, I have 200 and he knew, we’d done work with him for other things for our, when we pastored. So I said, I have 200 and I want to make a banner and I also want to make labels, but I can’t go over 200.
[00:40:32] And you know, can you do something for me? And he said, yes. And so I did not have to pay the graphic artist at their company. She just designed the label for me on her own. And they gave me that service for free. And then I just paid for, I don’t know how many labels I bought that summer. But anyway, maybe 500 and the banner that they designed for me, but she was, nice.
[00:40:53] she said I went with kind of a fun circusy theme and she picked like circusy colors for it And she made like this big white cloud that kKind of like a popcorn piece, but like a cloud. So she did that, and then Jason added the Aunt Jones and the little logo of me. And I really think that made it pop when he added that.
[00:41:13] It looked nice before, but it really pops now. Well, I mean,
[00:41:17] David Crabill: I do think it’s important, especially since you started to do wholesale, which isn’t something you, rebrand, right?
[00:41:26] Joan Eppehimer: That’s correct. Yes.
[00:41:30] David Crabill: Yeah, because typically with, you know, wholesale, you do need a product that will stand on its own on the shelf. And, you know, just looking at your product, I mean, I could definitely see that on a store shelf and see somebody being compelled to buy it.
[00:41:44] Now, how much of your business is, currently is wholesale versus direct selling at markets.
[00:41:54] Joan Eppehimer: Um, so this summer wholesale, let’s see, I almost pulled out of that CHQ Plus store because it wasn’t doing very well, but I’ve stayed there because I think I pulled out after Christmas last year to give my husband a break because I made so much at Christmas time last year. It was, You know, he, we make it here in the apartment and it is very hard for him because it takes over the apartment.
[00:42:16] So I Gave him a break, but I noticed my sales never came back up at CHQ Plus. I did very little at CHQ Plus this summer, but I did 70 a week at the Anthonium Hotel at Chautauqua Institute. They approached me and asked me if I would make for them. So I did 70 a week there and then I sold about 200 a week at the market.
[00:42:36] David Crabill: so you, you know, about a quarter of your sales are coming from wholesale and about three quarters are coming from markets.
[00:42:43] Joan Eppehimer: right. right.
[00:42:45] David Crabill: and then
[00:42:46] Are you at consistent markets, like weekly markets, or you do um, pop ups or events?
[00:42:52] Joan Eppehimer: after the um, farmers market in the summer, then I just do pop ups and events, and I really, I have to turn down a lot of them because it’s, it’s hard, like I said, it’s hard for Wayne. And, with the rare disease that he and Jason have with Wayne since he’s older, there are a lot of doctor’s appointments, and he can’t drive anymore so, I don’t have all the time in the world, so I do turn down offers sometimes.
[00:43:18] But I will say at Christmastime I do like to sell in three places, and I only do it at Christmas in three places. So I go back to my girlfriend’s store at Christmas, because it sells well there, and I also go back to the BioDome, because at Christmastime it sold really well there, too, last year. And then I’ll stay at CHQ plus and I’ll do more of that.
[00:43:36] And I’m only doing one or two events between now and Christmas, just because I don’t have the time to make it.
[00:43:42] David Crabill: And is this, I mean, other than your own personal commitments and having to take your custom in places like, is this your primary focus right now? Is this business?
[00:43:53] Joan Eppehimer: No, I have to be careful. It could be, in fact, sometimes Wayne says that to me, that’s all you think about. That’s all you put your time into. So I have to be careful because my oldest daughter moved back into town about a year and a half ago and they have two children, one that they’ve adopted.
[00:44:12] Through the foster care system and the second that they are fostering to adopt and foster children take a lot of work. they have a lot of needs and so I want to help her as much as I can and I don’t feel like i’m helping her very much right now. I’ve Honestly put a lot more time in the popcorn business than I do with her.
[00:44:32] So it’s a question of balance. So maybe it is taking a lot of my focus right now, but I don’t want it to. And that’s why I’m not doing some of the events and things this fall so that I will be able to be available for her more.
[00:44:45] David Crabill: at markets, do you offer samples?
[00:44:49] Joan Eppehimer: Yes. That’s what sells it. Mm
[00:44:54] David Crabill: What percentage of people would you say that try it end up buying?
[00:44:58] Joan Eppehimer: Probably 95 percent
[00:45:01] David Crabill: And why do you feel like your popcorn stands out that much?
[00:45:07] Joan Eppehimer: Because it’s homemade, which is part of the problem of, you know, like if I, most people use a caramelizer to make their popcorn, which is a commercial piece of equipment. So I can’t use that in the home anyway. But it’s a different way of making it and I really would be curious to put my recipe in a caramelizer and see how the popcorn tasted with that recipe.
[00:45:29] So the recipe’s different and it’s made differently. I make the sauce and then someone pours it for me while I stir because, you know, it’s, I’ve tripled the original recipe so it’s a huge amount of sauce and um, it takes one person just to pour it and then I stir it. Well, they pour and then it gets baked in the oven.
[00:45:47] So it’s, I think it’s lighter and crispier than commercial popcorn and the taste. I can’t compare it. It tastes so much better to me than when you buy the stuff in the bag at the store.
[00:45:57] Jason Madison: is different. yeah, it doesn’t feel so candied. It just feels like homemade,
[00:46:04] Joan Eppehimer: My dentist even buys it. And I’ve had people tell me their dentist won’t let them have caramel popcorn, but my dentist told me that mine was different. So whatever it is, it’s bad about caramel popcorn. Mine’s not so bad, I guess.
[00:46:18] Jason Madison: has more of a buttery taste. It doesn’t feel like a punch in the face of sugar.
[00:46:23] David Crabill: Do you find that sometimes people at the market will like be a little hesitant and then you like see the expression on their face.
[00:46:31] Joan Eppehimer: Wow well, the expression is what I love. One time, the guy looked like he had died and gone to heaven when he ate it, and I asked him if I could videotape it, but he told me no. And he actually didn’t buy it either, but you could tell he loved it. And I’m sure he didn’t buy it because he didn’t have the money to spend on it, but you could tell he loved it.
[00:46:52] David Crabill: Do you attribute most of your success to the product itself? Or do you feel like you could have been just as successful with another baked good or something else?
[00:47:04] Joan Eppehimer: Personally, I would say to the product I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about or had a desire to sell something else. Yes, I contribute it to the product. Yes.
[00:47:15] David Crabill: So you said that this can take over the apartment when you’re doing it. Now, is your husband pretty involved with the production process? He is an excellent pourer, you know, to hold that pot and pour it. He really does a good job of keeping a steady stream of it. But Wayne’s sight is going, so it is very hard for him because he can’t see as well. And He can’t always see when the stream is coming down. He can’t always tell if it’s going where it’s supposed to be.
[00:47:49] Joan Eppehimer: And it does, it always does, but he can’t tell that. It’s actually stressful for him to have to do that. So there’s another girl that lives in our apartment building that I’ve known for years and she’s the one that I hired to Come in and help.
[00:48:04] David Crabill: You ever hired anyone to like help at the market or help sell it?
[00:48:08] Joan Eppehimer: No, I because I don’t have enough money and technically unless you have a non profit license, you can’t use volunteer work. So, That’s why I pay her. but I actually, I let her come because the market is so rewarding. It’s like the reward for all the work that you put into it, and she loves it.
[00:48:29] So I let her come, but I let her know right up front that, you know, I can’t pay, and because I give the profits, this summer they went to UCAN, not to the MPS Society, but they went to UCAN, but because I’m giving the profits to them, I felt like, you know, she could be there representing, UCAN, which is a non profit, and that’s how I can allow her to be there, but no, right now I can’t afford it.
[00:48:51] I think I could if we did two markets, because there’s a market up in Westfield that does much better than our market down here in Jamestown. I’ve had people tell me they sell at least twice as much up there, I think if I could make enough to sell at that market, I could also pay a person to be up there at that market.
[00:49:07] David Crabill: You said that you can’t even have someone come and volunteer for you. I’m sure you’re right. You’ve done the research, but I just be curious to learn a little bit more about that, that there’s some rule about, you know, whether a business can Free help.
[00:49:27] Joan Eppehimer: Yeah, the man that does our taxes is actually the one that told me, cause he’s an entrepreneur himself, and I had called and asked for, I always ask him for advice, because he does our taxes, so I know he knows how it’s gonna affect us, on our taxes, when I make business. Decisions. And somehow, we were on that issue and he said, he’s the one that told me, you know, you could be fined for using volunteer labor because he had a client that was fined.
[00:49:56] And so I googled it and he’s right. The small business office didn’t even know it. I went to the small business office here in Jamestown. They said, no, you can use volunteer labor. But I googled it, and from what I can understand, you can’t.
[00:50:09] David Crabill: Do you happen to know if that’s a New York thing or is that like national?
[00:50:15] Joan Eppehimer: I think it’s national, and I’m gonna guess it’s like a protection thing, because otherwise people’s bosses could try to make them work and not pay them for different things. So I’m going to guess it’s to protect the worker.
[00:50:28] David Crabill: Yeah, it kind of makes sense. It’s just I’d never heard that before. And, I’m sure that it happens a lot with cottage food businesses, you know, where they just, somebody comes and helps them at the market. I’m sure even if the small business office doesn’t know about it, that there’s not going to be really any Repercussions for doing that for a little business, generally speaking.
[00:50:50] Jason, it’s a little unique because you have this kind of third party perspective. So what is your perspective kind of from the outside looking in on Joan’s whole business?
[00:51:03] Jason Madison: So as you can tell from just her conversation, you know, there’s such a strong emphasis in her mind or just in service of the community, in service of local farms uh, in service of the different causes that she would like to support. So I think that’s a good way to describe it. And that’s such a strong part of, what drives her to do what she does, and that is encouraging.
[00:51:27] A lot of people are just driven purely by profit, that’s gonna happen, especially in a uh, economic system that works with, uh, primarily capital, but it’s also really refreshing that a a person Just trying to run the business quote unquote, the right way. And that’s such a rare thing, it seems, nowadays.
[00:51:46] So I find that really Encouraging and um, insightful to me.
[00:51:51] David Crabill: So Joan looking ahead what are your future plans for the business?
[00:51:57] Joan Eppehimer: I’m not sure. I am sure that. it will keep going, but I’m not sure how or where because um, I’m not sure of Wayne’s health, so I have to really tread carefully, and here’s where my faith would come in, and I pray about it all the time, and I pray for God’s guidance, and he opens doors a lot of times that I haven’t even tried to open, I’m not pushing hard, but I’m always thinking and looking and I think like commercial kitchen, but at this point, Wayne doesn’t want me to do that because um, that involves another license and, he just doesn’t want it to go that far, it would take it a step further and he doesn’t really want the business to expand right now because we don’t know what the future holds for us.
[00:52:43] David Crabill: Jason, could you see yourself becoming more involved in the business in the future?
[00:52:48] Jason Madison: Yes, I can see that. and that is, uh, definitely a consideration for me to figure out where my path, my own personal path going forward will take me. sometimes it’s a matter of just making that decision or finding out when the time is right.
[00:53:03] David Crabill: Joan, if you didn’t have Jason’s help and potentially continuing support of this idea in the future, I mean, are you thinking you’ll continue it on for maybe just a year or? Two. Or are you thinking about shutting it down sooner?
[00:53:21] Joan Eppehimer: No unless we have a real crisis of health or something like that, I’m not considering shutting it down, but I, I, have to be very careful as to how much I do, how many events I take on. And I did offer to my husband to shut it down because sometimes, you know, things do get hard for him, but Yeah, keep it. He says to keep it going, but he doesn’t want it to expand. So what I have done is like I’ve doubled the recipe and if I bought new. temporary pans for the oven that could hold the recipe doubled. And I’ll probably, when I have more money buy, it’s like steam table pans, they’re about the size of steam table pans.
[00:54:04] David Crabill: Well, Joan, I mean, you’ve, you kind of had a lot of experience in different ways with this business. I mean, you started it under one context in 2015, you revamped it in 2021. So you kind of started it again, you know, you’ve done kind of non branded then you’ve done heavily branded. As you think back on all of the experience of running this business, what would you recommend to somebody who’s getting started today?
[00:54:31] Joan Eppehimer: Get help. Don’t try to do it on your own. Go to your small business office because that’s free. And, start with that and then look for some good podcasts. There’s lots of them and food business success is one of them. Her podcast is really good and that’s been very helpful. And I actually bought some of her programs.
[00:54:49] That’s where I got the idea for the frequent shoppers card. And Jason rebranded it frequent poppers card, which I thought was excellent. that’s a really good help. And I think there’s a lot of other Helps out there like that. I, can’t go into her full business program because it’s just, it’s not, The direction that Wayne and I can go right now, but she has some really good helps on her, podcast.
[00:55:13] David Crabill: So you’ve invested in coaching to some degree?
[00:55:16] Joan Eppehimer: Just a little bit, just to pay her. And then I went to those two courses at the very beginning that really helped me. The um, Small potatoes, it was called, and that was very helpful. So go, yeah, go to your small business office because that was offered through them. And then they also offered the boot camp that I took two years ago.
[00:55:36] And that’s when I really got Jason involved because at the boot camp they talked about having a business plan, which I’d never had one. I didn’t even know what that was. And that’s when I contacted Jason to say, Jason, what’s a business plan and how do I do this? And that’s kind of when he started getting on board and and then he started doing the graphic stuff for me after that.
[00:55:57] David Crabill: You had mentioned earlier You know, You’re a big learner, but I also can see you’ve done a lot of sales. And I think one thing with, learners like yourself or myself is getting so caught up in the learning that you never actually take action on what you’re learning about. How have you found that balance or what have you found that helps you, take action?
[00:56:22] Joan Eppehimer: I make lists that coaching program that I had done years ago with Kiddology, they had a goal setting sheet that you used, and I’ve used that goal setting sheet sometimes when I have a goal, I do make lists, and I try to think of everything I have to do for example, I have an event coming up.
[00:56:40] so I made a list of all the kinds of popcorns I’m going to have to make for it. I had to figure out how far back I have to start making it. what do I need to do on Facebook for it and everything, business cards. I need to get those ready. So I make lists like that. And then you’re supposed to date the list.
[00:56:57] I forget to do that, but that’s what my first coach had taught me. Put a date next to the things on that list. And that’s what forces you to get it done, putting a date next to it.
[00:57:07] David Crabill: So speaking about setting goals, where would you like to see the business in say three years from now?
[00:57:17] Joan Eppehimer: no matter what, I’d always want to keep it local. I really don’t want to go regional. And, I’ve heard enough about selling on Amazon that I don’t think I’d want to sell on Amazon. I really like, local and regional New York state. I might like to get into a commercial kitchen because you could sell across state lines and, especially for the MPS society, I know we could do a huge fundraiser for them then, cause people all across the country would buy it.
[00:57:45] So for that reason, I would like a commercial kitchen to sell like nationally for the MPS Society, but otherwise I’m happy just with local.
[00:57:54] I’d love to do two farmers markets and you know, hire my girlfriend more to help out with that. But unless I’m in a commercial kitchen, I don’t know that I could make the amounts of popcorn that I need to make.
[00:58:05] David Crabill: Well, Thank you both so much for sharing all that advice with us. Now Joan, if somebody would like to learn more about your business, where can they find you or how can they reach out?
[00:58:17] Joan Eppehimer: I’m at, Aunt Joan’s Pearl City Popcorn on Facebook. I’m also on Instagram, but I understand Facebook a lot better, so if you want to message me, it’s always better to message me through Facebook.
[00:58:31] David Crabill: Well, Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing with us today.
[00:58:36] Joan Eppehimer: Well, You’re so welcome. Thank you for having us.
[00:58:39] Jason Madison: Thank you very much.
[00:58:41] David Crabill: And that wraps up another episode of the Forrager Podcast.
[00:58:47] For more information about this episode, go to forrager.com/podcast/127.
[00:58:52] And if you’re enjoying this podcast, please take a quick moment right now and leave me a review on Apple Podcasts. It Doesn’t have to be a long review, but it’s truly the best way to support the show and will help others like you find this podcast.
[00:59:07] And Finally, if you’re thinking about selling your own homemade food, check out my free mini course where I walk you through the steps you need to take to get a cottage food business off the ground. To get the course, go to cottagefoodcourse.com.
[00:59:18] Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you in the next episode.
