Greetings folks!

This has been a phenomenal year here at the old homestead. With your help, we’ve taken what was a small farmers market booth and turned it into what some might even call a legitimate business.

Thanks to you, our customer, we have made and sold literally hundreds of jars of jellies, jams, pickles (some of which were a little soggy it seems.. Sorry!!), and fruit butters! We blew straight through all our honey, and sold through a number of soap batches several times over. We’ve seen the podcast explode in popularity – receiving over 2200 downloads a week on average – for reasons I still can’t fathom in all honesty.

It has been a busy year, and we could not be more grateful for your support in 2009. I hope that our service and our products have lived up to your expectations and we look forward to serving you in 2010.

So what do we have planned for 2010??

More products with better consistency – we’ve partnered with a processing operation in north GA that has agreed to handle the processing and packaging of our harvests using our own recipes. They have a state certified and inspected commercial kitchen and a sterling reputation among other growers for being on the up and up. This also allows us to partner with other local growers to offer you a wider range of products. For example, If farmer Bob is processing 600 lbs of vidalia onions (which I can’t grow), but didn’t get a good apple harvest, we can trade on the raw goods and the facility can process them for both of us. I think it’s a good strategic move for us right now that will allow us to serve you better in the long run – and avoid being shut down by the State Dept of Agriculture.. which is always a nice perk.

Going Official LLC – we’ll be moving BubbaTanicals and all associated operations into an LLC. This is probably something we should have done some time ago, but with volume picking up and money actually flowing through it, it’s become clear that this is a viable effort and is worth investing in.

Podcast improvements – My wife has expressed an interest in being on the podcast so if I can make that happen, it will greatly add to the quality of the content. Not only because she is way more knowledgeable on what we would probably be talking about, but you won’t just have me prattling on in your ear for an hour. And we all know that my public speaking skills are less than par. I’ve also upgraded the podcast equipment somewhat and will be adding some additional upgrades in the coming months. I’m breaking away from my laptop as the main recording device and now using a Tascam DR-7 (sorry Darcy, it was a third the price of the Ederol, but does everything I need it to). This is a hand-held studio quality recording device that will allow us more freedom in how we conduct the podcast. Recording it outside, with the animals, or even at a bee yard are only a few examples.

Website Improvements – We’re always looking for ways to add value to the website. In the coming months look for better integration with the blog, newsletters, and even a live chat feature where you can talk to us directly right from your browser!

And much more.. so stay tuned!

Now go have a happy new year!

-Brian and Laura
BubbaTanicals.com

Inman Farm Heritage Days

In the days leading up to our favorite festival of the year – the rain threatened, and then – unfortunately for us it then followed up and made good on the threat. In spades. Friday looked good, but Saturday was wet and muddy from the get go.

I will say that given the rain, this was a dedicated crowd. I made enough on Saturday to cover family dinner at the concession stand. The Brunswick stew was to die for and I ate much more than anyone should be allowed to eat.. shamelessly.

I had a tough time keeping the soaps from sweating with the uber-high humidity, so on the list is trying to figure out some way of packaging them so they keep dry. Any of you soapmakers out there have any suggestions? Wrapping them in paper towels seemed to work in the short term.

My daughter helped with the booth and held her own selling cookies and brownies.

Although the heavy rains did put a dent in our bottom line, we made out okay and caught up with some old friends. If anything, this weekend served as a good reminder to me about why I spend all this time and energy lugging a booth around in the rain to try and hock a few jars of jelly.

It’s certainly not for the money. No, It’s the people. Like so many other things.. it’s the people.

It always has been, and for me at least – it always will be.

Thank you Rick, Joanne, Stephanie and everyone else that works so hard to make Heritage Days what it is.

-Brian

Goats Milk, Lavender, & Oatmeal Soap

The Ocho!

On this BubbaCast we go over some tech-geeky stuff that you can do to help the political freedom fighters in Iran.  We take some emails, talk about what’s been going on, celebrate the launch of the new store front, and talk about basic cold-process soapmaking.

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Music: James Larson

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