Why We Changed Our Bank

A few people have asked questions about why we changed out bank from the Bank of America to our local bank, Tompkins Trust Company. Well its pretty simple. After doing a little research we realized that keeping our money at the BOA was not what we are about. Though we import almost all of our ingredients from other places, we still believe in contributing to our local economy as much as we can. By keeping our money with the Bank of America, our business' money is circulating amongst Wall Street banks and potentially risky investments. By keeping our money more local, our money is circulating to other local businesses and strengthening our local economy. Yes, I have already noticed that there certain fancy features that are not offered on our new bank's online service. But, I am willing to give this up for now knowing that I can see more of an impact of where our money is going.

Perhaps it is nice to know that when you purchase some of our products, a fraction of your money is going to some real people (us) and a community of people doing some really great things (Ithaca pride, right here!). There are a lot of choices to make when you are running a business and "doing the right thing" often comes up. I would like to think that our hearts are in the right place and that we continue to make choices that are both best for our business and our community.

I found this website very helpful, incase you are interested in learning more: Move Your Money.

Thank you for your support.

It is because of you that any of this is possible.

A Blog About Teeny

Teeny and I went to college together at Ithaca College. She was an acting major while I studied Theatre Management and Dance. Though we both have a strong affinity for the arts, our paths have taken us to another passion: food.

When Teeny shared with me about her true passion for pie-baking and that her dream was to learn the craft and eventually open a pie shop, I couldnt help but recognize that feeling that Ian and I had almost three years ago about following our dreams to share our food with the world. A few months ago, Teeny quit her job and is now taking her dreams into her own hands!! Her business is called, Teeny Pies (appropriately). She is embarking on what she calls the "Tour of Pie," where she is visiting a different bakery every month, apprenticing, learning the craft of pie-baking and small business. Her goal to is be on tour for an entire year!! Being without a paying job now, she is going to places where she has friends to stay and has also created an indie go go campaign, Tour of Pie, to help her along the way.

We had the pleasure of hosting Teeny at our house and at the kitchen during the month of October. It was so great to have her and to watch her in action! How could you not support someone following their dreams and putting themselves out on a limb?? Help make Teeny Pies come to fruition.

Please check out Teeny's campaign, Tour of Pie and contribute!

Also, check out her facebook fan page and her tumbler page, they are really fun to look at!!

See you next time!

love,

Samantha

Plugging Away

We certainly are plugging away. New ideas, new actions, new schedules, new new new. Our new packaging arrived last week and we are so pleased with how everything turned out. Incase you arent caught up, our community made this new packaging campaign happen. This past December we launched our campaign "Gift to Greatness" to raise money to hire a designer, find a new material and printer to re-vamp the look of all of our products. We raised $15,000 in 31 days. Amazing. Since then we have been working with all of these amazing people and we have finally achieved our goal. The packaging is here and soon enough our new look will be seen on the shelves of (hopefully) your favorite health food store. It is the most beautiful packaging that I have ever seen (there is even a picture of Ian and I on the back!!). The goal of our campaign was to increase the strength of our brand, so that it can continue to be a name that people trust and love. We also know that with more attractive packaging, that more people will notice our products, learn about what we do and support our business. So here we go. A new beginning begins. I would like to thank every single person who donated, shared and supported our campaign while it was going on. NONE of this could have been done without you and we are eternally grateful. You have made a dream come true. Thank you.

Here are some other new things in the works:

• Our amazing landlord here had a beautiful roof built off of our back door so we can now load pallets more comfortably in the Ithaca elements...(snow).
• We hired a new production person who will be making everything.
• Our website is (still) new.
• We are going to build a little room in our kitchen for all of our dehydrators.
• Our new granola packaging will be rolling out next week.
• We will be selling goods at the Chocolate World Expo in White Plains, NY on November 6th. Thanks to Vanessa Barg for telling us about it!!

Pretty exciting stuff. It feels so great to make changes and progress as we continue to recreate this dream of ours. I cannot express my gratitude for your support and encouragement. I am learning so much that to do anything we must share it, get the support from others and hold ourselves accountable for what we say we're going to do. This business is a great example but it applies to any area of life. What commitment can you share today that you are going to make happen?

All my love,

Samantha

How to Eat Sprouted Sunnies: Tutorial #1

Our new sprouted sunnies are the bomb. I am loving them and putting them on EVERYTHING. Here is Tutorial #1 on the best ways to eat them...

SPRINKLE ON A SALAD! THEY ADD THE MOST PERFECT CRUNCH!

TAKE ON-THE-GO AND EAT PLAIN! (school, work, movies...anywhere. a great nosh...)

The Albany Vegetarian Expo

Here are some pics from this fun event this weekend...

We had such a great time! We got to meet so many health conscious people who LOVED our products, including some familiar faces like Noah (picture 2), who thoroughly enjoyed the samples. We did an interview for a vegan radio show and Ian scored a free pair of fancy vegan shoes. It was such a success that we are looking into doing the Boston Vegetarian Expo at the end of this month. More to come on this!

We're Doing Things!

I am so excited. I might say that a lot but it is true. There is something really amazing about creating things. You get to KEEP creating and then re-creating and so on and so on. That's what we are doing and the energy is good! Yes there are issues and downfalls, but we keep going and that is why we are successful. First of all, our new website launched last week. I was so excited about that that I posted a video about it on our new YouTube Channel! So fun. There will be more videos featuring recipes, news and all kinds of fun things. Really excited to exercise my imovie skills. Our new packaging will be here October 12th. That day cannot come sooner because I have so may ideas, so many people I want to send them to, so many pictures to take...ahh! So as you can see, I am excited.

We've gotten some amazing press in the past few weeks about our indie go go campaign. We recorded an interview for a video series with the Huffington post (coming out next week), were interviewed for a BOOK coming out called "Funding for Food" AND our campaign was linked to the WHITE HOUSE BLOG! We had no idea that our successful campaign was going to bring so many perks! Now I must shout out the amazing people at IndieGoGo. What amazing and supportive people all working to help people following their dreams--Thank you so much for sharing our story and what we do with people!

This weekend we are taking a short trip to Albany to vend at the Albany Vegetarian Expo on Saturday. Very excited for a little road trip and to meet some new people and be OUT there. I really love doing things like this and seeing everyone's reaction to what we do and what we are about. The above photo is from a demo we did at our local co-op, Greenstar. Always so fun.

I am going to be doing a lot of blogging, videos, newsletters, all that stuff and I wanted to know what do you want to see from us? What types of posts and videos do you like the most? I would love to hear your feedback!

Cant go 30 minutes without feeling so much gratitude for this opportunity to grow, contribute, make mistakes and have fun!

Thank you for being a part of it.

love,

Samantha

Emmy's as the Emmy's??

We went to Ian’s mom’s house to watch the Emmy’s on Sunday night and we were so surprised to see that they are now using our Emmy’s (our) font for their logo. It was such a strange experience to see, well, our logo flash up on the screen numerous times during the evening. On one hand, we thought this was excellent, so much exposure for our brand, though in a very incorrect platform. On the other hand, will people now associate that font with the Emmy Awards and get confused? Does it really matter? Probably not. But we could help but discuss what the impact might be. What do you think?

We are still plugging away at our website. There is a lot more to do than we thought but we are very close.

I just got off the phone with a woman who is writing a book called Finance for Food. She just interviewed me about our crowdfunding experience, so cool! In other news, we just created a brand new YouTube Channel where we are going to start sharing food, lifestyle and business-running videos with you! We are excited. Who knows where to start first…

Talk to you soon!

Love, Samantha