get your shopping on

If you haven’t heard yet, we are participating again this year in The Manske’s HandMade Holiday Open House in downtown Weaverville. We participated last year, but this is their fourth annual open house. It’s a fantastic idea: the Manskes open their house for artists and crafters to set up ‘stations’ and you get some holiday shopping done early! Plus, here’s the great thing, 10% of all sales will go to Arts For Life. And, we love Arts for Life.

Here is the info:

Where: The Manske Home, 107 Alaron Drive, downtown Weaverville

When: Sunday, 20 November 2011 from noon-5pm

Directions: from Asheville. take 19/23 (future 26) north/west to exit 19b. turn right onto Weaver Blvd. at light, turn right onto N. Main St. turn left at light on Hamburg Mtn Rd. take 2nd right onto Roberts St. the first left is Alaron Dr. House is 2nd on right. parking on street and surrounding area.

Hope to see you there!

the sweet spot

 

I know. What are you going to do? Two blog posts in 1 day. Well, I didn’t want to put everything in one long post, so here is part 2:

Thanks to my wonderful sister, we have a tag line, of sorts:

crumbs and cream: the sweet spot

our front window

We also decided on a local coffee roaster – Dynamite Roasting Company in Black Mountain, NC. They roast about 10ish types of coffee, but we decided to go with 3 right now. A decaf- Dynamite’s Unleaded Decaf (a blend of Central American and African beans). A light roast – Dynamite’s Guatemalan Huehuetenango. And a dark roast – Dynamite’s Suplicar Clemencia (a blend of Honduran, Ugandan, and Sumatran beans). I would love to incorporate one or two other local roasters eventually for specific items like iced coffee. We will see.

Some other news for October: we will have live music on Wednesday evenings in October. Around 7-9pm, Steve Davidowski, a jazz pianist (although I’m not supposed to use that word since it scares some folks) will play some originals and requests. Dates are October 12th, 19th and 26th. Last week, one of the MHC music students came over a played for a couple minutes. You never know who might show up and jam (as they say in the music biz).

And, if you have only had our chocolates at the tailgate market, than you should definitely check out the shop. We have more! Some items you might see: shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate; brownies; blondies with coconut, sunflower seeds, chocolate chips and dried cherries; caramel apples; cranberry orange bread; pumpkin spice cake; maple pecan tea cakes; chocolate chip cookies; applesauce spike cake with a brown butter frosting; and various other cakes and cupcakes and cookies.

Okay, thanks again for reading. And, don’t be a stranger.

such a bad and deliquent blog-poster, i am

Okay. I have some excuses for not posting anything for almost 2 months. 13 hour days, every day, for one. I won’t go into them…

First, let me just say for those who have not heard yet: We Are Open! And, we opened on Labor Day – Monday, 5 September 2011. So, we have been open for a month and a week. We are at 24a south main street in downtown Mars Hill, NC (across from the MHC bookstore and the gazebo). It’s a pretty ‘sweet spot,’ but I will get to that later. At the beginning, we were open 7 days a week. But, after working for 21 days straight, I realized that we needed a day off. And, now, we are closed on Sundays. We are open Monday-Friday from 3pm-9pm and Saturday from 2pm-9pm. You might say, ‘those are kinda weird hours’ (we’ve heard that already) – but, we both decided to keep our other jobs in the beginning. Health insurance: it is a difficult thing to give up when it is affordable. And, every other Saturday, we are at the North Asheville Tailgate, so we cannot open up the shop at noon, when the market ends at noon (since the scientists haven’t figured out cloning or how to be in two places at once yet).

And, that is a bit of what has been going on with ‘crumbs and cream.’ Of course, there is a lot more to share, but I don’t want to bombard you with some massive post or email. I promise to try and post more regularly.

Thanks for reading, supporting and for being there!

soon!

So, I have been a bit delinquent with the blog posting. But, I’m sure most know we have been a bit busy with the shop opening. Lots and lots to do. Construction of the new space, painting, looking for furniture, more looking for furniture, deciding on coffees and teas, and on and on, oh my.

Initially, we have decided to go with two different tea companies: Art of Tea and Stash Tea. From Art of Tea we have chosen 3 loose teas: Earl Grey (a personal favorite), Chamomile Clementine, and Green Pomegranate. From Stash Tea we will have our bagged tea: Chai Spice, Cinnamon Apple Chamomile, Decaf Earl Grey, Oolong Chocolate Mint, Peppermint, Super Irish Breakfast, and Wild Raspberry Hibiscus. Yum Yum!

Still deciding on the coffee. Such difficult decisions!

Oh, and I almost forgot. Thanks to all our great and fantastic friends, supporters and family we met our IndieGoGo campaign fundraiser! Woo hoo! It really means a lot to us that so many believe in our vision and love chocolate. Thanks again!

In the meantime, we are still at the North Asheville- UNCA  Tailgate Market on every other Saturday. For those in western North Carolina, we have finally had a break in the heat! Thank goodness. At our last market it was very warm and humid and everyone seemed to be ‘over it.’ We had two new market goodies – a butterscotch pecan fudge and a lemon ricotta pillow cookie. Who know what we might have as our next new market goodie at the tailgate market on Saturday, 20 August!

And, if you are wondering when the opening date might be, so are we…we don’t have an exact date yet, but will let you know. Who is super excited! I will tell you that it will be before the end of August. Soon!

the sweet shop update

So, no market this week (of course because it is supposed to be cooler than last weekend). That means more time to work at getting the shop open.

Lots and lots of behind the scenes things to figure out. As I said before, and I am sure that I will say it again, there really needs to be a handbook or something for starting certain businesses. Not those cheesy-Idiots Guide or anything. There are so many regulations and unforeseen questions. And, it depends on what state, county and even city you live in and plan on doing business in – woowee, it’s exhausting. State people tell you one thing, county people tell you another, and you are left in between saying ‘someone please just do their job and know the answer.’ This, I believe, has a lot to do with the rural county that we live in. I love the county we live in, but some aspects to life are frustrating at times. It’s a learning curve when most information is not available online; and, at times, it is very difficult to actually get someone on the phone who can give you the correct answer to your question. But, I could go on and on – and I am sure that some of you have similar stories and frustrations no matter where you live, so feel free to share.

Our IndieGoGo fundraising campaign is going well. It’s been a bit over a week, with 25 days to go, and we’ve raised over half of our goal. And, an FYI: we can raise more than our goal (hint hint). We truly have some amazing friends, family and supports out there! You have no idea what it means to us! I keep trying to figure out the video thing (they encourage you to have a video about the campaign), but I have to confess that it is just a bit beyond my capabilities right now. I know my phone can do video, but beyond that…for another day.

Other behind-the-scene things were are working on (beyond the governmental agencies and what-not):

• deciding paint color. we’ve picked a green. now, the brown. green can be so tricky. and, I know that personally, since I have painted the living room at least 3 times because the green on the paint sample is not the same green that goes up.
• our wonderful friend, Bruce, is putting all the dimensions of the space into a program so that we can play around with the layout. fun without actually having to physically move heavy things around.
• trying to decide beverages in the shop. coffee and tea. what kind of brew. how much coffee will Mars Hillians drink? and, there are a lot of coffee roasters in the western-NC area. a lot. it’s difficult to pick one. what other beverages should we carry?
• then there is the espresso question. I love my vanilla latte. I will usually order that over a drip coffee. but, darn – espresso machines are expensive. more than a chocolate tempering machine! and that is just the machine itself – not all the stuff that goes along with making the wonderful cup of latte goodness. who ever knew. i’m sure baristas and coffeeshop owners do, but most espresso-based drinkers do not (or maybe I’m in the minority).

And lots of other things juggling around. Some of you who know us, know that we both still work full time jobs. And, when we open the shop, we both plan on staying at least part time. Insurance and reoccurring paychecks. We are still trying to figure out what hours to be open. At least in the beginning, we will be mostly open in the late afternoon and evening hours. And, we will definitely be open on Mondays – a lot of the places in Mars Hill are closed on Mondays (everyone needs a day off).

See. Lots and lots of decisions. Are we crazy? Maybe. But, we think that Mars Hill is a great place to live. The town and county have a lot to offer its residents and the residents can support businesses in town – whether each realize it or not yet…we believe in Us. Pep talk over. Go out and support your current and future local businesses!

a muggy market.

We are about a week into July, and it has been a rather warm and muggy, humid summer so far. Not the best weather for tailgate marketing with chocolate, but luckily we figured out a bit of a solution: a mini wine refrigerator. Plug it in the night before, to get it cool. Then, at the market, we usually put in an ice pack to keep it cool. Today was a great market day. Sold out of sea salted dark chocolate caramels. We also debuted this week’s new market goodie: cherry pecan white chocolate fudge:

In case you were wondering, an update on our shop: We have been picking out interior colors. We have the keys to the building, just waiting on word that we can tear out a floating wall. Will hopefully do that this week.  Tomorrow, we are going to take interior measurements so that our good friend, Bruce, can input that info a CAD program. We are high tech like that, it’s how we roll.

We started our IndieGoGo fundraising campaign. If you are not familiar, it is similar to Kickstarter. It’s a form of crowd funding. It’s a way to show your support – whether you are able to donate $10 or $500. Yes, you can donate only $10 and we will be extremely grateful. If 100 people donated $10, we would reach our goal. And, we have 30 days left. Here is our site: http://www.indiegogo.com/crumbsandcreamnc

Again, thanks for your support and hope to see you in the new shop or at our next tailgate market – Saturday, 23 July 2011.

our letter to you

Hello Friends and Family and Chocolate Lovers,

 As most of you know, we started our chocolate & confectionery business – crumbs and cream nc – a little over a year ago.

 Our intention was always to open a coffee house/chocolate shop in Mars Hill. The space we had our eye on has become available this summer, which is a actually a year earlier than we had planned. Because we believe this is ‘our spot,’ we are going for it and open in August/September 2011.

 We are asking for your help in our new small business. There are a couple ways you can support us and help to get our shop up and running.

• We are looking for those who could lend ‘micro-loans.’ A micro-loan is any amount of money you would like to invest with a 3 year repayment at 3% interest.
• We are also starting our version of an investment-type of gift certificate: crumbs and cream cash. Let’s say you would like $100 in c & c cash, you would then have your chocolate & goodies paid for until your c&c cash is used up.
• We are also starting an IndieGoGo online project  (to check it out, go to  www.indiegogo.com/crumbsandcreamnc).

We realize that not everyone can help out with our small business endeavor, but if you or someone you know wants to help with our small business, please let us know.

Our website:   www.crumbsandcreamnc.com

Our blog:   crumbsandcream.wordpress.com

Our email address:   crumbsandcreamnc@gmail.com

Our address:   111 Hickory Drive, Mars Hill, NC 28754

thank you for your support!

the ladies of crumbs and cream nc ~ marsha mason and katie mason

some exciting news

If you have not heard yet…drum roll, please…we are finally opening a storefront in downtown Mars Hill. It’s the perfect spot for us. If you are familiar with our downtown area (and, yes, go ahead and giggle – it is about 2 or 3 blocks long on Main Street), we are moving into the spot formerly held by the architect, Tory Stephen, and next to Three Sided Tattoo and two doors down from El Dorado Latin Grill.

In our shop, we will have our chocolates and confections, various desserts and bakery related snacks, and coffee and tea.

I was messing around with Photoshop the other day for the exterior view of the space and here it is: It’s just an idea of what our space might look like, oh the potential!

We hope to open in early August 2011 – yes, I know, it is about a month away. Hope to get paperwork finalized this week so we can start painting and getting the space ready.

In the middle of opening a store, we will still be at the North Asheville Tailgate Market on the UNCA campus. We will be there this Saturday, 9 July from 8am until noon.  Hope to see you there!

post tailgate market

We had another great market at the North Asheville Tailgate Market this past Saturday. It was another warm and humid day, but we got through it without any melting chocolate incidences. Thank goodness.

One of the good things about our new spot at the tailgate market is that we are next to the musicians for half of the day. And, I have to say that this week’s group was great. Actually had a lot of people who commented how much they enjoyed them. They were: One Leg Up; and according to their website they perform “a vibrant mixture of upbeat Gypsy Jazz, Latin, Swing and original jazz compositions.” Very appropriate for a beautiful Saturday morning hanging out at the tailgate market. I hope that they enjoyed it as well and hope that they return in the future. [I should add that only three members of the band were playing at the market, so with the complete five member band they must be more fantastic!]

It was also our second week of guess the new market goodie. It was the french macaron. And, to be more specific, it was a chocolate french macaron with Nutella inside. Oh, yeah. Chocolate goodness. We also brought back last week’s market goodie – the Italian Pizzelle made with anise. Look for our next market goodie clue on Thursday or Friday for the June 25th market. Again, if you would like to play along and plan on visiting us at the market that weekend, comment on our Facebook or Twitter page with your best guess.

french macaron: chocolate and nutella

Since local North Carolina blueberries are in season, we also dipped them in dark chocolate.

blueberries, raspberries and strawberries dipped in dark chocolate

Thanks for reading and your support! Have a great week!

new Saturday market goodie

We are going to try something new for our Saturdays at the North Asheville Tailgate Market. Nothing crazy. Just something different.

We are going to try and have a new goodie item of some relevance to chocolate & confectionery goodness. We will also (hopefully) be putting a picture up on our Facebook page – crumbs and cream nc - and on Twitter – crumbsandcream – a couple days before the market. But, we won’t tell you what it is right away. If you guess correctly (and are local, meaning that you can actually come to the market that weekend), you get a complimentary goodie!

Our first Saturday market goodie is: the Italian Pizzelle.

Here is some info (according to Wikipedia and the internet): they can be traced back to the Abruzzo region of south-central Italy; name comes from the Italian “pizze” meaning round and flat (like pizza); and are made on a pizzelle iron typically resembling a snowflake pattern.

The pizzelle has been made in our house, as well as my grandmother’s, traditionally with anise. For those not familiar with the term anise: think licorice. Not sure if my family’s heritage to southern Italy – my grandmother’s father was from a small town called Falconara – has anything to do with our enjoyment of the flat, crispy cookie. But, I like to think it has some influence.

the pizzelles, cooling

Hope to see you this weekend. And, keep an eye out for the week of Saturday 6.11.2011 and the new Saturday market goodie.

…Will probably be something personally related since it is one our birthdays