Anyhow, one day I got a call from her asking if I would help her in this fair in Raleigh called Got To Be NC Festival. It was at the NC State Fairgrounds.. albeit, we were lucky that it was inside. There were many booths all with North Carolina products available to sampl, and chat with the owners or creators or both.
Her name is Jody Currin and she is the recipe creator of Mrs. Picky Fanicky's Foods. Right now, she has two items for sale. We promoted the Apple Pie MmmMarmalade and the Apple Peach Chutney.
Let me tell you.. Jody, her Mom, "Gigi" and I all donned our royal blue aprons which were embroidered with Mrs. Picky Fanicky Foods in white. Jody's husband had pins made for us that said, "I'm Picky, too!" By the way, the accent is on the i in Fanicky. Don't ask. LOL.. anyhow, here are two pictures of Gigi and Jody in the booth.
Now mind you, the booth doesn't look like much, but I think that was the secret! We had one of the busiest booths there!! I worked with these girls all of Friday and PART of Saturday because I had a wonderful old girl friend from central Illinois visit me. I had to leave them on that Saturday and it about broke my heart, it was so terribly busy. I'm telling you, that line did NOT stop. When the fair people opened the doors to this building, FLOODS of hungry Southerners came swarming to all the booths. These people waited extremely patiently in line to sample these jars of unique tastes! Maybe they saw Jody on TV! This adorable reporter carting a good sized camera a la lights et al.. came over to Jody's booth that early morning as we were setting up. She came right up and asked Jody if she could interview her. "Sure!" Jody said.. and then turned to us in a bit o panic and said, "I am soooo nervous!" We told her her products were fabulous and that she needed to just be herself... and that she did. I laughed so hard at that interview. It is so her! I loved it and apparently it made a big impact on the people who tuned into the local Time Warner cable news network that morning! Oh..the cracker packages we opened to slather the marmalade or chutney onto was a feat unto itself! Our fingers were sore as well as our throats. Mine was burning and as much as I didn't wanna leave them, I was grateful to get the break.
These dudes, I think, were bottling guys. I know the one on the right was, but I'm just not sure what the guy on the left did. Regardless, she met so many people who loved her products. One man came on Friday and said he was with the elite Edible Piedmont Magazine. He said he would tell his editor about these delicious NC products. Who thought he would actually do that? Well, Saturday (maybe Sunday) rolled around and there he was! The editor. He talked to Jody for a long while while Gigi and I ripped open large amounts of Lance Crackers and spooned on the gooey red marmalade and chutney to our desperately hungry customers. Their eyes always popped out of their sockets! It was like Christmas in your mouth! A complete surprise of flavor! The MmmMarmalade tastes like real apple pie. NO KIDDING! Our suggestions were to pour it over a cream cheese block (great for bunko night!) or, of course, use it on your morning toast or your favorite southern biscuit, or my favorite, ( I almost drooled every time I said it) heat it up a tad and drizzle it onto vanilla ice cream! YOU BET I'm going to take my own advice at Christmastime and do that!
The Apple Peach Chutney.. that was a story unto itself!! "What's Chutney?" EVERY SINGLE PERSON WOULD ASK! Ugh!! we took turns with our explanations BUT then this one Indian (india) girl came up, probably in her early 20's and was excited to see the word chutney at our booth.. we had a talk and her country makes chutney usually with herbs such as cilantro and hot spices. Jody's Apple Peach Chutney is totally different than that. It's sweeter. It's ingredients, let's see if I can recall now.. apples, peaches, onion, and apple cider vinegar to give it that "zing" as Jody puts it, into the taste. It was out of this world. We suggested smothering it on a pork roast/chops/tenderloin and cooking it slowly so all that carmelly goodness would coat the meat.. OR pour it over fish, or use as a ham glaze. It would all be so remarkable. Jody sold tons of these jars!
In July, we are going to set up a taste testing area at a family owned gourmet food store in Wake Forest, NC. That's July 11. I'll be helping Jody out with that. It'll be fun. The owner and his wife want to promote these products in their stores! Fabulous!
Also, I can't find her post now, but Jody told me that that Sunday ( I had my visitor, remember? and I didn't work on Sunday) a famous Raleigh Chef came by who has these fabulous cookbooks. She bought some chutney and was to bake it on fish that weekend and do sort of a recipe sampling of her new recipes! I hear she's going to put that recipe with Jody's Apple Peach Chutney name in the new cookbook! JOY! I'd been telling Jody that if were a big believer in Astrology, I would say that all her planets and stars were all aligned perfectly that weekend! It was a great time.
One more tidbit. I fell in love with her Mom, Sandra aka Gigi. She is the most delightful woman! I felt so comfortable with these two girls! Well, Gigi was sort of doing this nervous laugh when I said marmalade. I thought to myself.. what that heck? then she told me.. I was saying MarLAmade instead of MarMalade~ OH God! i was sooo embarrassed as I am always trying to be miss proper in my grammar! So that was so funny. I was terribly conscious of it afterward.. good thing!
Thanks Gig!
Well, here is a picture of Gigi helping out a customer on Friday, the slower of the three days. I loved the way she said pork.
it was like a new jersey mob's wife saying it. It was more like Poor ahck? I'm sorry girl.. i just had to say it. But darnitall! she stopped saying it after that. I feel badly! I didn't mean to poo ak fun at her! lol!!!Do you see a life size photo cut out of Elvis on the side there wearing a blue apron? The idea was that Elvis apparently loved marmalade spread on his peanut butter sandwiches! We got some big fans out of that Elvis! One guy even bought the pin right off of him cuz it made a great gift for his wife whom eveyrone pinned as PICKY! ha!
Anyway, click HERE to get info on her jars of yumminess!
I can't wait for July 11 to help out in hoity toity Wake Forest! Why are towns with the word forest in it seem so high falutin'? just a thought.
Order your chutney and MmmMarmalade today.. did i spell it right?
Susie
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