November 24th was Small Business Saturday. The people over at American Express began promoting small businesses about 3 years ago with their Annual Small Business Saturday. As part of the promotion, American Express offered their card members a $25 statement credit for a single purchase made at a small business on November 24th. They also offered small businesses free printed materials as well as advertising on social media sites to help promote Small Business Saturday.
This year, we decided to have our first Small Business Saturday Tasting Event. An invitation went out to all of our customers who are signed up to receive our monthly email newsletter. If you would like to receive our monthly email newsletter, just visit our website and click on the “Join our Email” button to sign up on the left navigation bar.
Customers who signed up for the Sampling Event were greeted by Jordan Parke and given a card for two of our milkshake samples: Strawberry and Pumpkin Pie. Then the sampling began!
Seven new jams and marmalades were available for sampling: Traffic Jam, Huckleberry Jam, Christmas Jam (Strawberries and Cranberries), Tropical Jam (Banana, Kiwi, Mango, Toasted Coconut), Red Raspberry Jalapeno Jam, TOE (Tangerine-Orange-Elderberry) Jam and Gooseberry Jam. It’s pretty difficult to pick out a favorite out of all those. There are all very different and equally delicious.
Did you know we have about ten different salsa flavors? They range from very mild to super hot. For this event, we offered a few mild ones like the Strawberry, Red Peach and Red Apple. For those who like it hot, we offered the following salsas: Five Amigos Fire Roasted, Salsa Grande, and Mango Lime. As always, the Strawberry Salsa is the clear favorite!
The pickled tray was also a great addition. Most people are afraid to purchase these items because they’ve never had them before. In the tray we had Dilled Pickled Brussel Sprouts, Baby Beets, Dilly Beans, Marinated Mushrooms, Mild Pickle Okra, and Marinated Artichokes. The favorite from this group had to be the Dilled Pickled Brussel Sprouts. Not surprising to me because we have customers who buy it by the case!
Early this summer we started carrying two flavors of Amish Granola: Apple Cinnamon and of course Triple Berry. Granola is great to have on its own with milk as a morning cereal or as a topping for oatmeal or yogurt. Our snack candy is now back for the Holidays! Two new ones are the Sweet and Salty Mix and the Honey Crunch Mix. If you like chocolate, then you’ll love the Sweet and Salty Mix. It’s made up of peanuts, chocolate chips and sesame sticks. The Honey Crunch Mix is my favorite. It’s made up of dried bananas, dried papaya, peanuts and sesame sticks. 🙂
It couldn’t be a Tasting Event without these beauties! Our Strawberry cookies and Strawberry Bread were also available for sampling. Most customers are unaware that we sell refrigerated Troyer Amish products. As such, Troyer Amish Butter, Cottage Ham, and Cheese Curds were also available for sampling. Our guests were very impressed with the taste of our Troyer Amish Butter!
Our guests did not leave empty handed. Every guest left with a bottle of our Parkesdale Farms Pure Strawberry Syrup made with Plant City strawberries. This syrup is wonderful on pancakes, waffles, ice cream and even on roasted pork! In addition, as part of our Small Business Saturday promotion one of our guest won a free Gift Fruit package of their choice to be shipped for the Holidays. We had such a great response from this event that we hope to have more in the near future. Please remember to check our website and sign up for our monthly email newsletter!
