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Rob:
Welcome to our podcast all about the car brought to you by Schierl Tire and Service. I'm your host Rob Hoffman an auto service specialist with over 46 years of industry experience. A regular guest on the ride with me today is Bill Schierl, a guy that logs a lot of great Wisconsin miles and always has a lot of great questions. Welcome back Bill.
Bill:
Thank you Rob. Nice to be in the car.
We also have a very special guest with us today, Mary Browsow Brown of honestly cranberries. Welcome Mary and thanks for joining us today.
Mary:
Pleasure to be here. Thank you.
Cranberry harvesting in Wisconsin goes back as far as 1860, at least that's what I found out in my research. So it's nearly as old as Wisconsin itself. As a matter of fact, Wisconsin has adopted the cranberry as the state fruit. More than half of the world's cranberry supply is grown right here in Wisconsin. The cranberry was originally named the Craneberry due to its blossom that resembles the neck, head and beak of a crane in early Wisconsin. The cranberry was not only consumed but also used as a dye for blankets and rugs. The cranberry is a native fruit in North America along with blueberries and concord grapes. So let's reel it back a bit and learn more about the great family tradition of Honestly Cranberry. So Mary, this goes way back deep into your history and family history, right?
Exactly. And actually the property that the farm is on has been commercially producing cranberry since 1873. And when it was started, the Arpin family, which was family logging family in this area, they had purchased the property from the state of Wisconsin for their lumbering business and they actually found cranberries growing wild. The Arpins also had a dredging company and so they had the equipment horse driven to build dikes and ditches around those native stand of vines and that's how the cultivation was started. And actually in our township, it's the town of Cranmoor.
,
M O O R. It's named because it reminded them of the moors of Scotland. But it was carved out at two other townships when they realized the use of the properties around or in that whole region, they weren't gonna change the high water table, the acid conditions, the cranberries growing wild, it was not gonna be drained for any other agricultural crop. So most of the marshes today in that area, there's 14 marshes. Most of them are over a hundred years old. Most of them were started just by cultivating native vines that people found on their property. So it's great agricultural sustainable story and proud to be part of that.
So the loggers really kind of saw this opportunity and kind of ran with it at that point?
They did. I mean there other people had come up here too. The original cranberry harvest that you referred to in the 1860s that was down in Berlin, Wisconsin. Those people eventually came to this area where we're cran town of Cranmoor, which is on the northern shore old glacial lake Wisconsin. And actually that region, speaking of road trips is interesting because that region of Glacial Lake Wisconsin is bound by Highway 10 to the North Highways 39 51 on the east side and 90 94 coming up on the west. So if even you look at an old highway map, you will see that region and there's not a lot of cross highways in the middle of it because you've got the Neceeda Wildlife Refuge, you've got a lot of, I mean state wildlife refuges and you've got cranberry industry that Warrens-Toman areas in that region. Cranmoor is in that region. So it's really geographically it's a fascinating.
Yeah
That makes for a great road trip. You see these outcroppings and especially when you go up along 90, 94 Fort McCoy, your Tomans Warrens here and you see these outcroppings, those were all islands in this glacial lake region. And if you hike up to them, you can actually see sea fossils in them.
Oh my gosh.
So it's very, very fascinating and kind of brings you back to a long time ago
Really couldn't duplicate this, I mean this is just something that's here from going way back in deep history and we've taken opportunities here.
Absolutely.
So when the Arpin family or people who, I mean there's Arpin Wisconsin, so they named a town after, you know, like they created a town. Was that a diversification out of lumber when they started to do cranberries? Were they actually producing cranberries as a diversification from lumber?
It was. They realized and saw, and I don't know what their aha moment was, but I mean people saw their Native Americans were trading cranberries. They saw and there were a lot of them growing wild in this area and it wasn't growing anything else. So they had the equipment to build the dikes and ditches around it and start the actual cultivation of the fruit. So...
Was that the first cultivation in North America, this region or was that being cultivated...
No, no. Massachusetts they were cultivating.
So there was already a know-how.
There was already a know-how. I'm not sure how much of that Miss Arpins learned any from the east coast or whatever. And actually you look around this area and it's very different than the coastal they call them on the coast of bogs. We tend to refer to the areas as marshes. It's laid out differently. It's larger pieces of property, contiguous properties. But ...
Interesting. Okay.
I don't know, somehow it got all figured out in Wisconsin here,
Right.Exactly. Yes
It did. And many regions people found them growing wild. The original marshes in a growing region were.
Wow.
Cultivated wild. So that's pretty cool.
Let's bring it in a little bit closer to your family business and how that all began and how did it start and how it's evolved.
Yeah. Well as I said, the property was started cultivated in 1873 and curiously, my grandfather was born in 1873 and 50 years later he ended up being the Arpin's attorney when they were going through financial reorganization. So he had gotten together a group of investors, he was one of them. And that's how it got into our family. And then my uncle took over as manager. My dad was an attorney with his father. He had put in some acres on the southern part of the property, leased men and equipment from his brother. And then fast forward by 1960, my dad had purchased his father out, his brother out, and it was gonna be a retirement project for dad after 69. The world's mine in 69, he say died in 68.
Oh, that's too bad.
Yeah. But he died with vision. There's nothing wrong with that.
That's true.
I mean that part is and left a great opportunity for mom and was obviously for me it was always in my hopes and dreams that I could carry on the tradition. And I tend to see the bigger picture. We've got about 6,000 acres of land and 350 of it is in cranberries. So there's a lot of other property to manage too. There's 3000 acres of reservoir, there's 2,800 acres in a forestry management plan. And I like to look at it and manage it as the system. So it's a lot of things coming together to make it a very diverse and stable agricultural enterprise.
And you're not doing this all on your own, you have family?
New Speaker:
Absolutely not , we have a fabulous team. We have four fellows that live on the property and then our son is in the property, he lives on the property also and he's the cultural manager and oversees most of the operations now and he's a much better cranberry grower than I am. So that's a good thing,
. Yeah.
So I'm blessed to have that. But a great team of people, I mean we are, as you know in your business Bill, you can't do it on your own.
No, absolutely not.
And it takes good people to make a good company and we're blessed to have wonderful team. It's not just Team Shierl, it's team glacial, lake cranberries too.
Now is your company name Glacial Lake Cranberries or what's the relationship between that and Honestly Cranberry?
Well the name of the farm is Glacial Lake Cranberries.
Okay.
And it made sense to, we went through a name change in the early two thousands. Makes sense because of our location and what it says about it. Honestly Cranberry was started because a lot of the fruit that we grow and a lot of cranberry products out there have added sugar to them. Good news, bad news. It's fine. A lot of people like sugar and cranberries are very tart and not everybody likes tart, but I heart the tart
. I love it.
I love it.
So, and I don't eat a lot of added sugar. I'm very conscious of reading my labels and come to realize there are a lot of other people out there like that also who pay attention to the what's in their food and clean eating. And so I've gotta figure out a way to get cranberries because they're so good for you. So not only a native fruit, but it prevents bacteria from adhering to mucus tissues. It's huge and it's just something to be celebrated. So they said it couldn't be done and.
And you're doing it.
If it had been done, it would've been done. And I'm like, well my God, we put people on the moon, there's gotta be a way. So we figured out a way to do it and it's a, a proprietary process. We're putting 'em out there and started a new company named it Honestly Cranberry cuz that's what it is. And there you go.
Well you must be doing it right because I googled unsweetened dried cranberries and guess who popped up?
Well that's a good thing. .
That's right? Your SEO is doing well.
Yes.
This whole e-commerce and I didn't know what I didn't know in getting into a business. And I think Bill, you can relate to this too. When you start a new venture, you can do the best plan possible, but the best laid plans, something's not always...
Something's always gonna pop up.
Something's always gonna pop up. And I didn't know what I didn't know, but we realized that to get the product out and thank God in this day and age there's internet, good news, bad news, but it's much easier to get the word out and for us to do e-commerce than it is for us to have a distribution system, which is very antiquated system anyway. Distribution of food is ridiculous and it's not very friendly to new products and smaller businesses.
Yeah.
Which I am. So anyway, E-commerce has been good for us.
So obviously dried cranberries, so like we were talking about the product and like, oh okay, what is Honestly Cranberry? So it's a dried cranberry. And how do people consume that difference? Well let me take a step back. I mean there is no growing difference between the process that you do and necessarily how Ocean Spray does it or some grower who I mean
Sweetened anybody who grows for it doesn't matter what you're growing for the end product, I mean the cranberry culture...
It's a cranberry.
Is the same.
The difference is that the process, so what we're doing is just drying and taking out enough moisture to keep them shelf stable. When you make sweet and dry cranberries, they take out concentrated as a byproduct and then they add sugar because of added sugar. They add oil. So to keep them from sticking juice has added sugar also because most juice out there. So...
Trying to make it sweet I'm sure.
Well our culture is sweet.
It really is.
And not to say that that's good. I mean sugar's the most inflammatory thing we do to our bodies, but there is a group of people out there and a whole thousands, hundreds of thousands who like clean eating. It's just another option for people to have Honestly Cranberry as opposed to other cranberry products. It's just another...
Option.
That's great. And then is there a vine or a, you know like I think of grapes and I think of wine that all the variety of different grapes that come into delivering wine. Are there a variety of varietals of cranberry that bring a certain, I guess enhancement or texture, flavor, color or size? All of those.
Speaker 2:
You nailed it. You did.
All of the things are same in cranberries because you think of like, oh like people don't, I think of you buy cranberry, right? The variety, the cranberries cranberry, right, right. A cranberry is a cranberry. It's like I think we've all come to realize you go to the store and there's different varieties of apples.
Right.
There's different varieties of pears...
That will come. It's an evolving fruit, it's a minor use crop. People don't think of it year round yet. I mean I'm hoping to push that out with Honestly Cranberry. So you can get the natural goodness of cranberry year round. You don't have to just wait for fresh fruit season. But there are definite varieties that are better yields for juice, better yields for sweet and dried better for us. I mean when you're just using the fruit you have to, what makes for a good mouth feel? What makes for size, color?
And was that part of the process of developing the product? Was the varietal that you had that you nurtured through hybridization or selection?
It was funny. It's a close, but we had a variety and we had planted it and everybody said it was great, this is what to do. Well at the time we got into production and at the time the people we were selling to said no, we don't want that.
.
Because doesn't make good sweet and dried or whatever. And I said, oh well that was my starting point. If they don't want this variety for making sweet and dried, maybe the exact reasons that they don't want it. Maybe that's why I want it. And that worked.
Got it.
So, and it was the same. That's how it evolved. So,
And one last question about the growing cycle here type thing is I was just listening to some radio commentary and talking about climate change and how that is affecting agriculture across the nation, across the globe. And they mentioned cranberries as one of the cycles of changing temperatures in the cold temperatures and so on and so forth. And that they had mentioned a varietal that was being tested that obviously could move, I guess it would be further north or south, I can't remember which further south. Cuz I think it's a obviously a warming issue that out of Madison and that they were collaborating. So has that been something that you have run into with any type of, I'll say climate change, not, we don't need to go onto global things, but just locally in your property?
Well I think climate change is a real thing. I believe it. The degree or exactly when it's gonna really impact or really make the difference where we have to make adjustments. I think the difference is cranberries is a perennial. So it's not something that, like in corn varieties for instance, or beans where you plant them every year and they can develop a variety fairly quickly and you can get them into production. Cranberries isn't like that when you plant a cranberry, they don't come true from seeds. So you have to plant cuttings. It takes three to five years to bring 'em into production. So it's kind of like planting a vineyard and it's for a longer period of time.
I've heard these vines can be 60, 65 years old. Is that true?
They are. I mean we have some that are 70 years old and
Part of the family,
Part of the family my heirloom varieties
. Exactly.
Kinda like me, I'm the heirloom member of the family. But yeah, it's a very real thing and and how we adapt, I mean it's never one thing that's gonna make the difference in your crop. I look to our temperatures versus say growing on the west coast in Washington and Oregon for instance, which is a much more temperate and warmer climate. And then you look, okay, what are they doing? Well they're starting frost protection in February. And I'm like, ah, that's to think that, but it could happen here. I mean, is it gonna happen in my lifetime? I don't know, but
So you just have to shift your timetables?
Well we would have to shift,
Our timetables and if that's the only thing we have to do...
That's not so bad. Yeah.
So when you were just talking about having some vines that are 75 years old and obviously cuttings and all of those things. So when I buy a bag of cranberry, am I getting a blend? Like thinking we're going back to wine. Yeah. Am I getting like this bog or am I getting a blended product?
You're not getting a blended product. We deal with one variety right now and we get questions all the time. When are we gonna dry other fruits? And that's a lot of fine tuning in the future, but everything's gonna be a little bit different. Varieties are different.
I'm getting the one malt, scotch
we're not there yet.
Okay, Go it.
We had to get this product out there in the market in the first place, so we had to get it right the first time. And people ask about different varieties just like you do, but it's like we have to know what we're doing and it's gonna stand the test of time. It's what people want because as you know, you give the customer what they want.
Not what you think they want.
Exactly. True, True. Yes.
And so we're finding our customer base and we we're giving them what they want and so we're good with that right now. Well when it comes to blends and
. Yeah, I was just curious.
I'll put you on my call list.
All right. Just get curious. So you know, now they've done everything. You know, I think that is the next concept of the cranberry industry. I can't imagine that that's not gonna get to the commercial market and the consumer market to buy a specific product.
One of our things, it kind of surprised me. Like I said, I didn't know what I didn't know. And when you talk about markets, so there's two markets that I really didn't realize were gonna be so good for us. One is the liquor business because people are muddling their Honestly Cranberries in their old fashioned or putting 'em in their mojitos or they're getting their daily dose of cranberries in their cocktail. I'm like, okay , this is .
It's what they want.
Cranberry vodka.
Give the customer what they want.
Exactly.
And the other thing is the pet industry, and particularly house bunnies, rabbits. There are a lot of people who have house bunnies. I had no idea. I mean a lot. And they're very particular about what their bunnies get fed. They're very sensitive. So Honestly Cranberries are loved by house bunnies.
Oh,
Well that's good to know. I don't have a house bunny, but hey,
It was not in my business plan.
How would you know ?
That's a great things to have pull market that's not in the plan.
That's right. I mean, yeah, muddling and cocktails and house bunnies.
Awesome. Like snow. That's great.
So Mary, I'm just trying to grasp all of this information we've taken in this morning already. So you're actually a grower and you harvest you process and you sell, you do the whole thing start to finish. Is that right?
I do. What is wrong with me?
, what do you do in your spare time?
It's a passion. And I always say you make time if people say you can't make time. And I'm like, yeah, you do make time. You prioritize and you make time out for your family. And I have a passion for this getting cranberries out there in a clean manner. There's a whole group of people that haven't been eating cranberries at all and so...
And you want those people
And I want those families...
I want you as Uncle Sam says.
Yeah, . Exactly.
And like you said earlier, I mean it takes a team.
It does.
How many people are on your team?
Well, like I said, we have the farm team and then I have Honestly Cranberry and there's six of us at Honestly Cranberry including me. So it's a wonderful, and my daughter is instrumental in that. So I have both children working on both ends of the company and that's a blessing.
Well as with every, all about the car podcast, we always break away and hop back in our car and head to a popular destination in Wisconsin. And today we're heading to Rooted in Red. Did I say that right?
You did. And it's amazing. It's a cranberry farm.
a cranberry farm, . And that's exactly what we're talking about here. And Mary tells us this is an awesome destination, great place to go. I don't know a lot about it, but we're gonna find out.
Well I think it's one of those times that as school kids, I remember going out and visiting the bogs and you know like the marshes and seeing what that all was about and the sorting and all the machinery. It's fascinating, but I think as an adult it's a great place to take your kids because I don't know if there's school trips, maybe you might know that. I don't think there are because we just don't do those types of things academically nowadays. So there's a lot of opportunity for parents to take their kids to learn about the products and as you say, I eat the cranberry, the holidays only, but there's a lot of other times when food products and to understand how and where our food comes from.
Right. And actually rooted in Red has done a great job with incorporating different events. So it's not just about going and seeing a cranberry harvest, but they have a great little store. They'll give you history. They have bring in entertainments and food trucks and they have different events. You can lease this space, but it's being able to just experience. And they do have a weekend every fall that you can actually don your waders and get in.
Oh, wow. Okay.
Take a picture with the family. Yeah. That's awesome.
They did if you, you go to their Facebook page, I think there are a lot of people who have posted, obviously it's a Christmas card..
Right? Yeah.
Opportunity for a lot of people so...
Now I would imagine this is also a family business
That is a family business and they're all hands on deck too, working at the Beagle family and it's really done a wonderful job.
Sounds like a great destination and a little bit of a learning experience there.
Where you can take the family and spend a day, I would assume,
Entertainment on the weekends. Then they have different events, so...
So I think it's rooted in red dot com,
No, rooted in red dot co
Dot co
Dot co.
Thank you for that.
Yeah,
So I mean that will give you all the information that you need to know, but I just think talking about cranberries, it's really a very Wisconsin thing in that there's not many people who necessarily go to the marsh and really understand where it's coming from. So
As with a lot of agricultural food, we don't know where our food comes from, but it's not as though you just drive by and
A cornfield and go on to the ground and say, oh, I wanna go out into the cornfield. Or like, there's a lot of harvest things. But this'll be a perfect way to learn more.
Definitely down on my list of things to do. Again, as we always do this during our podcast. Getting back to our podcast, let's dig a little bit into this cranberry business. So what I'm gathering from this morning's conversation is cranberry farming. And maybe that's not the right phrase, but...
Sure is.
Is it?
You're actually farmers?
What else would you call us?
Right? ? I dunno. Growers, I'm not sure.
Marsh masters,
Marsh masters, .
I dunno, we get wet , but it seems to be so different from your traditional farming. Tell us a little bit more about that. I mean, do you have tractors, do you have trucks, pickups, cars? I mean the equipment's gotta be completely different.
Well it is though. I mean we have some standard equipment, the John Deere tractor kind of thing, but every marsh seems to have their own adaption for their needs. But because it's a smaller industry, there's less than a thousand growers in the country. So it's not as though other bigger companies will make specific because the market isn't there obviously. So there are some unique adaptations that each marsh has, but because it's very specific to culture, acid conditions, lots of sand available water supply. So it's limited as to where it can grow. And that's one thing, it's a perennial crop as I mentioned before, that makes it a little bit unlike a lot of other agricultural crops.
Yeah. Do these individual family cranberry farms end up inventing or creating their own equipment?
Oh, a lot. But there's some wonderful stuff. There's very creative equipment out there and it's always like, have you seen so-and-so's?
Speaker 1:
So do they share their secrets?
You see how they do that? I mean it is, it's a small industry and I think we're blessed to have a good communication and friendships within the industry to kind of see what's the best way. Cuz there's always another way.
Yeah, you can't just go to the implement dealer and buy cranberry equipment, can you? Or.
No,
Not really,
No. No.
Less than a thousand growers in the country. I would imagine There's a lot of ingenuity,
There's a lot of fabrication, a lot of local fabricators will make duplicate things. But yeah.
Is there a national show for cranberry growers even?
There you go.
There's a couple national things, not a show per se...
I'm just thinking of like a lot of other industries larger than that. Go to the national show and that's where all the of vendors show up,
Get your ideas.
Right. And it's like you may have regional,
Right? We have the state growers Association, we have a summer field day and we have winter trade show day. So twice a year the growers can get together and there's round table discussions and that sort of thing. So that's a good opportunity. Massachusetts and New Jersey, they do the...
Oh wow.
Same, same thing. So yes, a lot of growers will go out to other states meetings,
Right, See what's new, fresh.
But as far as the actual trade shows thing, there isn't a national one.
And how they operate on the West coast and on the east coast is different than...
Very different from where and
Right. Yeah. So it's pretty specific regionally.
Well, kind of neat.
One thing that I think of as talking about the growing is you always hear about flooding the marsh.
Yeah. Or frost protection.
Frost protection... So, but is that what that is like the flooding, is that only for frost? Like where does that happen in the process?
Okay, so cranberries, like I mentioned in low lying area, we have a reservoir system in our area. We have a traditional where we gravity feed the water into the beds from the, but when you, like on the weather, you'll have the frost watch or frost bog temperatures or whatever. And during the growing season there's certain temperatures that the plants are susceptible to freezing. So at that point we all have these sensors in the marsh that will call our phone or now they do and we go out and start irrigation pumps to keep vines from freezing or the buds or the berries, whatever.
You do that by flooding them, is that correct?
So frost protection is gonna be for...
Sprinklers.
For sprinklers.
Oh.
If it gets really cold where the sprinklers can't handle it because remember water freezes and thaws at the same temperature. So as long as you keep water running on the vines gonna protect the plant. If it gets too cold that the water is freezes and just the sprinklers aren't going around anymore kind of thing, we'll bring up water. But we'll have done that before. If it's gonna get cold we'll know. So we'll flood for that kind of frost protection. We'll also flood for, let's start in the springtime. So we start for frost protection and then there's a period of time where we can flood for insect control.
Which is a very critical time. You literally drown the insects. It's very effective, it's time consuming, but it's very effective and you have to have a lot of water to do it. But we have a pump back system too. So there's that time when we could flood. Then you get into harvest and then that's, everybody sees where we'll flood the berries, the vines, because the berries are on short stems about half an inch long. And the berries have air pockets in them. So they'll float when you put the water on.
So they'll disconnect themselves from the vine?
No, then we take a break or a harrower and actually some machines have tires on them, they're like racing slicks. Or some people use tracks, rubber tracks on their equipment and then they take drive harrower through or the rake through and it'll knock the berries off the vine. Then you raise the water up higher. So the berries freely float above the vines and then you can corral them to one end, elevate them into a waiting truck and off they go.
So does that rake machine ever actually go in the marsh?
Yeah, it, you drive into it and because whether you're using on certain machines, people use like a slick tire or just want a low psi. It's just,
It's been years since I've been on a marsh.
So what happens happens with the tracks, the vines that about six inches tall. So the track or the tire will go and just lay it down.
And rolls over it.
That was my question.
Lays it down...
Lay it down,
But doesn'tbreak it.
But the rake is in front of it,
So the, the berries have already popped off. So when you get your tire going through on the water, the berries will split. So they don't and they float. So the tires won't go or the tracks won't go over the berries and crush them.
It doesn't break the vine then.
No, it's a very efficient and gentle process.
That's a time when people have to think about cranberry growing. Oh they must grow in water and whatever, but that's just the harvest time when you see them then after harvest and soon here now we will be flooding again for winter protection. And we do that because the bud for next year is in the tip of the vine now. And so you wanna protect that mainly from the wind chills. They're fairly cold tolerant, but it's the wind chill and the drying of the cold. So we encase the vines and the buds in ice all winter. And if you like to ice skate, we have some great ice skating rinks. But
So what happens when that doesn't freeze all winter?
It hasn't happened in
It's low enough and cold.
I mean we always get some ice.
Enough to encase it. I mean we would like to get about 10 inches of ice would be great because we have another cultural practice. And I said earlier that it takes a lot of sand about every three years when ice is on the vines, we'll put about an inch, half an inch to an inch of sand on the ice. So in the spring when the ice melts, the sand goes down, anchors the vine stimulates new root growth and new upright growth. So it's a rejuvenation process. So you wanna have good ice to do that cuz otherwise your tandems are falling through the ice.
You're gonna break through. Right.
So there have been years when we don't have enough ice to support the trucks for sanding. So does it happen? It can happen, right? Going back to global warming, what are we gonna do? Or how are we gonna sand if we don't have ice? There are people who water sand, which is totally different equipment, but we'd have to learn that. So...
It sounds like in this industry you have a really good control over the seasonal processes. I mean everything is set up to do different things and you have control over that. Is there ever a time or a year that you can remember where the weather wasn't in your favor and it affects your...
We'll back up on the control , as much as we would like to control, we have the equipment and we're prepared to do what we need to do and we do what we need to do and can do. But we talk about this all the time. I think we can control about 10% of what goes on . I mean
You can flood, you can take away, you can do this now.
You can do all those things. But when it really comes down to it, it's gonna be a combination of events. 90% of it's gonna be weather related. I mean there's gonna be things that, I mean this year for instance, and this was a regional thing, the fruit was out there, the berries were small, everybody did what they were supposed to do. But it was whatever combination of events happened along blossom season, whether at certain time.
So there is such thing as a bad season and a good season, it can vary.
Well, they're all good.
They're all good. I like your optimism. That's great.
They have to be cuz it's your life, relatively speaking. They're better years than others. But if you're only gonna talk about crop yield, that's only one thing. But there's a lot of other things that can be talked about that good or bad, or..
Yeah. Okay.
Not a lot of control. Only control that we can control. But that's often not what really makes the difference.
Well, let's talk a little bit more about the fruit of your labor. You see what I did there. It's time to enjoy all of this work that you've done and you're drying the cranberries, you're selling 'em, people are just going crazy for your products. Let's talk a little bit more about that. I mean, is there a better time of the year than not to enjoy your products
Specifically? Honestly Cranberry and I will say that every day is a good day.
There we go. . Honestly Cranberry and everybody every day. Let's see, because of just the health benefit to it. I mean, it only takes 15 pieces to get the health benefit of cranberry, which is extraordinary.
When you think the positive effects of oral health, gut health, urinary tract, and it only takes a little, goes a long way. I would encourage people to have their daily dose every day. So, and that's new too, because people aren't expecting that when we talk about fruit or market, do some marketing in January, February, March, when people really aren't thinking cranberry per se. The good news at that time, everybody's thinking about their diet. Well I'm gonna lose weight this year.
Yeah. Yeah.
So they're thinking more about what they're consuming and so that's a pretty positive time for us. But it's like, no, every day is a good day.
So it's not just for Thanksgiving anymore.
Absolutely not . But every day is Thanksgiving too, isn't it?
Yes, true.
We need to be thankful.
Well, I noticed on your website that you have a lot of suggestions out there too. A lot of recipes I believe I saw, and just a lot of nice good pictures of where you can put these cranberries, dried cranberries, salads, you name it.
Yeah. it's just salsas guacamole. Yeah, we like 'em in our guacamole actually. If people put lime in guacamole and you add the cranberries and it's just same kind of thing. But I think because it's a new product, cranberry product out there and people always ask, well, you know, how do I use 'em? What do I do? And it's like, well you time to be creative. And I use them everywhere. I mean, I love 'em sauteed with my Brussels sprouts. I love them. I'll eat that for breakfast. But ,
Right
, you know, But anything from oatmeal to cocktails.
Use your imagination and cranberries because they're so acidic, they're, it's meat tenderizing acid is always a good tenderizer. So people have to learn,
Since it's a dried product, if I'm going to necessarily be cooking with it. Do you necessarily, is there a hydration process? I just was actually at a farmer's market and bought some dried mushrooms.
And like the process to hydrate and things, is that similar with cranberry?
Right. I think a lot of people, if they don't like the real tart, but they want to rehydrate them in a salad dressing before you toss your salad, before you dress a salad to hydrate them. They're people, if they're putting them into muffins or to soak them in orange juice, for instance, before you put them in a muffin to plump them up a little bit. I think it comes to a personal preference. You soak them in bourbon and throw 'em into ...
Well, I guess I think of like as somebody's listening to this and buying Honestly Cranberry and you're saying it's dried,
It's not that dry.
Right. It's edible out of the bag or whatever. It's not a dried, dehydrated product that needs to be hydrated.
Right. No, it's got the mouth feel of a raisin, it's like 20, 22% moisture. So it's not really, really dry. Doesn't suck the saliva out of your mouth.
. Fair enough.
So my takeaway here is we just have to get creative.
Get creative and food, beer, medicine. Medicine, beer, food kind of thing. It goes back to that. And I think there aren't many things out there that are tart. I mean, you think of rhubarb, but then you go to sour like lemons or limes, but there's not a lot of tart. And we do have those taste buds, but they aren't cultivated. But it's a great compliment to a lot of things. I mean, I'll eat, one of my favorite snacks is my daily dose of Honestly Cranberry with one or two dark chocolate covered espresso beans. Oh my goodness. Pop that in and yum.
But did I know that when I was thinking of all this that wasn't in my business plan
, it's now .
So I'm gonna be counting these out and 15 of them is all I need.
Well, yes, and it is.
And 20 will be better
15 and one ounce. We sell retail bags, one ounce and three ounce and then one ounce bag. There's 10 daily doses and then a three ounce bag. There's 30 daily doses, so
That's easy.
We try to give the customer what they want now.
There we go. Come back to that.
Here we go again. Yeah.
I think all of our listeners should visit your website and Honestly Cranberry dot com, there's a lot of great ideas out there. I love your website and I spent a lot of time on it.
Thank you. Appreciate that. Anything we can do to make it better, we're always open to suggestions too.
Well this will definitely top our list of the tastiest podcast ever. .
Thank you so much, Mary of Honestly Cranberry for joining us on our All About the Car podcast.
Thanks for having me here. It's been my pleasure.
And you're welcome back anytime.
Okay, thank you.
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