ICD16

Ice Cream Diaries - 16 May 23, 2005

Hello. What can I get for you today? Sorry, force of habit. Hope all is well in your world. As for things in the ice cream world, that's what I'll be sharing with you over the next ten or fifteen minutes of your work day. Things are going well in the land of two-fold vanilla, sugar cones, and all good things that fit into a batch freezer. As you may have read in my dalliance in blog format, I'm sticking with what got me here, a good old-fashioned email. The blog looked good on virtual paper, but like an Easter bunny in a blender, it just didn't feel right. As you can see though, I am bringing one small technical innovation to this latest edition. Now that you're here, feel free to peruse the archives. Maybe it's late and you can't sleep. If going here is bad for your ability to read on company time, just let me know and I'll include the text in an email.

Got a nice taste of summer action during that mini heat wave we had here in the Northeast back in early April. It hit the mid-80's for a few days, and wow, the place was jumping. Had a series of record days, even better than my best days last summer. Definitely a good sign. It seems like word is out, and with some good weather, especially on weekends (the past 4 have brought rain), things are setting up to be a very good summer. My April tub total (batches of ice cream made) was on a par with last July, gotta like that. The May weather has been cooler, which has given me a bit of a chance to catch up and staff up for the '05 season. Anchoring the team is Liz. She's been working one day a week through the off-season. She graduates from WillistonAcademy next week and after a summer of scoopin' and grinnin', will take her notebooks and pencil box to Tufts University. In addition to scooping a mean cone, she is wicked smaat. Back from her freshman year at Bentley College is Allison, another hard worker and smaatey. She seems to be the most vulnerable to teasing however. I think it goes back to last summer when, after she ate a single spoonful of the Bailey's ice cream, we had her convinced she was drunk. When she complained of a headache later that night, we assured her it was just a hangover. This year, Liz and I had concocted a plan that when she came back we would tell her she had to wear a paper ice cream hat and whenever a customer asked, 'How are you?', she would have to reply, 'I'm Mt. Tom's terrific!' She didn't buy that one, but she doesn't go back to school until September. New to the team this year is Michaela, younger sister to my tall blonde neighbor. A little neighbortism isn't a bad thing. She's really nice and seems to be getting more comfortable behind the scoop. She's almost too sweet though (doesn't seem possible for a candy store I suppose). During one of her first shifts, she said, 'I love it when someone puts a dollar in the tip cup. I just want to hug them!' And at Cold Stone, you only get a song and a jig for a dollar tip...

Speaking of neighbors, lots of changes going on upstairs. Looks like by mid-summer, I'm going to be senior person and not just chronologically. Our good friend Lucky, the late night mountain biking stair-devil, moved to a place a few blocks away, with a real kitchen, and a shower that's big enough to pick up the soap in (not sure I'm completely comfortable with both the analogy and ending in a preposition). Rachel is bound for Hot-and-Humid-lanta. Eli heads back to Cally (not to be confused with Calli my gassy cat) with a few new woodworking skills and memories of life in New England. Which leaves me, Alexis, and 3 law students from Western New England College (I won't mention their names so they don't sue me when they graduate). With all this change, I don't know what to expect this summer in the new WNEC law school dorm. If you remember, most nights last summer I locked up shop to find the 38 Cottage gang toasting the high life, mud wrestling, and yucking it up in the backyard. I'm not sure what I will walk out to this summer. Needless to say, it's been a great crew, and I know it won?t be quite the same. There is one thing that won't change though. That unmistakable potpourri of aromas - donuts cooking in the bakery, ice cream sandwich brownies baking and last night's Sloppy Joes in my apt, and a plethora of litter boxes. (There are almost as many cats as tenants.) Try buying that in the aromatherapy section of Crate and Barrel.

Now that I've got you hankerin' for a Sloppy Joe, perhaps it's time to quench your hunger with some ice cream and candy talk. Been having some fun in the ice cream kitchen. Started rotating in some of the usual suspects - bubble gum, strawberry cheesecake, banana, almond joy, and the like. I've also been working the whole cake batter theme. I've had yellow cake batter ice cream for a few months now, and it's been the hottest thing since forensic TV shows. I was threatened a few times that if I didn't move it from the 'specials' side of the board to the 'regular' flavors, I risked bodily harm. I've gotten a few similar threats with the Java Crunch (in case you missed last month's class, JC is French Roast coffee with chocolate-covered espresso beans), but I think I can hold them off with a good cup of Indigo Joe or 2. In any event, I've been experimenting with variations on the cake batter theme. I tried a chocolate cake batter (I first named it Devil's Food, but it didn't sell at all. A quick name change made all the difference, just like John Cougar). My latest is Angel Food cake batter. Angel food cake was my pastry of choice as a kid, so I looked forward to trying this one. Good stuff although not as popular with the Goth crowd. Next on my list is brownie mix, then perhaps carrot cake batter. I may just work through Betty Crocker's entire lineup before I'm done.

Not limiting myself to cake batters, I've got a few new ones in the on-deck circle. Tropical Amaretto - with pineapple and shredded coconut. Turtle cheesecake - with caramel, chocolate chips, and cashews. Strawberry shortcake. Caramel Pretzel - a Chubby Hubby knockoff. Chocolate Festival - chocolate with chocolate toffee, almonds, and chips. Have I enticed you to come visit yet?

I've started making Sorbet too. The mango was a sleeper hit. Still trying to perfect the raspberry, but the lemon seems to be doing the job in the meantime. I made the first couple batches with a flavoring sample, but when I ordered a full gallon, it came 'with color'. A lot of color. You need sunglasses to scoop it out of the white tub. Tempted to call it 'Yellow Snow', but I'm thinking that may not encourage sales.

Another new line just added to the menu board is smoothies. Took a few batches to perfect the recipe, but I think I've got it down. A scoop of vanilla fro-yo seems to be the key. They've definitely been a hit, and I think as word gets out on them, that blender should be crunching all day.

If you wander over to the candy aisle, you'll see I've added some interesting new jars. Chocolate-covered Almonds, chocolate-covered sunflower seeds, gummy peachy penguins, candy lipstick, whistle pops. Jill, my candy rep, has always pushed the 'novelty items', and until recently, I've resisted her lucky charms. She and her New Jersey accent caught me in a weak moment and before I could say Gummy Neon Sneakers, I had ordered a box of Pop Rocks Experiment kits and a tray of Gummy worm planters that grow Chia pet hair. Wouldn't you know, they sold like hotcakes. So now it's a new novelty every week. This week it's candy ice cream cones and Gummy Ear Wax (a shrunken plastic head that squirts candy out of its ears when you squeeze it). Ok, so maybe those don't entice you to visit quite as much as the turtle cheesecake.

Recently added some color to the Mt.Tom's uniform. Instead of the all white Tee, they're spiced up a bit - blue outline with a whitecap. Green, canyon red (or Black Raspberry as I like to call it), and Pretty in Pink. Here's me looking very dorky in the Black Razz. Why am I telling you this? Well, I thought since now the t-shirts aren't just a boring white, you might actually be interested in sporting one to your next trip to the town landfill. So here's the deal, $13.95 each, that includes bagging it up and shipping it to your doorstep. I'm not exactly sure how much shipping will be, but my guess is my cost of the shirt plus shipping will be close to that total, maybe with some pocket change to spare. Anything left after covering my costs will go straight into the 'Jimmies Fund'. In case you're not familiar with that, I donate all the proceeds from Jimmies and Sprinkles sales to my favorite charity, the Big Brother Big Sister program. I'll even throw in a few of my new Mt.Tom's stickers. But wait there's more! If you call in the next 20 minutes...

But seriously, if you are interesting in a Tee or two, just drop me an email. Or come by (I sell them in the shop for $9.95.) Cool.

Flashbacks of the Capo's basement cleanout. You remember last summer when that coffee shop up the street went belly up. I was able to gain from their demise in the form of a nice chest freezer, some toys, and a bunch of cups. Well, had a repeat performance last week when that funky, new rice pudding place 'Rice n' Easy' in Northampton went out of biz. Well, seems one cannot pay all the bills on a downtown Northampton location by just selling rice pudding and a few art books. Interesting idea, and I heard it was a good product, albeit a narrow niche. I don't know all the details, my buddy Cathy was manager there for their last few months, but my armchair quarterback assessment is their overhead was just too high. You could argue it was a silly idea, but it was a nice space, and I'm told that rice pudding places in NYC have lines out the door. Perhaps he could have made it work with a little more time, but it seems he wasn't willing to work behind the counter or even be involved in day-to-day operations. As a result, he hired a manager and had two people working there at all times, big labor costs to go with the big rent. Translation, he had to sell a crazy amount of rice puddings to just break even. The guy had some money from the sale of previous businesses, which, ala the high tech startup days of the late 90's, perhaps was the kiss of death. I believe that even if you have it, you need to run it like you don't. Don't cut corners, but it is all about cash flow. Also, you need to be married to it, at least in the beginning. Call it your 'baby', because you truly are nurturing something until it no longer spits up on your shoulder and can stand on its own feet.

As you know, Easthampton is full of artists and artisans. Many of the old mills in town have been converted into cool and funky studios, open to the public just twice a year. It's called 'Open Studios', and its coming up, June 4th weekend. Coinciding with this event is what's called the Windows Project, where local businesses volunteer their windows to display local artists' work. Mine has an amazing stained glass mosaic from - Mo'sArt. And I will be displaying a few of my 'JimArt' photographs in the HairSpace window, a hair salon a block east of me on Cottage Street. Looking forward to that, and perhaps a haircut while I'm there.

Scooped my second wedding a few weekends ago. A young Russian couple had a reception for 120 in the back of the EasthamptonCommunityChurch. I set up my little sundae bar roadshow in the back and scooped away until all the ice cream was gone or melted. The happy couple stopped in the other day, just back from their honeymoon. As they paid their balance, he says 'the ice cream was the best part of the wedding'. Not exactly sure how she felt about that, but I enjoyed the compliment.

I hope by now you're feeling satiated with ice cream innuendo, and I'm guessing you only still hanging around to find out what RB Rudy and the gang have been up to. Is he still in lockdown? Has he moved on to more dangerous forms of mind-altering mock-tails? And has Reej quit the paper route and begun his own acne-laden spiral of post-pubescent self-destruction? You'll be relieved to know that Reej is fine. Keeping himself busy with the route. In fact, he's added an extra 20 houses. Seems he's courting two young lasses and needs the extra scratch to soda and dine them. It's a slippery slope though. I've seen him in twice in one day a couple times, and he always makes me pretend it's the first time I've seen him. During that second visit of the day, it's fun to watch him feign hungry. Come to think of it, he can eat as much as a small Russian wedding, so he probably is hungry. One day, he was sitting at the counter with girl Becky, when he spies Betsy across the street and approaching rapidly. Being quick on his feet, Reej grabs Becky and shuttles her towards the back exit, explaining calmly that he wants to show her his brother's latest graffiti work on the back wall. By the way, if you're wondering what 'Scram Lumpy' means, it's actually the name of Rudy's new Goth rock group. Yes, it's true, Rudy's put a little band together. They're rehearsing in his folks' old barn. Ma and Pa Rudy aren't crazy about the noise, but they do like that they can keep him in their sights from the living room window, which they can see just past their TV as they watch Blue Collar TV or Cops. Rudy was in the shop recently and was animatedly telling me about his new band. I asked who his influences were, and in what almost sounded like a British accent, replied. 'I have many, Jimbo. My influences and varied and eclectic, but I have to say 'The Flesh Eating Foundation', 'Hot Buttered Elves', 'Gothic Lolita', and the 'Cadavers' speak to me the loudest. Have you heard that song, 'Be my Valentine or Die', by Bad Guy Blake? From the Devil to my ears. It rocks my world, man.' I said I'd heard of it, but I thought that it was Mariah Carey. He just gave me that, 'grown ups are so uncool' look and went back to his float.

Which reminds me, you need to get back to your work, and I suppose so do I. As always, thanks for listening. Until next time...

Your bud,

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Jim