On 11/25/08 5:32 PM, “s***.p******@yahoo.com” wrote:I did find your website and although that may be what I am thinking I have nothing to gain by saying either way. If you think writing this stuff helps you sell then good luck.

LOL! Hey look..ya found me! Well yes, in fact writing this stuff *DOES* help me sell kettle corn. Did you notice that I’m the top non-sponsored link on Google for the keyword “kettle corn”? Or did you search for “Fenway Park kettle corn”?

[after checking with Google and typing in “Fenway Park kettle corn”]

Doh!! I show up at the top, right after the company that makes your popper. Your Palumbo Kettle Corn, right? Down near the middle of the page.

The next time you are at Sam’s club have a look at the ingredients label on the “vegetable oil”. You can type so I assume you can read- it says 100% soy.

Aaahhh…OK. I guess soy oil is more appetizing than vegetable oil.

After selling over 45,000 bags at Fenway this year and another 20,000 - 30,000 at our other events/ locations I tend not to concern myself with what other people think. Happy Popping.

Now…if you’re not concerned what others or what *I* think, then why did you send this email?

[going back and re-reading what I wrote in the blog]

Now, the comment “I wouldn’t feed this stuff to the squirrels that come to my porch” was referring to the Popcorn Indiana crap, right? I hope we both can agree on that.

I’ve tried making kettle corn with the oil you’re using. *In my opinion*, it isn’t as good as corn oil. It certainly costs less. I’m sure some drunk in the bleachers would never know the difference.

I also thought your popper wasn’t making kettle corn as fluffy as I like. *In my opinion* I’m sure the Boston fire department would have something to say if you had upped the temperature with propane.

In fact, I’m jealous that your sales numbers kick my ass *AND* you got other people to make the stuff (like as dope, I personally make every bag that I’ve sold) I think you’ve got a great operation. If I see you at SAM’s club again, I’ll make it a point to hide behind the wide screen TV’s.

Update: 11/27/08 - Steve wrote back! Here’s what he had to say. (He seems like a good guy about all this.)

The reason I responded to your comments was, as you noted, I actually met you.  If you check on the web for blogs and other comments, you can find and endless amount of “stuff”. Yours was the first that I read from someone I actually knew or met which is why I decided to write.

I agree about the Indiana Kettle Korn (Dale and Thomas). It is a company that has way too much money and is using it to push their way around.  Good for them.  It is obviously working for them as they sell despite of their quality. At least there is still room for guys like us.

You are right about the temp. Being indoors, I had no option at Fenway. Electric was the only way they would let us go. You have to admit- the bat was a pretty clever idea…

We get, like I am sure you do, some people that want the kettle korn more salty, some want more sugar, some less… we stuck with what works.  The whole Fenway experience helps sell anything, not that I think we put out a bad product.

This was all in good fun. I have thick skin and do not get exited about what other people think (as I mentioned). Being at Fenway for the last 3 years has been fantastic. Our contract ended at the end of last season. We will see what the future brings. Good luck with your business and if you do see me again at Sams, you should hide…. kidding. It would be nice to say hello again after having this exchange.

Good luck.

Our big gig this week was The Fall Festival at the Old Manse in Concord, MA. It was a Saturday gig, first time they’ve held it, so who knew what was going to happen. As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, I thought Joni was a health department official looking to shake us down out at our Framingham location when she courted us to make an appearance.

The significance of The Old Manse is that it’s located next to the Old North Bridge which was the location of the start of the Revolutionary War. Velma has more details in the video. Wadda ya know, another New England event with people dressed up in period costumes! It’s almost like us Yankees normally dress like this.

I didn’t realize that buses of tourists would be pulling up and dumping loads of foreigners amongst our midst. (Many were disappointed that we weren’t selling corn on the cob, boiled right in a kettle. Jeez.) Who knew there were that many people interested in a look-a-like bridge with only rock walls and trees to see. There seemed to be many British tourists coming through. I wonder if they were thinking, “Damn, if only our soldiers kicked their asses back then, this could’ve still been OURS.”

Back at the Framingham Farmers Market this week, we crossed paths with Robert McCarthy and Heather Kent of Castle Kettle Corn in Oregon. They had sent me an email a couple of months ago saying they loved this site and had  all sort of stories to tell, then never really told them - until now. They had some fascinating things to say about popping in Mexico and how they managed to pull it off. They were doing something like our Florida trip, pop some of the time and enjoy the rest of the time. I guess they’ll be giving me updates as they go along and hopefully I’ll be posting them here. Here’s a video of them popping at the Olympic Trials and at the San Francisco Summer of Love 40th Anniversary.

Velma and I went to Boston’s Fenway Park not to see the Red Sox, but their triple A affiliate the Pawsox at the Futures of Fenway day this week. I heard that they sell kettle corn at Fenway Park and I finally found it, behind the bleacher section in the Big Concourse food area. A bunch of people had said that it’s really good, but it’s not. Lemme explain:

First, the guy is stirring the kettle with a baseball bat. At first glance this is cool and obviously ties in with the whole baseball park theme.  But if you want to properly mix the oil and sugar together while it’s heating, you need something with a little more “push”. Also, the guy was just stirring it with one hand while standing behind a screen.

Second, their sign said they use a mix of soybean oil and corn oil but they’re using vegetable oil as you can see in the photo. I’ve tested this particular oil and have come to conclusion that it’s not as tasty as regular corn oil. Of course it’s a lot cheaper than corn oil, but what do they care?

Third, their kettle temperature isn’t hot enough to make the popcorn really explode and fluff up enough to our taste. You can tell this by how the kettle corn looks and feels. I’ve tried making kettle corn with an industrial electric popper and it had the same texture to it. Not having enough heat makes the corn come out like movie style popcorn, crunchy but not fluffy. This is why the guy was able to make kettle corn with one hand while hiding behind a screen. He’s SLOWLY cooking it so nothing burns.

They were using the same brand of popcorn (Act II) and sugar (Domino) as we use. You would figure it would taste pretty much the same, but alas…it doesn’t. Still, the other option at Fenway was to buy the pre-packaged Popcorn Indiana crap. Did I mention that I wouldn’t even feed that stuff to the squirrels that come to my porch?

We are now the victims of our own success. We just had a record day at the Springfield farmers’ market. The days are now turning into a grind and we no longer have time to chat with each other or interact with the customers or other vendors. We just spend 5 hours constantly stirring, popping, scooping, sealing and selling.

We went through 10 jugs of oil. Each 1 gallon jug of oil produces 5 batches or kettlefuls of kettle corn. Approx total for the day: 50 “loads” of kettle corn.  That’s about 1 batch every 6 minutes for 5 hours straight.  I know I was popping as hard as I could for the first 2 hours and Steve was going nuts bagging the stuff. This easily beats the best day we had at the Brimfield Antique Show where we paid more than $300 EACH DAY to have the privilege of popping there.

I recently got email from someone who makes kettle corn at the huge Hershey Amusement Park in Pennsylvania.  They were wondering why I wore so much protective gear when I pop, because their kettle doesn’t get hot enough to send second degree burn causing little missiles at them. They guy said he doesn’t even wear a face mask.  (I would bet good money that his kettle corn tastes a lot like the kettle corn at Fenway Park.) He also mentioned that they do about 50 loads of kettle corn a day at their busiest spot. This was news to me, since that’s what I’m doing now at a little farmers’ market in Springfield.  Boy do I need to come up with a motorized cover to keep up with demand and keep myself out of the heat.

I just went back and took a look at our first blog entry.  We first did this Springfield spot almost 3 years ago and we had sold only 50 bags that first day.  Who knew it would come to this?

On the other end of the spectrum, our other location in Framingham got pretty much rained out this week. Veggies do fine in a rainstorm, but water and popcorn really don’t mix well. So if anyone is doing the numbers in their head and thinking they can make a killing selling kettle corn, make sure you add in rain days where profits almost drop to zero.  Did I mention it sucks to be breaking down and loading up a trailer and getting drenched in the rain AFTER you’ve made no money?

8/11/08 Update:

So Velma and I are going into Sam’s Club to get our supplies for the week.  We see this guy loading up his pickup truck with bags of popcorn, sugar and salt.  I asked him if he’s doing kettle corn and he told me that his main location is at Fenway Park!  We chat for a while and he says that he has the same set up at Harvard Stadium. I explain that we do quite well with farmers markets in this area, but fail to mention this website to him. Hopefully he won’t find this website and find out that we’re kettle corn back-stabbing assholes.