Velma spotted this segment on kettle corn last night. Thought I’d toss it up here so everyone could see it. Here’s what I thought:

The cooker looks certainly well built. (I’d say even better than my North Bend. It’s by the Ye Old Kettle Cooker guys.) I’m not crazy about the big brass bucket concept. I certainly LOOKS nice. I’ve never used one, but from what I can tell, you’re dumping very hot kettle corn on top of ready to bag kettle corn. With the North Bend trough, you can push the cooler stuff down and away from the popper and bag it while you’re dumping the hot stuff at the other end. I’ve considered using an even bigger one, that way you can easily have two people bagging while you’re popping.

What the hell gives with that foot pedal whistle? Popping a load of kettle corn already makes a ton of racket, why would you need to make even MORE noise after all that?  Steve was doing a similair thing with a pair of scoops. He would bang them together and scream KETTLE CORN after a fresh load. I had to throw scalding corn oil on him to make him stop.

I make these sort of lifestyle video segments during my other job. I was snickering to myself when they showed those two jamokes eating the stuff and giving their feedback. They’re probably the sound guy and an assistant producer. You can tell they weren’t actually selling the stuff at an event, but just dragged a popper and a tent out into the parking lot for demonstration purposes only.

Coming soon: The “How To Start Your Own Kettle Corn Business” online training course! I’ve been researching online affiliate marketing, and I think we’re qualified to make a “how to” guide on kettle corn. With affiliate marketing, YOU can sell this course on your website and you’ll basically get half of the proceeds! More on this to come.

Other news: OK, we’re getting tons of orders online for the Christmas rush and we’re popping a fresh round every time we get about 10 orders. Normally we get a lousy 2 orders a week during the rest of the year, so it’s weird getting so much demand all at once. This happened last year too. Once Christmas is over, we’ll stopping and getting ready for:

The Hawaiian trip for the month of February! As you might’ve seen last year, we did a month long tour of Florida, attempting to make kettle corn for the geriatric crowd. This time we won’t be popping kettle corn in Hawaii, but checking out the farmers markets out there and doing a few reports about the possibilities. More on this in the next post.

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.