I’ve taken on a task many have done before and that is the list. I can construct a long-winded multiple paragraph exposition, a couple pages perhaps, but why? I can break it down as quick as I can and today, May 9th, this is why I like this place. So if you agree, rooty toot toot and let’s share some chow chow. If you don’t, jump on facebook or email and tell us all about it, cause no one likes a grumbly blog hater.  Now the real task will be to contain it to four items, yes four. Here goes:

1. Roadside Stands

That’s right the honesty box is a real thing. If you take more than what you paid for, you will answer to a nine year old Amish boy and his 10 brothers and sisters. Although  that may sound like the beginning to a horror film, they’re even less vitriolic than they are violent. Still, a crop of Amish kids is not what you want haunting your dreams. If you’re lucky enough to purchase your produce from an actual person at a place like Central Market in downtown Lancaster (which can be hit or miss with “local” produce), learn his name. Find out how long he’s been doing it and why he’s making change at age 10. You’re not nosey, you’re deepening and enriching your relationship with our beautiful county. The work that families with roadside stands do is the reason you come here or live here anyway. This warm weather has the spinach, rhubarb and lettuce out early so start cooking. And say thank you darn it!

2. Local Beers

This is a blog for Kitchen Kettle; a spot espousing family values, early closing hours and a day of rest so we can all be with our loved ones. So, really the last place you’d think to encourage beer drinking; but here I go. Beer is a sign of culture; a sign of creativity, community, and a lot of times youthful enthusiasm for a good time. Growing up here, I didn’t see beer as a real sign of OUR culture, but with over  250 craft brewery openings and only 37 closings last year, pushing the total number of breweries in the United States to over 2000, Lancaster hardly stood a fighting chance. To be fair though, I’m saying hit the big red barn on 340 if not a couple times, then just once to gander at the new Rumspringa Brewery on the 2^nd floor. Although they started out just as an outlet for Mt. Hope Winery, these fine Renaissance Faire folks now have a beautiful, high-ceilinged tasting room that is neither derelict bar nor hokey gift shop. The natural light, and wood floors and countertops make it a tasting room in its purest form. It’s got a pretty gnarly and yet awesome metal sculpture behind the bar, goofy looking glass growlers for take-out beer, and the times I’ve been there, it still seems like a “best-kept-secret” so you can enjoy your beer and not hear the “I wanna see the A-mish, where are they!” questions. As you leave, make sure you find out what it actually means to “sow your wild oats”, cause I’m still baffled.

3. Knit in Public Day

Fear them.

This one’s easy because it’s really the only way to follow up a post about the sinful brew in Lancaster County. Don’t relax too quickly though, it’s easy to be deceived by talk of lawn chairs, lemonade and whoopie pies. Knitters are a firey bunch driven by a desire to bring handcrafts as something bigger than a hobby…and they have needles. I interviewed a few ladies during one of Wendy Ellis’s gatherings at Lancaster Yarn Shop and couldn’t believe how far they’d traveled, how boastful they were of their creations and yet also gaul-darned agreeable and community driven they were. They’re a lot like craft beer drinkers but instead of goofy facial hair and ironic t-shirts, they’ve got lawn chairs, their next three meals in Tupperware and plenty to “stitch n’ bitch” (to use some of the vernacular).  Come by Wendy’s crew on June 9^th at LYS and you can find out if you’re ready to join the global movement driven by needles and some furious discussion about sweaters and the fact that knitters have an international holiday.

4. Rhubarb Festival

The powers that be would really prefer this be the only thing we write about given the time of year, but I come to you all with news.  As a member of the founding family of Kitchen Kettle and someone who had rhubarb and gingerbread cookies shoved in my hands and told to smile for festival pictures, I’m not sure how I feel about my recent discovery so I’ll just say it . In 2008, the Minnesota Legislature recognized Lanesboro as the Rhubarb Capital of Minnesota. I have now coasted past the 30 minute mark of my time spent on the website for those folks in Lanesboro, and I realize the last thing a creative person should do is compare, but I will tip my cap and give ‘em a thumbs up. Minnesota’s got their following, but we will not be outdone!  We’ve got a strong foundation for greatness here in Lancaster and the archives around here show Mike, Joanne and Jim smearing rhubarb pie on their faces to start it off right. This year’s call ahead numbers on buses and group tours are already out of the ballpark, so let’s go.

1.  We’ve got a dessert baking contest and all the entries are up for grabs after judging. Sooo, I have my lunch for the day!

2. We’ve got defending champion Walter who’s no slouch for the rematch in the world’s only Rhubarb car derby. He may be 9 years old, but I imagine he’s got one of those knitters in his family, cause he’s a fierce competitor.

3. Most of our lodging rooms have been booked for this weekend for almost two years, so something’s most definitely up in the town of Intercourse for the middle of May. Parades, rhubarb whoopie pies, and the best darn parking lot attendants in the county. Where else do you get a personal escort to your spot?  Let’s pack this place and honor the first brave crop of the spring season: rhubarb!

The past six months have been an experience for me.  I’ve missed being at Kitchen Kettle Village as much as I used to be.

To begin with, I managed to get a strong case of the shingles in my eye last September and the area is still tender.  I suggest that you avoid that if at all possible.

After the first of the year, I began to prepare for a four step surgical process at Hershey Medical Center to cure the Essential Tremors in my head and hands which my dear mother and grandmother passed on to me.  The procedure has been successfully done for almost 20 years and is called deep brain stimulation.  I have now been hooked up to an implanted battery in my chest and can stop spilling my soup and drinks.  The handwriting should improve and my head will slow down considerably.  WOW!  The surgeon, nurses and daughters were wonderful and my son even brought me gourmet chicken salad at home each week for dinner.

It was so good to be back greeting old friends and co-workers at Kitchen Kettle yesterday.  The gang has made wonderful plans for celebrations of food, music and fun so you will want to look us up on the website and perhaps spend the night in one of our 17 lovely rooms at the Inn.  We will greet you every day but Sunday.

Have you ever heard so much about Easter Egg Hunts as you did this year?  Colorado Springs apparently cancelled a big one because the parents couldn’t behave.  I know of one here in Lancaster County that did the same thing for the same reason last year.

We had our fourth Easter Egg Hunt at Kitchen Kettle Village in Intercourse, PA last week.  And although we haven’t quite gotten to the point of cancelling it, we are revamping our approach dramatically next year.

My daughter asked me the other day where the idea of Easter eggs came from anyway.  I had no idea and I certainly wasn’t able to make a connection to Christ’s resurrection and eggs.  So if you know the origin of the idea, please let me know.

In the meantime, it was a beautiful day, the Hunt was free and Kitchen Kettle Village is a great place for kids and families to have fun.  So it stands to reason that lots of people would come for the Egg Hunt.  We had 7,000 eggs – that’s right, 7,000 eggs.  Our friends from PAI, a group that supports mentally challenged adults  in Lancaster, came twice a week all winter long to fill the eggs with candy, coupons, stickers, and all things sweet so the children would find a prize inside the ones they collected.  Although I don’t know this for sure, my guess would be there were 500 people here – that’s aboaut 10 eggs/person and lots of those people were not children.  Shouldn’t that be enough to have your share of eggs?

Let’s just say that lots of people had a great time, got some fun Easter eggs  and three people found the golden eggs.  We did hear from people who were kind enough to let us know the Egg Hunt didn’t meet their expectations.  And we learned a lot from them -  the area we have available to put the eggs is too small; the PA system is not adequate to hear instructions; there should be a limit to the number of eggs each child can get;  very helpful suggestions for next year.

So we took all those suggestions and decided next year the Easter Egg Hunt will be a very special, private affair for those families who make reservations for Breakfast with Yummie and the Easter Bunny.  That way we can make the Hunt a more typical, special Kitchen Kettle experience.  Everyone will get their share of the eggs, our small area to find them will not be so crowded and it will be part of a total fun mealtime in the Kettle Cafe.  Maybe we’ll even take a tip from the White House and use wooden spoons to roll Easter eggs rather than just gather them.

Thanks to all of you who braved the crowds to hunt Easter eggs.  Please accept our sincere apolgoies if your child’s Easter experience was not what you wanted it to be and our gratefulness if it was.  Get your reservations in soon for next year’s breakfast.  We were sold out this year two weeks ahead of time!

It is amusing to be reminded of how my life has been affected by the word “Preserve” – Save, Maintain or Conserve. My father taught us to say the little jingle “save up your pennies and pile up your rocks” at a very young age. My children still get annoyed at my maintaining the leftovers in my refrigerator. My husband chose to start a business which involved my Mothers training about conserving fruits & vegetables to be canned and we have sold them to visitors from all over the world.

This came up because I am in the process of watching, editing and throwing away old films and videos of the activities of the past 60 years at Kitchen Kettle Village. It is really a great joy but somewhat embarrassing to see the material. Those little films were transferred – often repeatedly – to VCR tapes. Technology has moved on and now it is necessary to play them only on CD. Surely they will be properly labeled this time. I was a little busy in the past.

Best of all, they record the many happy personalities and inspiring experiences of a lifetime. They are great reminders of the festivals, the training sessions, the celebrations. Who knows? When they are completed, someone might even want to watch them.

-Pat Burnley

Selling your goods wholesale to me almost seems like a tech startup selling to google. Someone else likes your stuff so much, they’ll sell it for you! Straight victory, right? There’s no way it’s that simple; it can’t be. See I like to believe things are that easy, but I can remember working at Pike Place Fish Market and there was always talk of this lost-child known as “the wholesale deal in Bellevue”.  No one wanted to revisit that and no one wanted to talk about why it didn’t work out. Although we had a great brand that everyone wanted to take part in, it’s a tough game you see, this wholesale. You’re selling your stuff but you’re kind of not because it’s not your service and it’s not your face directly talking about how great it is (which we’ll all tell you is our bread and butter). You’re dealing in cases, not jars; pallets and not a wagon-full to the car. There’s some serious volume here.

Well in late 2011, Kitchen Kettle Foods decided it was time to beef up our “off-campus” brand and really tell the world what we make and how wonderful it can be. Enter Brett Trout. Brett has taken the wholesale intentions to new heights and I wanted to have him tell you about his excitement. Don’t be fooled by the pot of coffee he consumes before noon, he really is a man of natural energy and excitement. With a former life as a traveling musician, Brett has seen the country and now wants to spread the word and simple pleasures of Kitchen Kettle as far as he can.

How long have you been here?

I have been here for a little over 7 months!

Tell us how you came to working here…what brought you to your job?

Well, My wife Shelby Trout has been playing an active role in the Jelly Room retail staff and she fell in love with the culture and vision of Kitchen Kettle. Prior to this, I was a part of a large corporation and was finding that they didn’t have their mission, values and culture in line… I knew there was somewhere out there that I would fall in love with and help expand. Kitchen Kettle has been a great fit.

Talk a little about how you’ve shaped the wholesale department into something of your own

For my first few months here I was taking on the role of a Mail Order Representative. This was a perfect opportunity to start getting a feel for who Kitchen Kettle truly is and who we serve. All the while, I was soaking in our processes and brainstorming ways to streamline, grow and develop everything we do. When the new year hit, we really put things in high gear. We developed a new office literally in the middle of our operation (some call it a warehouse, I see it as being dead center!). This was a strategic way to allow me more face-time with our wholesale accounts and to help with our overall operations. We are taking on a much more detailed sales approach and are very excited about the future!

Where can people find KKV products now that they couldn’t before?

This is a question with an answer that changes weekly. We haven’t done any real outside sales reach in the past as a company; we’ve kind of waited for the phone to ring. But we’ve made some real progress on a rather ambitious list that I have going. As of now we are on the shelves of virtually every family owned market (which is a collection of grocery stores in central Pennsylvania) and a rather large grocery chain here called Stauffer’s of Kissel Hill! You will also find us at ”Mom and Pop” shops, farmers markets and of course all the existing clients that we had before I came on board. If you have questions about specific areas, feel free to give me a call (717)-768-2720.

Tell us about the Fancy Food Show in DC

The FFS is only open to members of the NASFT (National Association of Specialty Food Trade), an elite group of companies that cater to the specialty food market. We are honored to take membership as of this year! The FFS allows members to showcase their product offering to potential buyers in a convention “Trade Show” setting. This year I will head there along with long-time Kitchen Kettle team member Kim Gentry. We are expecting to see 40-50,000 people visit the show and I swear I will get every single one of ‘em to try our mango salsa. That stuff is great and I think we’d do well to put that around more places in this country.

What do you hear from vendors that’s new and exciting for KKV?

Well, spring came early this year. With that, we have been putting an emphasis on our salsa line. It’s been very exciting to offer salsa to our existing accounts in an effort to expand their product line; even more exciting is that most of them are accepting our offer!

Where do you see it going from here?

We are very hopeful and confident in the future of the Wholesale department. Being the Captain of the offsite sales department, I am able to bring a set of fresh eyes, ideas and techniques to the table. I believe this is going to be the best year wholesale has had in a long time…  And I plan to top that next year!

I’d like to introduce you to Roger North.  I am lucky enough to be able to work at Kitchen Kettle Village and still play an active role in the Lancaster County hospitality industry while at the same time doing some consulting work with  North Group Consultants.  Roger is the principal in North Group. 

As you can see from the earlier posts in this section of Kettle Talk, corporate culture is a very important concept at Kitchen Kettle Village.  I base a lot of my corporate culture philosophy on conversations I’ve shared wtih Roger.  In fact, I am the colleague to whom he refers in his blog called Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch.

The best way for me to share both Roger’s and my passion for the importance of corporate culture is to share his latest blog post with all of you.  Just click this link to better understand what we think makes Kitchen Kettle Village and Genaurdi’s two peas in a pod – North Group Consultants

I’m going to start off heady here, so brace yourself. Charles Darwin said “It is not the strongest of species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change”. I’m not talking evolution and quotes out of context can be dangerous, but what he said helps me wrap my head a little bit more around this crazy village.

We celebrated our 50^th year not long ago and I can’t tell you how many articles about us have taken the line that we have sustained “slow and steady growth”. After my fingers healed from tearing wallpaper in our old conference room yesterday, I came across polaroids, yes polaroids, of when we had a staircase smack dab in the middle of the Jam & Relish Kitchen floor up to the office. Mike Sensenig, who’s worked here 38 years even stopped and had a moment of “holy cow that was a long time ago!” If you were to suggest a staircase in the middle of a sales floor now, you may just be fired. We started in a garage and now we’re over 40 shops, dining and lodging. In light of Mr. Darwin, I’m not calling us weak or stupid, but we sure as heck have done well to adapt.

Buildings are a real clear sign of growth and easy to gauge where you are and where you were. We do plenty of demolition and construction. What I find to be more of a soft factor around here is the people. I can’t get over how we maintain a culture of committed individuals as we spread our stores farther and farther. In the past, we’ve read books like Good to Great and Built to Last. We even turned the parking lot into a fish market to shake things up for employees. This year, the village leaders will dive into The Happiness Advantage, a book from the Harvard Business Review that will allow us to reframe why we’re here. The heads of this crazy, village snake realize they need the body to move, so empower them we must! We adapt to our growth.

Another way we have adapted is our use of the internet.  I can’t help but picture our marketing department like the Wizard of Oz behind some curtain creating websites, updating statuses on facebook, sending links, checking google analytics, getting contracts for billboards, writing articles, creating mobile websites….all this “high tech” work to maintain kind of the opposite of what’s here. I mean, c’mon the Amish aren’t walking around texting and tagging photos (not that the bishop knows anyway).  It’s not fake, it’s not inauthentic, we’re adapting right? It’s how you reach people in 2012. Even if they are getting to a place that’s famous for it’s simplicity.

The country bumpkin part of me wants to dismiss all this internet jabber but  you have to adapt, or perish right Chuck? The more information that’s out there in the world, the more we can spread our message of country pleasures, good food and quality time with loved ones. When people come to the county, we’ll give them our version of Lancaster. To give a cheesy ending to all this rambling, I’ll say every job has its ups and downs but I consider myself fortunate to work AND be a guest in a place that puts such a premium on cultivating a happy people capable of adapting.

With Valentine’s Day approaching all I can say is forget the flowers & jewelry…and take me away! A tropical island would be great, but I will settle for a weekend getaway somewhere fun! Can someone be sure my husband gets this message?

If you are like me and are longing for a getaway don’t forget about the Inn at Kitchen Kettle Village. No offense, since I work here, it just wouldn’t be a getaway for me to sleep over. Plus, then I would have to see my co-workers and isn’t that really what I am trying to get away from? Just kidding.

We just unveiled some new lodging packages that are very cool! Of course, there is a Valentine’s Day package with flowers, chocolate and dining, but the really interesting ones include: knitting (yes, I did say knitting), cheese and wine! Click here to peruse the newest packages.

So if you need to recharge your batteries consider a getaway to Kitchen Kettle Village. Enjoy the scenic farmland views, great shopping, delicious food and a great night’s sleep in our exceptional lodging rooms. I bet you return home refreshed and ready to take on the world! That’s what I am hoping for with my getaway!

As you can see from our recent posts, it’s wintertime at Kitchen Kettle Village.  Although we have escaped a very cold, snowy season so far, it’s still pretty quiet around here.  We miss the crowds.

Rest assured however, we’re busy getting ready for the 2012 season.  Behind the scenes lots of activity is taking place.  Housecleaning, painting walls and scrubbing floors is happenning eveywhere.  Inventories are being counted in the Gift House, checked against electronic numbers and displays are being torn apart in Yummie’s Toy Box only to emerge with a new angle, a new base and a whole new look.  Menus in the Kling House Restaurant are being re-created which means we get to try all kinds of wonderful foods.  New products in the Jam & Relish Kitchen are being tested, tasted and critiqued.  Lodging rooms at the Inn are being redecorated and one new one is being built.  Leadership retreats are being planned with agendas that always emphasize re-creating guest service, showcasing Lancaster County  and tweaking the experience for our guests at the Village.  Accounting books area being closed for the year and the annual calculation of profits, taxes and cash flow projections for the new year is being checked and re-checked.

As you can see, we’re getting ready for you.  And we promise to be ready any time you stop in – except Sunday of course – with smiles, good homemade food, popular national brands, lodging rooms that  feel like home and plenty of fun for the whole family.

See you soon!

My house is empty. I just finished taking down and putting away all of my Christmas decorations and sent both of my kids back to school.  Now what?

In a move that is not entirely common for me, I actually planned ahead for this day. Despite the fact that I have tons of house projects waiting for me, I figured I’d have lots of empty time when both my kids left home. My husband just started a new hobby last fall, so I thought maybe I should have a hobby, too. I decided I would take up knitting.

I’m not really sure why I picked knitting. I used to knit (a little) when I was in middle school. I was into all kinds of crafty projects then. I’ve been intrigued by the luxurious natural yarns at Lancaster Yarn Shop here at Kitchen Kettle Village, and when I visited the shop to talk with Wendy Ellis, the shopkeeper and knitter extraordinaire, about knitting, I  … well, let’s just say I walked out of there signed up for a class.

Wendy teaching the Absolute Beginner's Class - my first class!

Despite the fact that I felt as if I had five thumbs (number is arbitrary, but the feeling was real) during that first beginner’s class, I actually learned to knit. Wendy and the other knitters in the class were very encouraging (and patient) as we knit, step by step, through a beginner’s scarf project.

My first scarf!

I completed that first scarf – and get compliments every time I wear it! And I took a second class – to knit a cowl. My daughter wanted that one, so I had to knit another one for me, and then there was the one I knit for my son’s girlfriend. So that makes four completed items since mid-December!

What started out as a half-hearted whim to learn a new hobby has turned into an activity I truly enjoy and look forward to doing. I find it relaxing to sit down at night after I’ve spent time working on the current house project (a promise to myself after I delayed putting up Christmas decorations last month because I was too busy knitting!) to work on my current knitting project. I already have patterns selected to knit as Christmas gifts!

My cozy cowl

Tomorrow I’m taking the next step – an intermediate level mitten knitting class from Wendy right here at the Lancaster Yarn Shop in the Village. I’m signed up for another class next month, and just saw a sweater class in March I’d like to take. One class a month sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?