Kiddie Gourmet gets going!

Family and friends who have followed my blog over the past couple of months will know that we are in the process of starting our own business. My entrepreneurial idea is make and sell baby and toddler food. There hasn’t been much movement in the baby food arena in SA and we have very little competition in George! Over the past month or so, Dieter and I have made sample meals and packaged them to help us calculate the cost price of our meals. Why? To help us determine our selling price! We then gave away the samples to friends with little ones, who in turn shared them with other moms, and we’ve had wonderfully positive feedback! Our menu ranges from fruit and veg purees for babies who are being introduced to solid fod to more chunky food for toddlers. We're using the best possible fruit, veg and meat and including a delightful variety of herbs and spices as we convey the message that baby food doesn't need to be bland and boring. In fact, Dieter and I have been suprised by the yummy meals we've turned out. Our favourite meal is chicken and apricot curry which is made with coconut milk and has led us to discovering how to make our own coconut milk that we intend to use in a new product line later in the year. Babies and toddlers have been enjoying our lentil vegetarian pie, beef casserole, baby bolognaise, hake-mash and mushy peas, to name just a few. Next week we plan to try out a mediteranean fish pot, a tomato and onion based fish dish served with rice, hmmmm, yummy! Our motto is 'yummy, healthy baby food'!

3 months ago I visited SEDA, a government organisation set up to assist and support new businesses in SA. Unfortunately I didn’t get the business help I would like to have gotten, the man who has dealt with us knows they can assist financially with marketing and has only gone that route.

We decided that we would wait until this holiday period was over and we’d seen our friends from abroad before we start up and plant our feet firmly in George for the next while. Once we’ve started it will be very difficult to go on leave and because the holiday periods are the busiest and the time we’d make our most profit we’ll have to go away out of season.

SEDA have dragged their feet and we decided to approach the branch manager to see if we could get more expertise and advice. Unfortunately that still hasn’t happened, even after a second business advisor was brought in, but it did speed up the process of getting some marketing sponsored. We’d been told they could ‘help us lauch’ and could pay a huge portion of the ‘initial marketing costs’ and that is now in the process of happening.

In the week before we left on holiday Dieter and I had to meet with 3 service providers to get quotes for their assistance in branding and marketing. The process introduced us to an amazingly creative designer who helped us to the point that we decided to change our business name to reflect a 'designer product'. We'll be known from hereon out at 'Kiddie Gourmet'. We also paid for a stall at the upcoming George Agricultural Show where will introduce ourselves to the community and launch our products. It became very stressful when all 3 people who’ve been helping us at SEDA (including the branch manager) were out of the office and our packaging company had no packaging in stock!

It took a full week for the quotations to all come in and we made sure from the start that all 3 quotes were for exactly the same stuff. SEDA always takes the cheapest quote, which in this case is from a mass-printing firm and not from the branding specialists. The printers have a designer who is working on our branding and we’ll see what he comes up with! We postponed leaving on holiday for 2 days while we finalised the paperwork to get the ball rolling and hopefully that is happening in our absence now. We’d like the product labels to be completed by the time we get home so we can start cooking up a storm.

Because I am a woman, SEDA pays up to 90% of the project costs and we’re responsible for only 10% of the R24 000 bill! That is a real blessing! When this is over we’ll have our own web domain, product stickers, flyers, posters, car signage, business cards, gift vouchers and display extras for the upcoming show! Its VERY exciting!

Another exciting thing is experiencing the enthusiasm of our fellow ‘homegroupies’ who have offered to help us set us the stall at the show – something we have NO experience in! People have offered to lend us freezers, a gazebo, backdrop material and one guy has offered to make us a colourful plastic frontdrop for our stall walls from recycled fibre-optic cable. Its been very overwhelming to experience their support and enthusiasm as they have prayed for, encouraged us and will help us practically.

We’re on leave for one last week and will begin production in earnest when we are back, hopefully being able to make as much as we think we could sell at the show which runs over 3 days from 8am – 9am. We’re hoping to be able to take orders, get feedback and use the opportunity to market ourselves. How we’ll get the product out there afterwards is the next big thing we have to get working on in the meantime!

Milestones

A minor milestone: 63 posts and a thousand page views .... celebrations are in order!

Butterworth, Butterworth!

In 1990 I spent the year touring South Africa with YFC (Youth for Christ). Our team did dance and drama in schools, youth clubs, churches, etc and we travelled from north to south and east to west covering much of South Africa. It was then that I first visited Butterworth, a small town in the Transkei (then a homeland, but now part of SA). The people we stayed with were incredibly special and because of those bonds I chose to come back in 1993 to do an elective teaching practical at Butterworth High School (BHS). My love for this place and her people led me to apply for a teaching post at BHS when I graduated at the end of 1994.

The 3 years we spent in Butterworth are precious memories for both Dieter and I. As newly weds we grew a lot here and developed very special relationships with our students, their parents and our fellow colleagues. Butterworth is not the little industrial town it was then and almost all of the people we knew here have moved to other places all over SA which we have often travelled to in our visits to SA over the years.

The Addisons still live in Butterworth. I taught their youngest daughter and in our time here we became very close friends. They are like blood-relatives to us and have stayed in touched and travelled the world to visit us when we were overseas! So we have come back to Butterworth for a family reunion! Two of their 5 children are at home at the moment too, so our blessings are multiplied! No doubt there will be lots of talking (and not the superficial stuff!), laughing, eating, laughing, more eating, laughing and lots more talking! And we will leave with our cups running over, our emotional tanks refuelled!

The road-trip from George to Butterworth really stretched us! Its been years since we drove so far. Cyprus is a tiny island and we never spent longer than an hour or two in the car on our longest journey. We decided to break up the journey by overnighting at friends of Oupa and Ouma who live near Jeffery’s Bay. We only left George at about 1:30pm and arrived in Jefferey’s at 4:45pm. The next day we left Jeffery’s at 9am and arrived in Butterworth at 4:00pm – it was a looooong day! We stopped twice, briefly at Colchester to refuel and have a loo break, and then again in Port Alfred where we spent about 20 minutes buying lunch supplies and meeting an old friend.

Michelle used to teach with us in Butterworth (many moons ago!) and now teaches in Port Alfred. School had just finished for the day and we dropped in for a quick chat and photo in the parking lot. It was soooo good to see her after all these years!

Dieter was very hesitant about the drive and decided against driving to Pretoria because of that. I came up with a plan of action to try make it easier: Dieter drove and Ryan and Jed took turns to sit in the front passenger or far rear seats. I sat in the middle row of seats with Ethan and Aimee, often reading to them and trying to entertain them. They were very good for the most part! Aimee really struggled being strapped in for such a long period of time but that was the only really hard part. You can’t imagine how relieved we were to eventually reach Butterworth and how delighted we are at not having to travel again for at least a week!

Butterworth is a very, very small town flanked by massive residential suburbs. Their isn’t very much here in the way of commerce and entertainment in comparison to George or Larnaca - the boys are horrified that they don’t even have a McDonalds! So this promises to be a relaxing week that will bring refreshing to our bodies and spirits! Bring on the family reunion!

Aaah, the joys of family!

Being with family is a wonderful thing! This weekend we had the opportunity to spend some time with Dieter’s extended family and it was fun. Ouma co-arranged a surprise birthday party for Aunty Joke who is turning 75 this week and family came from George, East London, Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg to be part of the celebrations. We all gathered on Aubrey and Riana’s plot just outside of Plettenberg Bay and waited in great anticipation for Aunty Joke’s arrival. She was totally surprised to find us all hiding in the house when she arrived and overwhelmed by the surprise, coming close to tears when she saw all the siblings, children and grandchildren who had made the effort to be there.   

Aunty Joke is the oldest of 5 siblings, the mother of 4 children, grandmother of 7 and great-grandmother of one baby boy. I’ve come to know her as an incredibly generous woman who loves welcoming people into her home and cooking up a storm to share with them. She’s a very strong and independent woman and was recently seen cleaning the gutters on the roof of her house – no job is too big or small for her, and she very seldom asks for help. When I first met her nearly 17 years ago she was living on a farm in the Crags near Plettenberg Bay and Dieter has many wonderful memories of family holidays on the farm when he was growing up.

Soon after Aunty Joke arrived we had coffee and cake. I made our family-favourite Beetroot and Chocolate Cake, Aunty Ria made some spekulaas (a delicious, spicy Dutch biscuit with almond paste) and Ouma made a fridge tart. Ouma also bought a milktart in puff pastry and an apple tart – it was a feast! Ethan and Aimee helped Aunty Joke blow out the candles on her cake and we sang so beautifully for her.

It was lovely to see all the cousins and aunts and uncles we’ve met over the past few months and it was especially wonderful to see Uncle Coen and Aunty Ria who live in Johannesburg and came down for the weekend to be at Aunty Joke’s party. As family made short speeches honouring Aunty Joke I took lots of photos as I tried to capture the moment. It wasn’t long before I was crying uncontrollably – the heartfelt words spoken by her brother and daughter were very touching and honouring! I felt very privileged to be part of this family and this moment!

Jeff put together an amazing fire of logs and pine cones and dazzled the children by throwing acetone on the wood before lighting with a big flash! It got colder as the day went on, but the children and a small group of adults gathered around the picnic table next to the fire where it was toasty and warm. Boerewors, Steaks, Kassler chops, kebabs and toasted sandwiches were all cooked to perfection and accompanied by an amazing spread of salads which could have feed a hundred people. We ate far too much and it was very easy to sit playing card games at the picnic bench for hours.

Driving home through what is by far the most beautiful part of South Africa we were spoiled again by the amazing sea and mountain views. We were exhausted and staying awake took real effort but I felt sustained by joy of being with family.

Uncle Coen and Aunty Ria spent a few hours with us this morning before they headed back to Johannesburg at lunch time. Thanks to a very generous gift they gave us when we first arrived in South Africa earlier this year we have been able to finance the beginning of our Baby Food business and it was wonderful to be able to thank them in person. We lounged around laughing and chatting and swopping photos of the weekend’s festivities before enjoying a wonderful meal of Pea Soup and Beer Bread that Ouma and Dieter made.

One can’t choose your family - God chooses one for you! We’re so blessed to have the family we have. I often tell our children that I’m so glad God chose to put them in our family! And we’re so blessed to be part of the greater family we are part of, so blessed!

Waiting for fruit to ripen

Its been a whirlwind weekend for us! On Friday we met with a new Business Adviser at SEDA in hopes of getting the ball rolling for our Kiddie Food business. The new adviser asked some great questions and we were able to chat quite a few things through with her. Our conversation lead to the decision to register for a stall at the Outeniqua Show here in George from 16-18 August and use that as a launch-pad. They said that one of the ways they could assist us was with getting basic marketing and branding done so that we could put up a stall and begin to sell some of our products. (Unfortunately, SEDA’s slowness in printing the labels hampers our production happening!)

They sent us to see 2 of their service providers who specialise in marketing/branding/printing. Our first visit was incredibly exciting! They lady who helped us was inspiring in her creativity and some of the ideas she shared with us. She challenged us to consider a name change that would help to give our product a more superior edge and compliment the up market labeling she was suggesting. To ensure we’re ready for the show the design and printing needs to be finalised and commissioned by the end of this week. With that in mind, Dieter and I spent a good portion of the weekend typing up a comprehensive list of ingredients for the labels and researching alternative business name options. This is all looking very exciting, and daunting at the same time. Our plan was to spend the rest of this week working very hard to fill the freezer and stock up for the show.

This morning we met with a 2^nd service provider, a less enthusiastic and much less experienced guy. He didn’t offer any ideas or insights and was finished in half the time that we spent with the first lady. But he did confirm that SEDA’s offer to do a ‘basic marketing/branding’ exercise would not suffice because to brand our product and do it properly from the start will cost a lot more money than what they’re talking about. Neither of the 2 advisers were in the office today and so we were unable to make contact with the 3^rd service supplier to finalise the quotes. Suddenly we were looking at the possibility of printing what we need on our own so that we can at least be ready for the show. After thinking about the decision for a few hours, we contacted the packaging supplier to get the packaging delivered only to discover that they have no packaging in stock for us. That finalised the decision for us – we are not cooking this week!

Next week we are traveling to the Eastern Cape for 2 weeks and when we return we’ll have 10 days to prepare for the show. Am not sure how much stock we’ll be able to put together for the show, but we’ll definitely use the show as an opportunity to introduce ourselves to the region and market the products.

Its been an incredibly disappointing day for us and the outcome of this situation is still uncertain right now. I was reminded tonight, when I looked at the basketful of avos Dieter picked off a neighbour’s tree last week, that life is often filled with opportunities to wait for the ‘fruit to ripen’. Those avos were picked off the tree and will take weeks to ripen if we don’t hurry the process and stow them away in the dark! A baby is conceived and the parents wait for 9 months before he is born. Living life requires great faith! I do believe that those avos will ripen (and will be delicious!), and I do believe God is in control and things will all fall into place exactly as He planned them to for us. We’re in Great Hands!

PS: Schools opened across the country again today after a bitterly cold weekend and unusually heavy snow storms across the mountains from West to East. We had the privilege of waking up on Friday morning to snow-capped mountains and it was beautiful! Schools are open and that signals the end of our ‘soccer holiday’, Ryan and Ethan were very enthusiastically on the ball – yeah!

Steep learning curves

Everyday of this journey has been a part of a steep learning curve for all of us. Everyday we’re learning something new! How all this fits into the greater scheme of things in our lives is beyond me right now, but my past experiences have taught me that they will fit perfectly!

The experience of trying to import a tricycle for Jed from China has been an interesting learning curve, one that has been happening for a few months now. Having never imported or exported anything ourselves before, its been interesting working with forwarding and clearing agents as we gather quotations to find the most suitable way to get it here. The trike is not subject to import tax, only VAT (value added tax) of 14%. As private importers we don’t need an import permit for this once-off purchase. Those were the easy things to find out. Shipping from China is subject to a ‘kick-back’ that must be paid when landing in SA and extra charges will be owed if customs officials have to open and inspect the package. Our first quotes were exorbitant and things were looking impossible as we were working on a ex-works/door-to-door cost. The minute we worked on F.O.B costs the quote almost halved and now things are looking much more do-able!

The business and all we’ve experienced so far has been another huge learning curve. Up till now we haven’t really encountered anyone who can give us local business advice. We’ve been forging forward by ourselves and finding out a lot as we move along. This week I called SEDA and spoke to the branch manager. I told him that our experience so far had been very disappointing and that we wanted to see another Business Advisor. By the end of the week a visit was set up with a new Business Advisor and our existing Business Advisor. Its been interesting visiting different wholesale suppliers and watching the local ‘junk mail’ for food specials. Our new freezer arrived, eventually!, on Thursday and we’ve already got a nice supply of meat and fish we’ve found on special in the last week or so.

We continue to learn every day, some lessons are easier to process than others but every lesson is valuable and prepares us for what lies ahead. Exciting times!

Choral Festivities

Truth be told, by the time I get a chance to blog in the evening I'm totally exhausted! Tonight I don't want to do anything except lie down and sleep!

We had a relatively relaxing weekend and it was good for us. We've been counting the sleeps for a few nights now as Ethan and Aimee were preparing to have dinner and a sleep-over at Oupa and Ouma's 'house'. (They are still house sitting for friends in the neighbourhood) Oupa and Ouma had bought us some tickets to see attend the Hlombe Children's Choir Festival and we were taking Ryan and Jed to see the South Cape Children's Choir and the Los Angeles Children's Chorus perform at the George Art Museum.

The day had finally come and we packed some mattresses and bedding into Oupa and Ouma's car in the morning and packed some pyjamas and overnight toys into bags in the afternoon. We were totally spoiled by the appearance of 2 buck in the garden at Oupa and Ouma's house which borders on the river coming down the mountain from the Witfontein forest that we hiked in on labour day. They were beautiful to us and a wonderful sight to behold! Ethan had chosen a dessert recipe for Aimee and I to make, so we spent a small part of the afternoon layering chocolate and vanilla custards into glasses and topping them with smiley faces - a surprise pudding for them to share with Oupa and Ouma. They were very excited to sleep-over and apparently it all went really well and everyone had a great time.

Dieter and I took Ryan and Jed to the local Spur for dinner. Eating out is a huge treat for us! Spur has a buy-one-burger-get-one-free special on Mondays and we tried the Rib Burger that we'd been recommended by Oupa and Ouma. It was delicious and very different! Ryan and Jed were in their element and, truth be told, this was the part they'd been excited about for days! The meal wasn't as bad as I remember Spur food being, although I really wouldn't say it was brilliant. I think the portion sizes were alot smaller than in the past - but we all ate enough, so maybe its a good thing!

The Choirs were amazing! They really bowled us over! I loved the choir outfits the South Cape Children's Choir wore, they were so elegant and stylish and I especially enjoyed their rendition of Nkosi Sikelele (the South African National Anthem) at the beginning of the evening. The choir were spread out across the auditorium, covering 2 levels and harmonised amazingly - surround sound was spectacular! The Los Angeles Children's Chorus was my personal favourite. I loved how they sang so many songs that honoured Jesus, with passion and zeal!, and that they sang such a variety of songs - jazz, southern gospel, Shakespeare and songs from other nations. Their use of props and acting was incredible and it was so very entertaining. I know the boys really enjoyed it!

Despite Oupa's constant pleas for the boys to audition for the choir, neither of them are keen to stand up and sing in front of people. Both are very keen to act - and we need to get our children into acting classes for sure!

Its an early night for all of us tonight, we were in bed closer to 10pm last night after a quick McDonald's ice-cream (in winter!) and all felt rather tired today. I thought we'd get some more sleep with the little ones away, but our body clocks are well programmed by their early-morning intrusions and both Dieter and I were awake before the crack of dawn!

We're so grateful Oupa recorded last night's episode of 'Survivor'! We're going to watch in now with Ryan and Jed while Ethan and Aimee are tucked up in bed for the night and fast asleep!