This is where it tends to go downhill

It's been almost a month. This is the sentence that ends it all. Next thing you know it will be October, and my next post will be "Wow, has it been a year already?"

So let's get updated. the DIY/FFASF went just swimmingly. It was intense trying to get production done and get everything ready, but it was absolutely worth it. I like to think there was a lot of advertisement if not actual sales. This is what helps me sleep at night and not think I'm wasting my mid twenties with seventy-hour work weeks. Still though, sales were really good; Rust Belt was packed (with vendors and customers), and it was an amazing weekend. My only regret is that I was unable to actually make the Funky Ferndale Art Street Fair at all and barely made the DIY Fest due to being at Rust Belt all day.

The weeks since have been full of attempting to take care of the business side of things. You know, actually figuring out how much money I owe myself and then promptly trying to put it out of my mind. I've been doing a fair amount of test batches of new jams as well as fresh batches of old ones.

I do have (or hope to have) two new jellies for next weekend. As always, I need help naming them, and a free jar of your choice to the winners. First up is a cinnamon/ginger apple jelly that's been sweetened with a bit of honey. I'm thinking now that Black Cinn (a blackberry cinnamon jelly) is sold out, I might add this to the Cinn line (Red Cinn, Ginger Cinn) or perhaps take the pun a little deeper and just call it Forbidden Fruit. It is fantastic on a salt bagel. FAN TAS TIC. Let me tell you!

The other jelly actually needs a little work. Long story short, I think I miscalculated or mismeasured my test batch and then expected to need way less pectin than I ended up needing. I used everything I had (which I thought would be more than plenty), and still came up short. I prayed to the jam gods, but they - not being the jelly gods - denied my request and I'm left with a very thin jelly. I'm hoping to reprocess it this week and end up with a good product. All that said, it's a cran-apple jelly that tastes very similar to cranberry sauce; just in time for the holidays. Yes, I could call it Crapp, but I like to think you can think of something better.

So feel free to think of awesome names and leave *a* comment here or *a* comment over on the facebook page (and "like" it if you haven't already!)

Current lineup:
8oz
24 Carrot
All-American
Blimey!
Chip Off the Ol' Berry (only a couple jars left!)
Cham-WOW
Fuzz Buzz
Thank RhuBerry Much
Unnamed cran-apple jelly
Unnamed cinnamon ginger apple jelly

4oz
24 Carrot
All-American
Blimey!
Fuzz Buzz
Unnamed cran-apple jelly

Unnamed cinnamon ginger apple jelly