Its been a whirlwind of a week, setting up for the Jordanos Food Show, our valued distributor in Santa Barbara, tracking the supplies for the bottling this week, piloting our 41′ Sailboat in and out of the dock (for the first time!), and taking the 3rd Power Squadron boat handling class… Oh and somewhere along the line LOL turned 11!
Already Friday, and I’m pretty exhausted as I look back on this week. Besides a bunch of paperwork following the food show, I don’t feel that I accomplished a lot – That said, sales are up 27% over projections and we are only the middle of the month! And, seeing old and new faces at the food show was awesome! We are excited to be working with a bunch of new customers, restaurants, breweries, delis, and lots of other spots from the Tri-Counties.
Bottling of our signature Lavender Lemonade, Strawberry, and Original started in the wee hours yesterday morning way before the sun came up. We appreciate our co-packer partnering with us since we started back in 2011. The team they have is incredible, more than 90 families are supported every time a lemonade bottle is sold. The plant is alive with steam from the huge vats, the mixing tanks where all of our ingredients are blended together, and the clanking of the glass bottles as they line up on the conveyor belt. We purchase truckloads of glass bottles that are packed on pallets several dozen feet high! The subtle calming scent of lavender and the sweet smell of strawberries, mixed with the citrusy scent of our fresh frozen lemon juice makes me happy every time I’m there. We bottle 63,000 bottles at a time and each bottle is hand-packed into trays at the end of the line by three people! From there the lemonade case goes on the conveyor belt to be shrink-wrapped and loaded by hand onto the pallets, plastic-wrapped with each pallet weighing in at 2400 pounds they are picked up by the distributors :)
And on a personal note, I finally was able to get myself on the helm of our 41 ft sailboat and take her in and out of our slip a couple of times myself (Tom coaching)- with a 14′ beam and a few 26,000 lbs moving through the water, my only goal was not to run into something or someone – and I achieved that goal! ;) More practicing to come!
So, we are just plugging along in lemonade land as we move into fall. Spending time organizing the office, and my files and preparing to add some new customers.
With that, our mission is to serve you the most delicious lemonades for you to sip and share.
Lori Volk, Chief Believer Lori’s Original Lemonade
since 2011
