Happy New Year!

I am wishing everyone a Happy (Tappy) New Year, in honor of all of our woodpeckers!



We have about five different types of woodpeckers,
from the smaller downy to the larger hairy,
red bellied and the giant pileated woodpecker.

The pileated is my favorite. He is soooo big.



The woodpeckers are so gentle when they are at the suet.

It is hard to believe that they are so loud when they are hammering the trees!

They all tap on our 125 year old maple tree, so HAPPY (TAPPY) NEW YEAR!

WE DID IT!

A great big thank you goes to White Drug in Perham, Minnesota for their order today.

This order put Creekside Grains over the top for our 2011 sales goal!

We hit our original number of mixes goal on November 4,
but also made a monetary goal, which was surpassed today.

We are so excited that we made the goal with four days to spare in 2011.

Thank you God, White Drug and everyone who helped make our goal possible.

We are so blessed to be in a business that we love,
creating mixes that so many people love.

God has blessed our "funny little business!"

With your help, we are looking forward to an even better 2012!

Christmas Eve Services

Please join us to celebrate Christ's birth on Christmas Eve at Bay Pointe Community Church.

Services will be 1:00, 3:00, 5:00 and 7:00 PM.

Michael will be at the Village at Grand Traverse Commons
for the Saturday Farmers Market
from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM,
but I will be greeting at Bay Pointe for all four services.

If you need a last minute gift or gourmet goodies for a dinner or party,
Michael will be able to find the best mix for you.

Once you are done shopping, come on over to Bay Pointe.

We would love to see you there!

Have a blessed Christmas!

Melvin the very smart kitty!

This came in an email from Tim, my friend and Creekside Grains fan. He has two very curious kitties. This is Melvin the curious kitty story.

"In the a.m., I was preparing to start in on the new Creekside Grains order. Then I noticed I still had 1/2 package of sourdough pancakes left from the last order, so I made them instead.

I had some done, and stepped out of the kitchen very briefly. Upon my return, there was Melvin, with a pancake in his mouth!! Cute, but..........

Then last nite, I made the whole wheat blueberry ginger cookies. They were "cooling" on top of the stove, and I stepped out of the kitchen very briefly. Upon my return, there was Melvin with a cookie in his mouth!! Cute, but...........

So Melvin's feedback has a high rating, and mine does too!!!"

This story is very similar to Tim's neighbor's dog a few years ago. Tim put a package of hamburger to be grilled on the picnic table to get something from the kitchen, very briefly. When he returned to the picnic table, the neighbor dog was smiling at Tim and thanking him for dinner. The dog had eaten the entire package of hamburger!

There is something about Tim and his magnetism for four legged critters who like his food! I am so glad that they like Creekside Grains!

Monster Cookies and Christmas orders

As I pack five cases of mixes to ship to Vincent's Village Mercantile in Marshall, Michael is baking his first test batch of Monster Cookies! It is a good thing that we just finished dinner, or I would be heading for the bowl of dough! Michael is keeping me out of the dough by dropping five or six M & M's and some chocolate chips in my hand every now and then.

Those cookies smell so good and I cannot wait to taste one, or two or five (I have to make sure that they are really taste tested). I hate waiting for them to cool, but I can be patient, just so I will not burn my tongue. I will update when they are ready for production.

Every day for the past five days, we have received a phone call from Tassier Sugarbush in the Upper Peninsula town of Cedarville. They order Buttermilk Pancakes and "Sourdough" Pancakes. As soon as I ship a case, they run out and have to call to order more. I am having so much fun answering the phone every day to know that they have just run out, again! I cannot wait for tomorrow's phone call!

Michigan Mitten Cookies

On Monday, I received fifteen dozen Michigan Mitten cookie cutters.

Today, I have six dozen left.

This has been the week that all of our retail stores have ordered dozens
of the Michigan Mitten Sugar Cookie Baking Mix.

I am so excited that our cute little Michigan Mitten Sugar Cookie
will be shipped all over the country to go into stockings,
under the Christmas tree, as a hostess gift
or all kinds of creative Christmas gift ideas.

I love the idea of not working so hard on the frosting.
Just use white, and pretend it is snow
(although I am still waiting for that to happen here!).

Vincent's Village Mercantile

Congratulations to Vincent's Village Mercantile
in downtown Marshall, Michigan,
on their Grand Opening
this evening from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM!

They will be featuring our Root Beer Cookies.

If you are in downtown Marshall today,
stop in and say hi and have a Root Beer Cookie!

What to Give for Christmas Gifts

I just had a delightful conversation with a client from Louisiana. She loved the Blueberry Crunch and Apple Crisp so much that she ordered more and will give them as gifts. She wanted to know how to determine who to give which mix.




The answer is...if your friend or family member cannot bake or does not like to bake, then the Blueberry Crunch, Cherry Crunch or Peach Crunch is the easiest mix to bake.



The Heirloom Applesauce Cake, Dark Chocolate Cabernet Cake, Bourbon Brownies and the Super Chocolate Brownies are also right up there with easy to bake. Most of our mixes are so easy to make, that they are all good for gifts.

The beer breads are extremely easy to bake, too. Place the mix in a bowl, pour the beer (or I like Vanilla Cream Soda), stir, plop it on a cookie sheet and bake.


Of course, the Root Beer Cookies are our best seller, so giving them something unique is so much fun! I love the Mega Mint Chocolate Cookies, so any chocolate and mint lover will love you for giving them a box of the best cookie mix.

I cannot cook and am not much of a baker (Michael is the best at both - that is why I am Director of Taste Testing), but I can make all of the pancakes, the breads, the brownies and cookies. If I can do it, anyone can! You can take full culinary responsibility for creating the mix from scratch. We won't tell!

Don't forget to buy mixes for stocking stuffers, mixes for your child's teacher, your delivery person and for your hostess at all of the Christmas parties that you will attend. You are so thoughtful!

Have fun shopping! Happy Thanksgiving!

Tipping Over Chicadees

Last evening, I was making salad for dinner and realized that we were out of carrots.

Michael volunteered to go to the garden and pull a few for me.

On his way to the garden in the dark of night,
Michael walked by one of our spruce trees
and was startled by a rush of chickadees!

They had been soundly sleeping,
so were just as startled by Michael as he was of them!

They flew away in a buzz of wings.

I wonder how long it was before they came back to bed?

If we get bored at night, Michael suggests that we go chickadee tipping!

Kevin the hero

It was a dark and stormy night.

We were at Meijer, buying our groceries for the week. We unloaded our cart and put the cart in the cart corral. We drove home, unloaded most of the groceries and received a phone call from my mother to call a man who was at Meijer.

My mother lives in Jackson, but a very nice, honest man named Kevin, called her and told her that he found my purse in the cart. Kevin had to do some sleuthing to find mom's phone number, but he found it and called mom and she called us and we called Kevin and we went back to Meijer and gave Kevin a box of Root Beer Cookie mix and a surprised Kevin gave me my purse, not knowing why I handed him a box of Root Beer Cookie mix.

We are so grateful to Kevin for finding my purse and taking the effort to find me and for meeting me at the entrance, just to give it back to me. God Bless Kevin!

Kevin, enjoy your Root Beer Cookies!

The Goat Coat

A few weeks ago, Michael and I were walking past our neighbors house and saw a goat.
It was not just any goat. It was Oden the goat with a coat. It was not just any coat.
It was Oden the goat with a blaze orange coat.
It was originally a dog coat, but it fit Oden the goat very well, so it became a goat coat.

Oden wore the blaze orange goat coat to protect him from hunters who might think
he was a deer while he was in the pasture.
I think Oden is a very handsome goat with a coat.

Last week, we we took another walk and found a new goat with a coat.
This is Oden's sister, Ally. Ally has a blue goat coat.

I am so glad that our neighbors goats are fashionable!

It's A New Record!

I am so excited to announce that we sold our 16,000th baking mix today!

Last year, we were 90 mixes away from that goal on New Year's Day. This year, we are two months ahead of last year!

This year, our goal is 20,000 mixes! I cannot wait to see when that will happen!

Thank you to all of you who ordered on line, bought mixes at the farmers markets or craft shows, or purchased them at retail stores around the country. We are so grateful for your continued support and for God's blessing on our "funny little business." That is what Michael calls Creekside Grains when we pray every night.

We are blessed!

Poor Little Girl

I was enjoying lunch today, when POW!!!, a female goldfinch crashed into our window.
She hit so hard that I was sure she had died.
I grabbed gloves in case she was alive and went out to check on her.
She was very sad looking.
She looked like she had broken her neck and I saw damage on one foot.
I accessed the situation, and chose to do the "when the bird hits the window" routine.
I lined one of our small coolers with several paper towels, picked her up and put her in.
We usually use a shoe box, but the cooler was closer at the time.
I kept the lid open just enough for her to get air, but closed enough to keep her warm.
I brought her into the office and waited.
After about an hour, she was still shivering, so we covered her with a bubble wrap blanket.
Bubble wrap is very warm when you are a very little bird who needs to be warm.
I went to Fed Ex and when I came home, Michael said she had made a remarkable recovery.
She was ready to fly!
We took her outside, opened the cooler lid very gently and she was gone in a flash!
First she flew to one tree, then to another, then we lost sight of her.
Michael could not believe that this very sad bird could make such a quick recovery
and fly as if she had not injured herself at all!
I hope I can see her at the feeder, so I can see how she is doing.
Today, God's eye was on the Goldfinch, and I know He's watching me.

Firewood for Winter

Saturday was my first Saturday off since early May.
It will be my last Saturday off for the next five weeks.

Michael went to Burritt's to sample mixes and I stayed home.
It was a beautiful fall day.

I started the wood splitter and spent the entire day splitting and stacking wood.

For the first time, EVER, since we bought Creekside,
I completed splitting and stacking the wood
that we will need this winter!

Until this year, I was splitting wood throughout the winter,
because I never had time to complete the task before the snow fell.

We like to heat our home as much as we can with wood,
so we use about ten to twelve face cords per winter.

The carport, which has never been used for a carport,
is stacked top to bottom, front to back and side to side with firewood.

I am so excited that this project is done!

I have a new large stack of about 100 feet of pine that we just obtained last week,
after it fell on and smashed in our friend's roof.

He wanted it off his property (which I totally understand why)
and we needed firewood, so the pine is now on our property.

My winter project will be to split and stack that pine for next year's burning.
It will be so nice to actually be ahead of the firewood project!

Trees

As I was packing mixes to ship on Friday afternoon,
I looked out the window and saw this beautiful tree.

I hurried outside to photograph the very bright tree
against the dark, dark background of clouds.

Just I walked outside, the other trees were also bathed in sunlight.

As soon as I took the photograph,
the clouds behind me stole the sun away
and it was dark again.

It was beautiful while it lasted.

Isn't She Adorable?

Welcome our newest doggie of the week.

We forgot her name but we cannot forget her adorable face!

If we meet her parents this weekend, we will find out her name again.

Have a great weekend! Looks like it will be the best beautiful fall day we have had in years!

Lone Apple

We have a Honey Crisp apple tree.

The tree is about six years old and has produced two apples so far.

Last year, we had one Honey Crisp apple on our Honey Crisp apple tree.
We picked it too soon and it was not sweet enough.

This year, we had one apple on our Honey Crisp apple tree.
I talked to Al at Bakkers Acres who knows his apples.
Al told me when to pick that apple for the best taste.

Here is the "official" apple picking ceremony.

We had the solo Honey Crisp apple for dessert tonight.
We have to say that it was the best apple we have ever eaten!

Welcome new Hallmark stores

Welcome to a new family of Hallmark gift stores in West Michigan.

Di's Hallmark has three locations in Muskegon.

Di's Hallmark also has stores in Grand Rapids, Grandville, Kentwood,
Byron Center, Caledonia and Grand Haven.

Mariellen's Hallmark has a store in Ludington.

Three stores carry six of our best sellers.
The others carry twelve different flavors of our mixes.
You will be sure to find a taste for everyone!

Be sure to tell them that I sent you!

Double Doggies of the Week

Here are our latest doggies of the week.

Meet Peter Pan and Celia Tiffany.

They come as a team, so we get to say "Double Doggies of the Week."

They ride very nicely in a backpack when they visit the Frankfort Farm Market
and get so much attention!

Sooo cute!

Castle Farms Craft Show

Join us this Saturday or Sunday at Castle Farms in Charlevoix for the Royal Craft Show.

Hours are 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Saturday and 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Sunday.

If you want to buy something unique and creative for Christmas gifts,
Castle Farms is the place to be.
There will be over 125 artists and craftsmen, with all kinds of handmade items.

We will offer our usual mixes,
plus some very pretty Christmas cookie cutters with our sugar cookie mixes.

We look forward to seeing you this weekend!

10,000 down, 10,000 to go

I am not sure when it officially happened, but we sold over 10,000 mixes so far this year. Exact total is 10,762! Yippee!

Last year, the official 10,000 mixes sold date was September 17. Looks like we are a month ahead of schedule.

We are still working on the 20,000 goal for 2011!

Thank you to all of you who purchased mixes at the Farmers Markets, on the web, or at a local gift or food store. We appreciate you!

We love our "funny little business!"

Double D Day

Friday is Double D Day.

First, we celebrate "Doggie of the Week."

This Doggie of the Week came from the Northport Farmers Market,
a few weeks ago.

Meet Joey, the very shy dachshund who did not want to be photographed.
He is still cute, even if he did not want to smile.

Friday is also "Doughnut Day!"

My market neighbor Melissa Drake from Cherry Beach Orchards
walks a block to Barb's Bakery in Northport
and brings back a yummy custard filled chocolate doughnut for me.

Every few days, while we are at the other Farmers Markets,
we talk about "Doughnut Day"
in anticipation of the Friday Farmers Market.

I confess, we do not really "talk" about it.
We yell "Friday Doughnut Day!" when we discuss the event.

It is the little things that amuse me!!!

Ingredients

In case you want to know what goes into your chocolate mixes, here it is!

Sugar on the left, cocoa on the right and chocolate chips on top.

More ingredients go into each mix, but this is a good start!

The kitchen smells so good when Michael mixes chocolate!

Today, Michael is making me two kinds of chocolate cake to taste test for new recipes.
This is my birthday cake.
I have to work as Director of Taste Testing even on my birthday,
but what a great job it is!
I will let you know the results.

Doggie of the Week

Finally, I am getting to our First Annual Doggie of the Week program. We see so many wonderful dogs (and their owners) at the Farm Markets, so we decided to show you as many of them as we can.

Here are the first two of many doggies. Welcome Chelsea and Trevi. I introduced Trevi last week, when we were celebrating Stuart and Susie's anniversary.

Chelsea and Trevi have their PFDs on. When they jump off of boats, Stuart and Susie always have them wear these, as it is easier for helping them get into the boat. I think they are adorable.

If you come to Northport or Frankfort Farm Markets, Michael and I will be there, camera ready, to make your pup a blog star!

We Saw It Again!

We were still working, so outside we went to see the International Space Station again!

It was so amazing!

It passed through the Big Dipper, and made us feel so small
when we saw the tiny space station in an enormous group of stars.

God does good work!

International Space Station

Guess what we saw this evening? The International Space Station!

It is traveling at more than 17,000 miles per hour.

It is over 220 miles up in space.

It takes 92 minutes to orbit the earth,
so if we are still working later this evening,
we will get to see it again.

Michael thought he saw a sign in the window
that asked if we could set out a plate of root beer cookies for the next pass by.

He is baking them now, just in case they can pick them up!

Home Grown Tomatoes

As soon as the tomatoes are ripe in our garden, I start singing one of my favorite songs.

Check out this link and sing along!

http://youtu.be/g0C4FOL1qIw

Goat Stampede

Have you ever been to a goat stampede? We have! Michael and I went to the Northwestern Michigan Fair tonight to watch the goat stampede. It was hysterical! Lots of children and their goats got their evening exercise in the arena. On the count of three, the children ran and the goats followed...except for a few of the goats who would rather stay in one spot, all four feet firmly planted in the ground. One baby goat cried all the way. She was adorable, but so scared!

If you have never been to a goat stampede, we highly recommend it!

Happy Anniversary to the Brontman's

Happy Anniversary to Stuart and Susan Brontman! They are a lovely couple with two great daughters and two adorable dogs (I have not met the newest member of the family - Trevi, who is pictured above, playing with Pluto).

Stuart surprised Susan with a weekend up north to celebrate their anniversary. It was a great weekend to be here.

The Brontman family spend as much time as they can in northern Michigan, and I get the privilege of seeing them at several farm markets when they are in the area. They love our mixes and I love sending them home with Michael's latest inventions.

Farm markets are so much fun. We meet the nicest people there!

Hope Stuart and Susan have a wonderful day!

Salads

We just heard that the average American family eats 36 salads per year, or about one salad every ten days.

Boy, are we different than the average family! Michael and I eat a salad almost every night. We may miss one salad every ten days, instead of eat one every ten days like everyone else.

Since June, we have eaten salads fresh from our garden. First, the spinach, then the leaf lettuce, with the second run of spinach almost ready to eat. Now we have carrots, peas, squash and beans. Soon, we will enjoy our tomatoes, corn on the cob and cucumbers. If a veggie was not ready from our garden, we could always pick up something fresh from the farmers markets!

Dare to be different and try a salad every night! It tastes so good and is so good for you!

Sad Day

I received notice yesterday afternoon that my sister Marsha's husband died unexpectedly in the morning, while he was at work. Rich was only 45 years old, so our family is in shock and disbelief.

Yesterday was my father's birthday. He died in 1995. He would have been 83. Rich and my father celebrated Dad's birthday together with Jesus.

I will be going to Jackson tomorrow to be with my family, so will not be at the Farm Markets or available to ship any orders until next Wednesday.

Prayers would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Seven Bourbon Brownies

Well...I see I have not blogged in two months! Shame on me! Must be the nine farm markets each week. The eighteen hour days are catching up to us and I am not finding time to blog (or anything else!).

There is so much news to catch up on, including our new doggie of the week. More about that, later.

Today, Michael baked seven Bourbon Brownies for the Father Fred Benefit Run and Bake Sale. The volunteers suggested that he take them in the back door, so they could eat them directly, instead of selling them tomorrow at the Bake Sale.

More to come, I promise!

New Mixer

This space age looking thing is Michael's new mixer.
It can make about fifty mixes at a time.
That is going to make his production time so much better!

It sure looks funny, but as long as it works,
it will be a fun new way to make mixes.

Snow Flowers

Last week, when the snow was horizontal
and we ended up with about eight inches of heavy, wet snow,
my poor little hyacinth flowers were shivering from another dose of winter.

These flowers were sheltered from much of the snow at the front of the house,
so we can see bare ground in this image.

That still does not give the flowers the warm spring that they would prefer.
Snow is cold and wet, whether it is eight inches deep or just enough to cover a blossom.

The flowers have been basking in the rain today.
Let's hope they get some sunshine soon
so they can really bloom and show us their beauty!

Opey Visits

We have a new visitor to our bird feeder. Michael calls him Opey (O-Possum, get it?). I call him creepy!

A few nights ago, I looked on the deck and let out a scream! Mr. Opossum was dining on some leftover bread, saw me (or heard my scream), and squeezed himself into one of our old feeders. He stayed there for hours. Was he comfy or scared or bored or sleeping? I do not know.

He only has half of his tail. I am not sure where the other half went.

Michael was amused. I was not. Who knows what else will show up for midnight snacks at the bird feeders?

Blizzards to Flowers and Birds

Last Saturday, I was in Jackson for a funeral. I drove home on Sunday in one of the worst blizzards I have even been in! I was in the center of the storm for two hours! First came the freezing rain, then zero visibility as six inches of snow fell on the roads that were not plowed yet. I drove 25 mph for two hours on icy, unplowed, unsafe roads. When I arrived home, my fingers had to be pried to straighten them up.

Little did I know that within a week, we would be outside raking and taking a wonderful evening stroll and watching the hyacinths peek out of the ground and listening to the birds!

Michigan weather!!! I cannot wait to see what is next!

Raccoons and Robins

We have had visitors every night to our bird feeders and it is not a bird! It is two big fat raccoons.

For some reason known only to them, they think that the suet and sunflower seeds are for their dinner, so they have eaten all of it every time they get a chance. They have to climb out onto the edge of the deck to reach the bird feeder, but it does not seem to stop them.

I finally fooled them and took the bird feeders and the suet inside every night. Of course, the nights that I forgot, they had a nice midnight snack.

A few days ago, Michael stopped at McGough's to pick up more suet. The salesperson asked Michael if it was for the birds. Michael replied with, "it is a box lunch for the raccoons."

Tonight as I was walking back to the office, I heard a very noisy bird. I looked way up into our maple tree and saw a robin, the first one I have seen at Creekside this year! Maybe spring is around the corner, but you would not know it from looking at the foot of snow still on the ground.

The crocus flowers just poked out from under the snow and I saw about an inch of a hyacinth in the flower bed this morning, so there is hope!

New Moo Cow Cookie

In honor of my wonderful dog Annie, we named a sugar cookie in her honor. Annie died four years ago and we still miss her so much!

Since Annie was a puppy, she loved cows. We started calling them Moo Cows. Every time we passed a dairy farm in the car, and said, "Moo Cows, Annie, Moo Cows," she would get so excited! She would visit with the cows when we took walks, and would bark really loud when we drove past the dairy farms. Annie loved Wisconsin! The dairy farms were so much fun for her!

We found a cute dairy cow cookie cutter, so decided to add a Moo Cow Sugar Cookie to the list of baking mixes.

Be sure to have a large glass of milk with your Moo Cow Sugar Cookies!

Thanks again Kate

Wow! After one tv interview, Creekside Grains was busy! We received several emails, phone calls and web orders. I finally got all of the orders shipped today. Thanks everyone, for supporting our funny little business!

Michael is on his way home from the Lansing Gift Show, so I expect several more wholesale orders will be arriving shortly.

At the show, Michael sampled the root beer cookie, the brand new maple cookie, several of the beer breads, the new Aebleskiver and a whole lot more. He was a busy boy, baking and serving! He gets one day to rest, then off to Minneapolis to do this again.

More later!

Thanks Kate!

We had such fun watching TV 7 and 4 News today.

The interview aired at the 5:00 PM news,
so if you saw the 6:00 PM interview, it was a shortened version.

Kate did a great job!

We had calls and emails asking about stores outside of Traverse City that carry our mixes.
We have over ninety stores from as far east as Pennsylvania
and far west as North Dakota that carry Creekside Grains.

As soon as I can figure out where I can post it on the web site,
I will put a list of all stores that carry our mixes.

Michael is going to Lansing for a gift show this weekend, so hopefully,
there will be more stores to add to the list when he returns.
As soon as he gets back to Traverse City,
he will leave for Minneapolis to attend a five day gift show.
I can only guess how many more stores that will be added to the list!

I am going to Muskegon for the weekend,
with our new Miss Heart of Michigan, Missy Brown,
to join the Miss Michigan contestants for Orientation.

I will be back to work on Monday, trying to get all information posted for you!

Have a great weekend!

TV 7 and 4 Interview

Today was television interview day!
Kate Fox from TV 7 and 4 filmed Michael for Made in Michigan.
The interview will air tomorrow on TV 7 and 4 at 6:00 PM.

Kate is a beautiful young woman,
with great interview skills and a wonderful personality.

It was great meeting her today!

You can barely see Kate behind the camera on the left.

Thanks, Kate! We cannot wait to see the results!

I Love Winter!

This is the view from our deck.

Sometimes, it is very hard to go to work when I see this scene
and listen to the soothing sounds of Beitner Creek.

This is me, without my beekeeping shield.

It fell off when I was snow blowing on Sunday.

You cannot see them, but I have ice crystals on my face.

It looks like I am wearing sparkle makeup. Not makeup, just God sparkles!

It was so cold out that Michael would only walk just outside the office door to take this picture.

He decided against a pretty snowy tree background and took the shot
and ran back into the warmth!

Yesterday, as I was preparing to shovel the drive,
I decided against an extra sweatshirt under my jacket.
I said, "I don't need this. It is warm out!"
All relative, considering it was 22 degrees.
I was comparing it to the below zero temps from last week!

Good thing I really LOVE winter! We seem to get a lot of that lately.

The Beekeeper Snowblower

On Saturday, I spent the day snow blowing the driveway.

The wind was so strong that I could not see,
so Michael gave me his grinding helmet
to shield my face and help me see where I was going.

When I walked in the house, Michael sent me right back out
so he could take a picture of me, covered in snow.

One of our friends said I looked like a bee keeper.
I told her I was glad that it was snow that I was keeping out of my face instead of bees!
I prefer windy, cold snow much more than bees.

I felt like the little boy in the soup commercial
who was so bundled up that he could not move!

I am heading out to do this again.

Good thing I LOVE winter!

Happy New Year!

I am so excited to announce that we were only ninety mixes away from selling 16,000 mixes in 2010! We were so close, but could not figure out a way to get a giant wholesale order or a whole lot of retail orders in just a few days (we discovered we were that close on Thursday afternoon).

This year, our goal is 20,000 mixes! I cannot wait to see when that will happen!

Thank you to all of you who ordered on line, bought mixes at the farmers markets or craft shows, or purchased them at retail stores around the country. We are so grateful for your continued support and for God's blessing on our "funny little business." That is what Michael calls Creekside Grains when we pray every night.

We are blessed and pray that your 2011 will be, too!