It’s officially fall!
A big thanks to everyone that came out to the SW Chocolate Festival. It was great to connect with our old customers after 2 cancelled festivals.
I sold out of truffles ( I didn’t make that many) and the remaining bars and Tejate hot chocolate drink mix will go up on the CacaoSantaFe.com website. The show was much smaller this year, about 1/3 of normal, so unfortunately it wasn’t a profitable show for us. Everyone loved the clay face planters and want them for Xmas. I can tell the economy in NM is suffering as people were VERY frugal with their money this year, buying only small things. The sentiment from other vendors was the same. It’s a huge contrast to the part of Texas I’m in where the economy seems pretty robust.
We spent some time packing up our storage unit and I brought my chocolate making equipment to Texas, courtesy of my business partner Derek who loaded it on a trailer and drove it here. He’ll take the rest to California where he will be temporarily. There is no clear plan yet for what I will do with it, but hope to resolve that next year.
I still have a beautiful 6’ curved glass confectionary display case in Santa Fe which I’d be happy to sell if anyone you know has interest they can contact me . Ideally I’d like to find a small space to rent where I could conduct my workshops and have the case full of chocolate to purchase. But without a full blown store, I don’t need a case that large, and I can’t look for that space yet as its 2 ½ hours away from where I’m currently staying.
Once again everything is up in the air. My tiny house has a delayed production schedule now because of a worker shortage. It was supposed to be delivered in December, and now they are saying it may be April. This is disappointing as I was hoping to move in before Xmas and do a little chocolate production. Now that is doubtful. Seriously 2021 has been just as horrible as 2020.
I am living out in a very rural area which makes it almost impossible to find any part time work. The 20 mile drive to a populated area is treacherous in the dark- full of deer that jump out in the road. I do a work exchange here-cooking for a small guest cottage which is great but I’m not able to hold any job right now which is not so great. Every time I turn around the price of my house is going up, so all in all things are extremely frustrating.
I have many friends going through similar transitions- trying to find housing they can afford and having senior issues that make working nearly impossible.
I hate leaving this post on a depressing note so I will say that I’m starting a new vitamin and exercise regime and looking forward to cooler weather and making some tasty stews and soups. Fall is a perfect time to get out and go for some hikes with the dog. Nature is always healing. Better days are ahead.
