There’s a new vendor at Haile’s Saturday Market— LEJ Pretzels—and maybe
it’s my Pennsylvania heritage (80% of America’s pretzels are made in
PA) that made me try their product.
I like a good soft pretzel and I don’t care whether it’s claimed to be
Bavarian-style or not. The last soft pretzel was an act bordering on
being a pretzel-sin. I was in Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station and I
purchased a pretzel from a franchise vendor. Like other franchise
products it was enough to satisfy my hunger after an overnight train
ride but its flavor was mostly derived from the yellow (not dark)
mustard dispensed from small single serve packets. Dry and bland best
describe the pretzel.
I took one of LEJ’s full-sized “Bavarian-Style Pretzels with me when I
left the Market, eschewing on-the-spot consumption using their squeeze
bottle of commercial yellow mustard. To their credit, the people of LEJ
happily directed customers toward Nana Pat’s mustard; a few spaces
further south. Because Nana Pat is a “cottage food operation” her
mustard cannot be offered by LEJ, yet. It was the presence of some Fat
Tire in my refrigerator at home that clinched my decision to try a
pretzel.
When I got home I put the pretzel in its brown paper bag in the oven,
turned it to warm and began making a salad using some of the greens I’d
gotten. By the time the oven pre-heated to 170 my salad was ready and
the pretzel was at a proper overeating temperature. I added some of
Nana Pat’s Fat Tire mustard and ate. One of the problems with most
commercial, mall pretzels is that they are pale imitations lacking in
flavor. One of the strengths of LEJ’s pretzel is its abundance of the
right flavors which are derived from two sources; the basic dough that
is neither too sweet nor too salty and the properly darkened “skin. “
Without the skin, a result of the Maillard reaction which turns sugars
into much deeper, more complex flavors, a pretzel is little more than a
piece of dough. These pretzels make the grade with the addition of
mustard enhancing the flavor rather than being it.
Score a big one for LEJ Pretzels.
No matter how accessible the world is as a result of digital
communications there’s nothing better than finding things that are “as
good as it gets” and available locally; just down the street
or across town. The Haile Village Farmers’ Market
is, as anyone who has read my postings already knows, one of my
favorite places to shop locally. Local produce, coffee, eggs, milk and
cheese are sold alongside locally made candies, breads and pastries and
ethnic entrees and sides.
Some of the vendors have expanded their cottage industries to become
commercial businesses and their products are available more widely. One
vendor who wants to do this is Nana
Pat's Goodies who makes some fine mustard! As I have
said previously, I am not a mustard guy, or I was not. But if your
mustard-concepts come from visits to baseball games in the 1950s where bright
yellow mustard slathered on steamed hot dogs was the standard and you
haven’t progressed beyond an occasional Grey Poupon commercial or
Gulden’s Spicy Brown, then it’s time to become more adventuresome and
Pat would like to make it easier to do so.
I, the former, non-mustard kinda guy, would not be without one of Nana
Pat’s varieties in the ‘frig. Doesn’t take much to edge a good roast
beef sandwich into being a great one, especially if it’s made with
flavorful, homemade bread! Adding her mustard to a roll filled with sausage
and ‘kraut amplifies the savory goodness. And she even makes a bicycle related mustard using Fat Tire Beer!
Nana Pat’s Goodies are available every Saturday morning in The Village
of Haile and her customer base is comprised of people who recognize a
quality product. Pat and that guy who hangs out with her are moving
toward going commercial, but would like to have some financial
assistance with an initial run of their product and have chosen to take
a digital route. GoFundMe is one of those online enterprises that
presents ideas and seeks funds to provide financial support to turn the
idea into a reality. Unlike telecom before the ’00 crash, Nana Pat’s
idea is not vaporware, it’s a tangible, honest product that she’d like
to make more accessible. The upside to seeking funding this way is that
she doesn’t have to plunge into debt to a lending institution. The
upside to everyone else is greater access to her culinary skills.
Nana Pat’s request, along with a brief video can be found on the
GoFundMe site at GoFundMe.com/i288xg. I should add
that she isn’t looking for tens of thousands of dollar to make a
levitating mustard, just a few thou' to defray costs for a
substantial initial production run of her most popular flavor,
"Midnight Oil Stout Molasses Mustard". Made with Midnight Oil
Stout, a dark beer produced by local
brewery, Swamp Head, it's thick and rich,
with coffee and oatmeal notes that come from the top quality
ingredients the folks at Swamp Head Brewery use.
Like local stuff? Good place to consider doing something locally.
As a response to the completion of Archer Braid Trail’s extension
through Haile Plantation one of the regular vendors at the Saturday
morning Farmers' Market has created a
product with bicycle riders (Gainesville Cycling Club members in
particular) in mind and is encouraging them to visit the Village.
I have never been much of a fan of mustard, except for when I was a kid
and went to Memorial Stadium in Baltimore where all hot dogs came with
bright yellow mustard. As my tastes have become moderately more
sophisticated I have appreciated the more robust flavors of what might
be called "real mustard". I may never become a dipper and use a jar of
mustard like hummus or guacamole, but I have learned that
mustard . . . some mustards . . . deserve a place in my kitchen.
Nana
Pat’s Goodies is one of the vendors at the Market who
has embraced the idea that people on bikes is good for the
Farmers’ Market.
Nana Pat makes
both sweet and savory things, but it is her mustard that matters here.
Her newest addition to the line of savories is Fat Tire Special, which
uses, can you guess, New Belgium’s Fat Tire Amber Ale as its base.
That, alone, would be reason enough to visit Haile Village on Saturday
or Union Street on Wednesday, BUT . . . are you ready? . . . GCC
members get a discount. A check of Nana Pat’s website blog says
it all; she doesn’t commonly offer deals. What’s the deal? Fifty
cents off the usual $7 large jar or two small jars (usually $4 each)
for the price of a large one, should you want to share the joy. The
blog posting also says that this is a limited time product, but I bet
demand would win out.
Anyone
wanting a seriously good
taste treat and wanting to buy locally should try Nana Pat’s stuff. For
those of you who like to favor things on facebook and encourage
others to treat themselves to something worthwhile, you can do it
there, too.
Even
if none of the regular merchants in The Village see the marketing value
of encouraging the use of ABT, at least one Saturday morning
vendor does.
