Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Meat
A co-worker turns out to also raise cattle locally. It will be nice to be able to offer meat-based soups knowing the provenance of the meat. To say, "We know the cattle farmer, we've seen the cattle ranch, we've met the cattle," for the beef based soups will add that little something to the Cracked Cauldron, especially with the media hyping up Mad Cow disease.
Plus, to be able to actually know the history of the cattle, to be able to say it's supporting local cattle farmers just feels good.
We found the company that will likely be our accounting firm yesterday as well, so that's another hurdle towards opening almost completed.
Another co-worker has a wheat farm, they funnel into a local flour mill, so we will likley patronize them as well.
And they have a friend who raises pigs, so we can get our pork from a local source. All we need is local poultry, fish, and dairy sources, and we'll be in good from that perspective.
We'll need to import some of the cheeses we'll use in the baked goods, and possibly some fruits, and some of the less common flours.
There's a used restaurant supply and furniture shop down on 23rd, we'll take a look at them and see if they can supply some of our equipment needs. However, if the used equipment costs the same or almost the same as new, we'll opt for new. We found a Hobart floor mixer used (and it looked as if it had been used hard) for $8,000.00. New, the newer model of the same type is $10,000. Unless we can find a better used deal, we'll go for the new one.
