Remember my last blog post, about the Palo Alto farmers' market, where I promised to speak at greater length about the amazingness that is American Spoon Foods and everything that comes out of their kitchen?
Well, I'm moved to speak sooner than I thought, because I just discovered something ridiculously cool---American Spoon Foods has a blog. A detailed, adorable blog, complete with pictures of the chefs at work and hunger-pang inducing close-ups of fruit in various stages of the canning (is that the right word? maybe preserving?) process.
It's called Spoon Blog. SPOON BLOG. Love it (as only a truly obsessive blogger could).
I'm getting a little ahead of myself here. Let me pause my rapture to explain to those of you who haven't yet tasted American Spoon's products what exactly this company does, and why it's so good.
American Spoon runs of out mid-sized kitchen in Petoskey, Michigan (a very small town in the northern reaches of the state). Their mission is (as stated on their website, which you must visit, credit card in hand):"to produce the finest fruit preserves in the world from Michigan fruit.
And that's exactly what they do, and have done, for going on thirty years.
Every year they harvest fruit from Northern Michigan farms and transform it into luscious, spoon-able preserves, with flavor so fresh local pie-makers refuse to use anything else as filling.
American Spoon's fruit alchemy results in an abundance of unique products. The most popular are the spoon fruits (my favorite flavor is Sour Cherries, an opinion shared by novelist Ann Patchett in a recently published article about Petoskey and American Spoon in the New York Times). You can also try fruit mustards, butters, relishes, and BBQ sauces.
I first learned about American Spoon when I received a sampler box as a gift from a friend who lives in Petoskey. I've been ordering them ever since, and would definitely recommend their boxes and baskets to anyone shopping for someone hard to please.
But even if you detest fruit preserves and have no interest in local farming or cooking/food in general, Spoon Blog is worth checking out. The blog is exemplary, a perfect manifestation of many of the techniques and tips talked about in blogging webinars on active rain and other guides for real estate marketing online. It uses pictures to tell a story and capture a reader's attention, is updated regularly, and presents information in an accessible and approachable manner. The blog's voice is clear and friendly--it's not selling, it's SHARING, and that gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling that's definitely more conducive to placing an online order than a stark list of products.
Here are some links backing up my rave review of American Spoon--
Ann Patchett's NY TIMES Article "As American as Cherry Pie"
A list of highlighted reviews from the Spoon website--even VOGUE loves this place.
A cherry shout-out in the the Washington Post!
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