Spotlight: Cape Cod Cookie

Spotlight: The Cape Cod Cookie!

You’ve seen those shops-the Mom and Pop variety-everything from groceries, crafts, baked goods to auto shops. The little hole in the wall places where everything or virtually everything is homemade. I’m a sucker for homemade baked good. Today there are Wal-Mart's and Target's everywhere, these quaint little establishments are sometimes harder to find. I mean, how often do you to buy cookies at a local business when there’s a Wal-Mart down the street. But they are there, eking out a living in the best way they can.  The internet and Facebook are bringing to light these Mom and Pop shops.

Maybe, because the US is and has been considered the land of opportunity or maybe with the economy not doing so well people are taking a chance and starting their own businesses. The reasons for this shift are many. In some cases many are looking to supplement their household income, or they want to be something they are passionate about, maybe even both. For a number of these business it can go hand in had.

This blog, I am going to spotlight Carrie-Lee Touhey and the Cape Cod Cookie. Carrie-Lee is ½ of the Cape Cod Cookie. It’s an at home baking business specializing in drop style cookies and filled sandwich cookies, with their oatmeal based cookies being their top sellers. What started out as small mail order cookie business has turned into the beginnings of a thriving and delicious endeavor.

How did the Touhey’s come to the cookie conclusion? It started with Carrie-Lee’s family. She grew up with a grandmother that loved to bake and a mother that loved to cook. Home life was centered on food and there were large family meals every night. Her father, of Italian descent, cooked specialty meals, while mom was the nightly dinner chef, and then there was Gram the baker. With a house full of food, family, and love, how could she not find passion in food and baking?

It was in her early 20’s she seriously started creating her own recipes and received her first Kitchen Aid Mixer as a Christmas present. It wasn’t hard to see that baking was in her blood. In the Touhey house, her husband, Matt does the cooking and she usually does the baking. So, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree? Indeed, no!

It was about 5 years ago, (about 2007) the real idea of building and owning their own became a plan. Prior to this, there had always been talk about owning their own business. With the slumping economy, Carrie-Lee and Matt decided that now was a good time as any to start their journey to the Great American (Cookie) dream.

You would think it was easy to start your own business? Not so! After a trip to the board of Health, they discovered they needed to be ‘ServSafe’ certified. ServSafe is company that offers courses in food safety and preparation for those involved ‘owning or supervising food handling staff’. After a lot of studying and taking a big fancy test, Carrie-Lee and Matt were now certified in the ways of food preparation and safety. They have only begun. It was the 1^st step in a long line of steps to getting Cape Cod Cookie off the ground.

But, before they could get the Board of Health to issue a permit, they needed dry storage, proper means to record and keep food at the right temperature, and labeling, and certain types of water sources to name a few. Also, they discovered that after they trekked to the building department, they were told they weren’t commercially zoned. Even though they wouldn’t be selling their products on premise and were primarily a mail order business. Then there was the trip to the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) and the presentation they had to give to the panel. The Touhey’s went to get their zoning permit, because the law said that you could not sell good on or from premises.

What followed next resulted in a change to the by laws saying that goods can not be sold on premise, but may be sold from the premises. That meant that cookies baked in the Touhey home could be sold elsewhere, just at their home. They had set precedence. Talk about the power of the people! From there they were inspected by the Board of Health and given their permit. And then the true beginnings of the Cape Cod Cookie begin.

Their first Farmers Market was in winter 2009 at Mahoney’s Garden Center. They sold out in the first day! Oh, the lessons learned! Now they frequent between 5 to 7 summer markets, 3 winter markets and 2 to 3 days festivals throughout the summer. This is a family affair, from Matt, the Chief Baking Officer, to Carrie-Lee the Chief Operating Officer, and their 15 year old son, Cody who helps sell the cookies and does other general cookie duties. During the summer month especially, the days are long Carrie-Lee says. Matt is up most of the night baking, while she is up at 5am to help fill and decorate the day’s orders, Cody is up at 7am to pack cookies and make ready for that day’s market(s) with his Mom. Where they unload, set up, and sell until it’s time to break down and head to the next market. Often this process doesn’t end until 8 o’clock at night. Matt stays home with the 2 younger children while Carrie-Lee and Cody travel market to market to sell their wares. When Friday arrives, there’s set up and two days of cookie selling to be done. Then it starts all over again. It’s a gruel pace during the summer, but one the Carrie-Lee and her family seems to love and is thriving on.

So, why all this work you might ask your self? Carrie-Lee says that she wants the Cape Cod Cookie to be ‘Cape Cod’s only full service specialty cookie bakery located in the Heart of downtown Hyannis,’ after all, that’s where they are located. Here she envisions a place where children can make memories with their parents while on vacation, where folks can relax and enjoy a treat while enjoying some free Wi-Fi at their own store front café, the place to get an amazing after dinner dessert: afresh out of the oven cookie with locally homemade ice-cream.

How do Carrie-Lee and Matt planned to do this? Well, even hear of IndieGoGo? Click here to go to Carrie-Lee and Matt's campaign: Cape Cod Cookie IndieGoGo Campaign. It’s a mean’s of raising money. You create a campaign/project, highlight what you have or want to produce/make, how folks can help by donating, and have perks for those who donate money to your project. As of today, there are 13 days left of the Cape Cod Cookie’s campaign (wow, what a mouthful). Carrie-Lee and Matt are raising funds to open that store front bakery I mentioned earlier. The good news is that IndieGoGo offers options for you to tailor make your own campaign. You can choose Flexible Funding or Fixed. One allows you to keep the money that has been raised, even if your goal hasn’t been met, that is Flexible Funding. While Fixed Funding means that if you don’t meet you goal, the money is refunded back to your patrons. Even with that in mind, Carrie-Lee and Matt have a plan that they will use what funds they do get from IndieGoGo to open a kiosk (a mobile Food Cart) at their local mall. The exposure that would give them during the winter months could possibly turn a rewarding business into a lucrative one, just one more step to that full fledged bakery? You bet!

How do they get the word out? The advertising is mostly done through Facebook and “Constant Contact” which an internet tool that the Cape Cod Cookie uses for email marketing and monthly newsletters that update their fan base.

She also used YouTube a bit as a means of helping to promote the Cape Cod Cookie, after all back in the day Carrie-Lee was an avid vlogger on YouTube. Some of you may have heard of her channel, “AskCarrieLee.” She was quite the youtuber back in the day. Now her days are filled with cookies, cookies, and more cookies. Not that that's a bad thing, to her, it's something she wouldn't trade the world for.

Carrie-Lee and Matt are building something that they can pass onto their kids; a legacy of cookies, love, and the power of what you can do when you put your mind to it. Something to keep in mind when want to do something that it could be possible, if you want it bad enough. And a bit of wisdom from my friend James on what I think is very pertinent to life and living "...Choosing to live is very, very hard. But I'm here to tell you, you are strong enough - if you want to be. You have a greater destiny than this. And it's always there to be chosen." ~ James A. Owen, DRAWING OUT THE DRAGONS. I applaud Carrie-Lee and Matt for taking on the challenge of life, by living. I am doing to same by writing this blog, I want those out there to be inspired, entertained, or informed by my word. I am inspired by the Cape Cod Cookie and what it stands for, great quality products and hard work breeds success.

So, have I tried these cookies? Yes! I suppose you want to know what I think of them. Well. They are truly some of the best, if not the best cookies I have tasted. EVER! They tout that every ingredient that goes into their cookies are fresh and local. From my taste buds, I believe it. The Plymouth Pumpkin Spice cookies are so moist and delectable. My current favourites are Plymouth Pumpkin Spice, Harwich Hot Chocolate, and the Chatham Chocolate Chunk. They make get presents or great excuse to enjoy a wonderfully baked cookie. Check them out at: Cape Cod Cookie or Cape Cod Cookie Facebook.

I hope you check them out, maybe even help their dream along. ~Cue sappy music~ "If just one person believes in you, Deep enough, and strong enough, believes in you...Hard enough, and long enough, It stands to reason, that someone else will think 'If he can do it, I can do it.'" ~from Snoopy: the Musical.

Spotlight: Hannah Rei

Spotlight: Hannah-Rei

If you’ve been on the internet and I figure most of you have, especially if you are reading this. The internet is full of music, comedy, silliness, weird shit, and countless other things. The facet of the internet that fascinates me the most for this blog is the music. Anywhere you go on the internet now a day you can find music.

“If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.”  -William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

I think Will said it best. Music at its core is food, something that we inherently need, or we die. I have had many moments in my life that music has touched me, have helped me through a speed bump or three, or just made me smile.

“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” –Victor Hugo, Hugo's Works: William Shakespeare

In this day, when the internet plays such a critical role in our lives, something as important as music becomes easier to access, from iTunes and Amazon mp3 to youtube and spotify, music is everywhere. There is very often a song for every mood. I know with myself, that I will pick music to listen to that reflects my mood; when I am happy, I will listen to Great Big Sea or Katie Perry, often when I am angry I will listen to Meatloaf or Weird Al, and when I want to write it’s anything instrumental (Celtic or classical), Celtic Woman, or Katie Perry.

In the last few years, I have taken to the internet in search of music, sometimes to just listen to my favourite tunes on youtube, Pandora, or Spotify (which I haven’t tried yet, future Blog idea?), or to discover to some untapped music.

You see, there are dozens, no, hundreds, wait, thousands of musicians and bands out there trying to make it in the world. I’m sure if I listed some here you would probably think, ‘who the heck is that?’ right? Well, that’s the idea! Have you heard of Lindsay Stirling or Hannah-Rei? No? Well, some of you have, but the point is that some of you haven’t. I want to bring to the surface some of these artists that you may have not heard of, or have only briefly heard of.

In the main stream music there are so many artists, genres, and styles of music, that I could blog everyday and not repeat. In this year 2012 there's Justin Beiber, Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepsen to name a few. Many of these artists I could do without, personally, but also I could discuss the inherit benefits of Katie Perry (you know you listen to ‘Last Friday Night’!) But here I would like to spotlight artists that are certainly not mainstream or even signed, yet, that is.

This week (hopefully on a regular basis), I would like to spotlight an artist that I think deserves a bit of press who is from the other side of the pond (well depends on where you are from). Hannah Rockcliffe is from Wakefield, West Yorkshire and goes by the moniker, Hannah-Rei has recently release her first full LP “Time to Play,” she was kind enough to let me interview her about life, music, and the future.

Born to a highly musical family, Hannah’s father played piano, so she was surrounded by music at an early age. At the age of 11, she wrote her first song. “I had a Music homework assignment to write a song and I enjoyed it so much that I didn't stop.” It wasn’t the best song Hannah admits, but it certainly had form and rhyme. A soul singer from the onset, Hannah finds influences from Stevie Wonder and John Legend. Soul music is the music that really resonates the most with her; and her first love musically was Michael Jackson.

She studied math, science, and music in school. She continued her music studies at University where she studied songwriting. It was there; at Bath Spa University that she met Sophie Ball and for a class wrote “The Beard Song”, this was to be the first of many that the comedic duo would write as the internet team “Rocky and Balls.” They wrote songs and made videos on youtube and gained quite the following, with songs called “The Skills Song”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO1QM2rH3KE, “Love Cake” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c38W5YQ5PdQ, and “I <3 U Online” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vVdWHADKto  also they were building solo careers.

Hannah graduated from Bath Spa University with a MA in Songwriting and began her musical journey to building her own musical following. She released her first EP “Reminisce” in February 15, 2010, a 5 track EP of heartfelt soul songs with her singing and playing the piano. I will admit that I discovered Hannah through the Rocky and Balls videos, but then I checked out Hannah’s personal youtube channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/hannahrei01. Here she posts original content and covers. I was so very impressed with her voice and skills on the piano. It was like her fingers danced across the keyboard. After a while of following her video I purchased “Reminisce” and was wonderfully surprised and thrilled with the music and the production value. Stand out tracks are “Another Chance” and “Do It All Again”. It’s just Hannah and her piano, but you can hear everything. It’s piercing, pure, and positively (I love alliteration) a great listen.

Two years later, she released another EP, “Heartstrings” a 4 track EP which I feel has a rawer, yet purer sound. It’s like she pours herself out there for her fans. It is truly touching and awesome. There’s piano and guitar here. Stand out tracks, “In the Beginning” and “Baby Baby Baby”.

 When asked how she feels she can best promote herself as an unsigned artist, she comments that doing her live shows on BlogTV.com. “I have found that my BlogTV gigs are the best way to promote my music so far. I think that when people get to see me play live it makes a difference.” Turning into Hannah’s weekly BlogTV: http://www.blogtv.com/people/Hannah-Rei show has given me a greater view of her talents and learned more about her as a person. She has covered artists the likes of Adele, Ed Sheeran, Emeli Sande, Beyonce, and John Legend. She cites herself as a soul artist and highly influence by R & B and Soul, she also says, “I am quite in awe of people who have a really eclectic taste in music, because I wish I could find a wider range of artists that excite me.  I would say however that I can find lots of songs that I like from many different genres but not so many artists.”

There is a sincerity that Hannah exudes in her music. I have never been a HUGE R & B fan, but there a number of her covers that I find myself enjoying her take on these songs.

“The internet has definitely opened up my fan base globally,” says Hannah. This year has brought some awesome changes to Hannah as she has been able to write and record her first full length album, “Time to Play” released in November. The 10 track album which has been released digitally features a number of tracks that Hannah has featured on her live streaming web shows, in fully produced and epically amazing tacks (okay, I’m a tad biased). Bias aside, Hannah has stepped it up with “Time to Play” with new fully produced tracks and yet retaining her powerful voice and passion for writing. Stand out tracks include “Superhero”, “Elastic”, and “Upside Down.” The best part is the she returned to previous songs and revamped “In the Beginning” from “Reminisce” with an edgier sound.

When asked what she has planned for the next 5 years, 10 years, Hannah responded that she hopes that she will have been signed and release one, if not two albums. She is currently playing gigs in the UK, with hopes for greater tours and even coming to the US. 

May the great muses dance in your head to aid you, Hannah. I hope that you, Internet will be a bit curious to check out her music at: http://www.hannah-rei.com. The not to be put down artist and great all around person, Hannah-Rei. You can follower her on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace: https://www.facebook.com/Hannahrei01 and http://www.twitter.com/hannahrei01, http://www.myspace.com/hannahrockcliffe.