The Board Chronicles is an ongoing series of articles about the adventures of Mrs M’s Handmade as a vendor at community festivals & craft fairs. Mrs M’s subsidiary, Mr M’s Woodshop, has been approved to create this chronicle for the good of vendorkind.
There is nothing like an event in your home town. Easy transport. Sleep in your own bed. Smiles from lots of familiar faces.
What could go wrong?
New Ideas
A new display for cutting boards! It only took me about 18 months to take the time to build it.
A new display for handled boards! This did not take as long, but definitely upped my game from using the cast-off crates from Mrs M’s unused display as I had been doing.
I have live edge side tables, or perhaps a coffee table, available this weekend. First time. They were made by a buddy and our local contractor, Steve Mark of Steve Mark Construction. Truly great work. Wonder if there are furniture buyers at the Home & Garden Show?
Observations
This is one of the very few events that I do a triple booth at. This means I must put up the 10’x20′ Trimline canopy as well as a 10’x10′ pop-up. I then put 13x tables in the booth to show … everything. Well, not really. Today with my built out foodie inventory, I had no room for cribbage boards, chess boards, or Magic Bottle Openers. In a triple booth, I am out of room. l think I have a problem.
Set up is on Friday, and I actually had some help. I brought in the Cat Sitter for some help, and then our contractor, Steve Mark, lent a hand since I was going to sell a couple of tables he made. Loved the help.
Before I left check-in, I was cautioned – as was everyone – that high winds were expected overnight in Santa Clarita. Keep your canopies low and weighted! I, of course, do this routinely and wind, though a real concern, is nothing that I worry about in normal conditions. The canopies went up, the weights and ratchet straps went on, and my canopies will not move.
2 other canopies were lost to wind during set up. I heard product breaking on some gusts throughout the weekend.
Hometown.
Set up was fairly simple with the help. I got it done in about 5 hours, start to finish. That left some touch ups, price signs and cracker displays to be done before the 10a start on Saturday.
One quirk of this show is that they always shut off vehicle access for Saturday morning. No drive into the site to drop off inventory on Saturday. Not a problem, just plan ahead. I have a little wheeled crate to make carrying in my electronic gear (charged overnight) and cooler easier to bring in from the parking lot. That was commented on; not everyone lets wheels do the work.
First customer was the husband of an exhibitor. I inquired about her business … she’s a medium, helps contact the departed. That was the first time I have heard that answer at any event.
An older gentleman approached, walking with a cane. “OK, here’s a quiz. What kind of wood is this?” I unfortunately had no idea. He then explained it was an Irish Shillelagh, made from a root of some tree or bush. Still didn’t know what it was!
One conversation I often have (perhaps 5 times this weekend) is … “You don’t cut meat on this board, do you?” The answer, of course, is YES. Some believe meat should be cut on a separate board – this is often due to a fear of bacteria. However, wooden cutting boards are actually naturally anti-bacterial. Research done at the University of Wisconsin and UC Davis has found that, when you infect and then test the bacterial growth on all of the different cutting board surfaces, you’ll find wooden cutting boards have less bacteria after an hour, and after a day. Naturally.
Bacteria can come from ANY food, not just meat. If your lettuce is infected with bacteria when you chop it, then anything cut on the board after that will get tainted if you are not using good clean techniques with your raw food. Without good technique, it really doesn’t matter what cutting board you use, because you can get sick.
I did this explanation, explained how to keep a cutting board clean, and the lady became a customer. I love happy endings.
Hometown.
Saturday was a day of special orders: 4 separate orders were taken, practically simultaneously. I got ‘whelmed early, and had 4 transactions happening all at once. Life gets exciting in the hometown.
Legacy customers are the best part of local events. One customer stood in the middle of the booth and said, “I have one of those, and one of those, and….”
Nothing like local.
Mrs M still has fans out there … I was asked again when Mrs M will return with her soaps and lotions and such. I have a standard answer: I don’t know. I encourage you, dear reader, to talk to her and demand she get back to making, as I am out of my soap. She formulated it just for me. A delicate flower, I am, and I need my soap.
Many people verified I was a local vendor throughout the event. My house is about 3 miles from the event site. And the logo does say it all:
Come to find out I made a mistake on the cutting board display. I knew that I wanted the dowels holding the boards upright to be 8″ apart … but I neglected to consider that a diagonal between dowels was not the same as a vertical line. Ooopsie. Good thing I make everything to be modular. The legs get smaller, the display will be perfect.
I was an hour into my strike when a lady walked up with her son and wanted to buy a cutting board. She was local … but I had the containers (already packed) right there, so I agreed to open some containers to see if any of the boards on hand would speak to her. One did.
It was my biggest sale of the weekend. You just never know when a customer will find you, and when they do, you need to be present. Had I left early, this would have never happened.
The event ended at 4p Sunday, and then my hard work began. I struck the event by myself. It is one of my largest set ups, and I didn’t find help. My bad. I finished about 8:15p, and was in the shower by 8:35p. Dinner quickly followed, and I did not move much after that. As I write this on Monday … the ibuprofen helps. Always.
Going a-vendoring is a glorious, fun thing to do … separated by long stints of very hard work. Be prepared. Always.
Those tables by Steve Mark did not find their forever home this weekend. Pictures are below. And they are still in my truck, so….
This was my 8th year doing this event. I have done it every year since 2015 … since we’re in California, the event was shut down in the covid years. Of course. In any event, in our 11th year of going a-vendoring, here are a few observations for you vendor types:
This is the largest vendor event in Santa Clarita. Largest attendance as well.
However, it is not necessarily the home of the largest sales for every handmade vendor. Home & Garden Shows, after all, are famous for being about … your home & garden. So having a great display of handmade goods may not be a perfect solution for you, depending on what you sell. If you are selling air conditioning services, you may think this is a much better event. Of course, their booth costs are much greater than for vendors of those handmade goods. Thank goodness.
Be clear, I LOVE this event, and it is my top event in Santa Clarita. But is it the best event I do? Alas, no. I have better events when I am out of town … and not sleeping in my own bed. Life is full of trade-offs.
Apparently.
As always, your mileage will vary.
See you out there!
The Food
Best Meal: Velda cooked a steak from Jess & Jim’s Steak House in Kansas City … we get beef from there as a Christmas present. Steak for the win. Of course.
Honorable Mention: Sunday dinner was Polish sausage & mashed potatoes. Velda’s comfort food after a very hard day. Oh, and there was bourbon.
The Facts
Total miles driven: 24
# of people we met during the event from the producer: Many, as always. I knew the people at my hometown radio station long before I went a-vendoring. I worked in the radio industry for nearly 3 decades, after all!
Visits in the booth by a promoter’s representative: sure. Lots.
It was time to embrace the chaos and make some chaos boards. I mean, look around. Right?
I last did this 5 years ago, and my techniques have been refined a bit. To make these boards, I selected 256 boards, each 24″ long. The boards were from 21 hardwood species, and were glued up initially into 15x different laminates. These had 3x different thicknesses, which were smoothed and then cut into strips that were 1-5/8″ wide to turn them into end grain boards.
And I was just getting started.
Those 1-5/8″ strips were then selected so that each of the 13x end grain glue ups I made had at least one strip from each of the original laminates. After the glue was fully cured, each end grain glue up was cut apart at a 5* angle. Glue cured, and they were then cut again, each at a different angle. Different widths. More glue curing time, and then I did it again. And then a 5th glue-up to get to where we are today: 9x very colorful chaos boards. Each is a minimum of 13-1/2″ x 19″; most are 14″ x 19″.
And there is a bonus, a new design of chaos board that in this case only has 2 species of wood. I call this design Confetti. Here you see that board as it started through the CNC for initial smoothing. That is a difficult step, as the multiple glue-ups leave a very ragged top and bottom that requires significant machining to get smooth. That process started on the CNC, and then moved to the drum sander … then finally to hand sanding and my normal hand-rubbed finish of mineral oil and locally-harvested beeswax.
The main project, though, was what became 9x Chaos Boards featuring 21x species, from 3 continents. Here are the woods used:
Afrormosia
Ash
Black Walnut
Bloodwood, AKA Satine
Bubinga
Canarywood
Cherry, AKA Black Cherry
Goncalo Alves, AKA Tigerwood
Hard Maple
Hickory
Honey Locust
Jatoba, AKA Brazilian Cherry
Makore
Osage Orange, AKA Hedge
Padauk
Purpleheart
Sapele, AKA African Mahogany
Wenge
White Oak
Yellowheart
Zebrawood
All of the boards have a chamfered edge (a cut, in this case, at a 45* angle) on each side, for easy pick up of the board. To ensure a dependable, un-moving work surface, all boards have non-skid rubber feet held on with stainless steel screws for long life. 5 of these boards have juice grooves that are 3/4″ wide and 3/8″ deep. 5 have no juice grooves, just the way Mrs M likes them. You get to choose to be groovy, or not. Mrs M made her choice. Just saying. I mean, she married me. Obviously.
Chaos 1 of 9. End Grain. 13-3/4″ x 19″ x 1-3/8″. $300.
Chaos 2 of 9. End Grain. Juice Groove. 14″ x 19″ x 1-3/8″. $325.
Chaos 3 of 9. End Grain. 14″ x 19″ x 1-3/8″. $325.
Chaos 4 of 9. End Grain. Juice Groove. 14″ x 19″ x 1-3/8″. $325.
Chaos 5 of 9. End Grain. 14″ x 22″ x 1-3/8″. $325.
Chaos 6 of 9. End Grain. Juice Groove. 14″ x 19″ x 1-3/8″. $325.
Chaos 7 of 9. End Grain. 14″ x 20-1/2″ x 1-3/8″. $325.
Chaos 8 of 9. End Grain. Juice Groove. 14″ x 19″ x 1-3/8″. $325.
Chaos 9 of 9. End Grain. 13-3/4″ x 19″ x 1-3/8″. $300.
Confetti Chaos Board. First one made. Hard Maple & Purpleheart. End Grain. Juice Groove. 14-1/2″ x 22″ x 1-3/8″. $325.
There are 4 questions to answer before you buy a cutting board … but I have some tips that will help inform those decisions for you. No wrong answers here: your cutting board is yours, and you need to like it. What other people do is their business. Thank goodness.
So, here are those all important 4 questions:
What size do you want the board to be?
What color do you want the board to be?
End grain or edge grain?
Juice groove or no?
When you answer those, you will make sure you are getting the board or boards you want and need. But here are those tips that will help smooth your process.
Where are you going to use the board? Is it mobile? Beside the sink? Beside the stove? On the island? Or … ? Wherever that special place is, get out your measure and see what the dimensions of the space are. If you have a galley kitchen with standard cabinets, you have 24” of depth to use. If you have appliances against the wall, then you only have 12” or depth or so to work with.
How many are you cooking for? Cooking for a family of 4 is different from cooking for you and your spouse. If this is a general purpose board that will be used to prepare large meals, I would recommend at least 14” X 18”.
Is this board single purpose? Some cooks like a dedicated board to only do onions and that stinking rose, garlic. Every cook is different. Maybe you want a set of 3 that are dedicated for meat, vegetables or bread. You get to choose. But, each of those purposes can dictate a different size and shape.
Does the board live on the counter, or do you need to store it at times? Storage of a board can be difficult the larger the board is. A handled board, though, can hang on the wall and add to the warmth of your kitchen.
Bigger is not always better. Cooks that prepare large hunks of meat often want very large, thick boards – but those come at a cost. Heavy is difficult to move, big is difficult to clean, not to mention storage! There is no need for a board to be more than 1-1/2” thick. More than that is making a statement, for sure, but it is not improving the performance of the board.
Smaller is not always better, either. The thinner the board, the less stable and more prone to warping or twisting it becomes. I do make my smallest boards, AKA Cheese Boards, about 8” x 10” x 5/8”, and those laminated assemblies are stable. People that use the ¼” thick bamboo boards sold in grocery stores … well, they will have issues using them, almost immediately.
End grain boards are harder and show less wear, but they require more time and better tools to construct properly. Time is often needed to custom order a “perfect” end grain board. Plan ahead.
Edge grain boards are perfectly fine when made from good hardwood. A quality cutting board will last for decades with minimal care. It all comes down to … do you like stripes? Or fancy patterns that look a little like a chess board?
Mrs M is a hard NO for juice grooves, and she is a serious cook, smoker & BBQ boss. Many people want juice grooves (they get to choose!), but the grooves do shrink the usable space available on the board. Add 2” to the height and width if you are getting a juice groove.
If you get a groove, make sure it is big enough to clean with your finger. And a brush or cloth! My standard is 3/4” wide x 3/8” deep. Smaller and deeper will cause you problems. I do also make grooves 1-1/4” wide on my Carnivore Boards, which is needed if you want to corral the juices from your Thanksgiving turkey.
Before you buy your board, pick one up. Move around with it. Cleaning it is a daily task, frequently multiple times in one meal when you practice good sterile technique. Make sure the board fits you as well as your kitchen.
I love talking to people about cutting boards. Good thing, huh?
But, seriously, I love the subject. Part of the joy I find is that everyone has a different view of what their cutting board should be. I think there are 4 questions:
What size of cutting board do you want?
What color do you want your board to be?
End grain, or edge grain?
Juice groove, or no?
No answer is wrong. Everyone’s situation is different! My job is to (hopefully) have a nice selection for people to choose from … because the choices are truly infinite.
Here are the latest additions to the selections I have on hand.
The sign in my booth says “Mr M’s Trivets – Protecting Hot Stuff Since 2017.”
And people still ask me, “What’s a trivet?” It’s a funny word, so I can see how people that are non-native English speakers might be challenged, but it’s more than that. Many people just aren’t familiar with the term – in any language. I’ve watched the younger generation ask their elders what a trivet is in their native language and get blank stares.
So that’s the first surprise: many people do not know what a trivet is. So my task is to help educate people, one trivet at a time.
The second surprise is much more artistic.
My trivets are popular, and the most popular purchase … is two, mismatched trivets.
I make the trivets from “blanks,” as I call them. Each blank makes 2x trivets, so people can buy a matched pair. They just don’t want to!
Well, not usually, anyway. Mrs M did want a matched set, so she did not embrace her love of chaos in this particular case. Not predictable, that one. Believe me, after 45 years, I don’t even try to predict her.
But I do work to protect the wonderful hot stuff coming from her kitchen.
Here are the latest trivets for shoppers this holiday season.
And with that statement, I define the most interesting thing about Lazy Susans.
No one knows WHY we call Lazy Susans … Lazy Susans. No one.
The first written instance that has been found was in a Vanity Fair magazine over a 100 years ago. My first Lazy Susans introduced this fact way back in 2014, when the Woodshop idea was but a dream. I did quickly learn that I could make Lazy Susans that people really liked … even as they had no idea why they called Susan Lazy.
See the link below back to that original post that explored the origins of a favorite serving piece. And, here you see the latest additions to my collection of the latest torments to all of the Susans in the world.
My Susans are about 17.5″ in diameter. The bearing that revolves is rated for 500 pounds … but I wouldn’t go there. As the weight increases, inertia will be a powerful problem to overcome. Because … physics.
Who knew that Susans being lazy could be so instructional?
Then I found the hardware needed to make cheese slicers. And, here we are.
Slicers are all approximately 7″ wide and 11″ long. The tightly stretched wire will cut hard cheese, soft cheese … all cheese. If you are an eater of cheese, you need to be a slicer of cheese.
There are now 22x of these slicers available, and pricing is between $50 and $90.
I’ve been making wooden coasters for a while now (though I’ve been out for over a year, so….).
In any event, I have seen wooden coasters made by others … and found them wanting.
The purpose of a coaster is to protect the table surface from water condensation and scratches from the bottom of the glass. The purpose of the coaster is NOT to use up a woodworker’s small “scrap.”
I don’t have scrap. Ever. I use the wood that I have, and find what each piece of wood should be. That’s my job.
So, I make coasters on blanks that make 4x coasters. Each blank is 22″ long, and has to go through the CNC and the table saw to make a 5″ square piece of wood … with a 4″ cork insert on one side.
I have found that some people like 4 matched coasters, how I make them. However, there are many people that like a set of 4 coasters that are similar but not exactly alike. These are what I call chaos coasters, and these are Mrs M’s people. My mind is much more linear. Hers is more … chaotic.
I mean no disrespect. Believe me?
So, coasters come in sets of 4. Some are matchy matchy, and some are … in chaotic groupings. Y’all get to choose.
Well, not really. I’ve had it stored on end in the cut-offs rolling cart for most of that time, waiting for me to figure out what it was. The cut off was about 30″ long, 8″ wide … and I wasn’t sure what it was. It had really pretty, creamy sapwood on both sides, some bark, and that vibrant yellow from newly smoothed Osage Orange in sort of an hourglass shape down the middle.
It was pretty. But I didn’t know what it was.
So, as I occasionally do, I went to what’s her name for inspiration. It went something like this.
Me: “This board is pretty, but I don’t know what to do with it. What should I do with it?”
Her: “Make something.”
Me: “But what should I make? I like this wood.”
Her: “Cut it up and make a board.”
I swear that’s what she said.
See? Great inspirational dialogue. That’s why we’ve been married for 45 years.
So here is that pretty board. Pure Osage Orange, AKA Hedge. The vibrant yellow will darken with age and UV exposure, and end up being a medium brown. The creamy sapwood (newer growth) will not change color much, I believe.
Small Board 23 – 401a. Osage Orange. Approximately 9″ x 11″ x 5/8″. Non-skid rubber feet.
Since the Lady was so much help, I left an Easter Egg for you to enjoy.
The Board Chronicles is an ongoing series of articles about the adventures of Mr M’s Woodshop as a vendor at community festivals & craft fairs. Learn about the horrors of The Road. Read the impossible demands of the people that know what I should really be doing. In short, it’s the comedy of errors that has become my life, presented here, like my cutting boards, as simple unvarnished truth. All for your amusement … and for the good of vendor-kind.
I was very excited about journeying to Northern California to be a part of the California Artisan Cheese Festival in Santa Rosa. I’ve always been focused on serving pieces, and this seemed like a very nice, targeted event.
The year was 2020, and then the world went to hell.
The 2020 event was cancelled due to covid, of course, like almost every public event in California that year. And again in 2021. And, for many events especially early in the year, 2022 was not different. For 3 years, this event was lost to me.
Finally, 2023 became a new opportunity. Thank goodness.
This Festival is a series of events over a long weekend with artisan cheese classes, food pairing events, farm tours and more. On Sunday afternoon, a vendor event is produced with a very large group of artisanal cheese producers – many with their own herds for true farm-to-table cheese – as well as related vendors including vintners, brewers, distillers … and woodworkers, among others. About 100 vendors were gathered for this 5 hour event.
New Ideas
I broke many rules to do this event.
This is a one-day, 5 hour event. I don’t do one-day events.
Since this event was 400 miles away from our home, I had to drive and stay in a hotel for … a one-day, 5 hour event. That never would have happened independently of any other good ideas, so…
Mrs M made a rare appearance at this event, playing the part of a Foodie enjoying the best of cheese while I was working like a dog in the booth. So, the event became the *excuse* to do a long weekend in Wine Country. We spent 5 days visiting Healdsburg, Sonoma, St Helena, and more. If you like wine, if you like food, if you like to wander … wine country is a great getaway.
Since I was all in for the event, the first event of 2023 … I created Serving Trays as a base for Charcuterie Kits to debut at this event.
I didn’thave walls (the event is indoors at the county fairgrounds, no canopies/frames allowed), so I could not hang pictures. And I had just done nice photography of the charcuterie kits … so I did a thing. I produced a Power Point presentation to show on my tablet, which was mounted on the table above the serving trays. The mount cost all of $22 and displayed the “boards in action” photos that really help illustrate what my boards can help you do. New presentation idea, powered by a portable battery we have to re-charge cellphones at un-powered events. Worked like a charm!
This was a getaway weekend, with a destination of a single booth at a targeted event … so I left the trailer at home, and packed the truck with what I needed. The limiting factor of the truck meant I left many products at home, but focused exclusively on serving pieces appropriate for artisanal cheese, charcuterie boards … or whatever people serve things on.
Observations
The display was more farmer’s market than fancy art boutique. It was a very casual atmosphere, a table top event (which, again, I never do these days). The promoter provided 2 8′ tables with short table cloths. I brought an additional 4′ table, and that was the total base of the display.
We arrived at 8a, and were set up by 9:30. The event didn’t start until 11, so we were perhaps a bit early. But you never know what the challenges are at a new event in an unfamiliar venue. It’s good to relax and check out the event before the masses arrive.
Mrs M being there means that she messes with my display. She improves the look of the booth, she says. She makes it better, she says. She increases sales, she says.
I have no idea what she’s talking about.
The floor was busy during this event. Estimated attendance of 1,500, all there to sample cheese and wine … and beer and nuts and bread and whatever vendors were giving away. Lines were 20+ people deep, 8-10 minutes for a “hot” vendor like Cowgirl Creamery or Beehive Cheese Company.
I had talked to the promoters about my unique presentation (compared to the food vendors sampling their creations, I was the weird one). They put me in a corner booth so people could walk on 2 sides of the booth. That was good.
They also put me across the building, in front of the bandstand. That was bad. (The band was primarily acoustic with a banjo, clarinet, tuba and percussionist. Very fun Americana music and not too loud.)
They also put me on the path to the bathroom. That was good. I guess.
Booth locations are something that I do my best to ignore, honestly. Vendors don’t control them. Why get upset about where you are when it’s someone else’s decision? I’ve run events. I’ve assigned vendors to booth locations. I’ve also dealt with upset vendors that just lost their minds because their location … wasn’t whatever they thought it should be. I don’t want to be that guy. My location was FINE. People could see me. We were not blocked by a line. If people were looking for a wooden object, they knew where I was.
But I brought cheese boards … I didn’t bring chess boards. That was a request. As were book shelves. I politely said sorry! … just as I happily dispensed free advice on how to deal with a permanently mounted wooden cutting board embedded into a stone counter. I am old, so I must be wise. I guess.
There were actually 4 woodworkers there. Two were really focused on traditional cutting boards and one exclusively made seascape resin boards using that dreaded bulbous grass, AKA bamboo, as their base. Truly I did not compete with any of them.
My first 3 sales were Charcuterie Kits and Serving Trays. Vindicated, I was.
And I said that out loud to the Lady. So, of course, I didn’t sell another one.
For a five hour event that was an excuse to drive 400 miles … this was a winner. I sold enough to pay the entire hotel bill, gas and vendor fee. The Lady got to geek out on cheese … and found the highly-sought cheeses that are used in the world’s best grilled cheese sandwich (found at the Rustic Bakery & Muir Woods National Forest) as well as the fabulous Very Adult Mac & Cheese from the Market in St Helena. Both of these dishes served as destinations for us during the weekend, so buying the necessary cheeses was a great coup.
Sometimes, going a-vendoring is about the journey, not the destination. I’m taking the win on this one.
The Food
When we travel, the Lady busies herself in the passenger seat stalking restaurants in our destination city to choose the ultimate, best dinner she could find. It’s her thing. This trip, however, it just worked out that we did lunches as our culinary adventures, and “settled” for take out most evenings.
Best Meal: Pizza Verde at The Journeyman, an Italian charcuterie in Healdsburg that makes their own sausage salumi. The pizza featured soppressata, an Italian sausage sometimes made by pressing the meat between 2 boards. It was amazing. And we just might have purchased a lot of sausage to bring home. And a guillotine to cut it. And joined their meat club. Hey, we were on vacation.
The Other Best Meal: A pannini-style grilled cheese sandwich, the Marin Melt, with Rustic Bakery‘s Honey Whole Wheat bread, Two cheeses are combined: Cowgirl Creamery Mt Tam and Point Reyes Toma cheese.
Honorable Mention: Very Adult Mac & Cheese, The Market, St Helena. I added chicken, the Lady added crab. Draw your own conclusions. We had this dish a few years ago when we visited Little Girl at her nearby college, Sonoma State in Rohnert Park. Simply fabulous food. Worthy of being a destination.
Worst Meal: We went out one night, Monday night. Most restaurants were closed (oops). Choice # 1 was an Italian restaurant that wanted reservations (double oops). Desperation drove us to another relatively well reviewed Italian restaurant, Alfredo’s in Petaluma. It was horrid. Made the Lady sick, even. My belief is the Mexican American cooks had no clue how to follow the Italian recipes they were given. Every dish was just … off. Mrs M later found a couple of bad reviews that talked about “cooks in training.” Sorry, not for a dinner costing over $100 for 2 with no alcohol.
The Facts
Total miles driven: 852
Booth cost: $250
# of people we met during the event from the producer: 4
Visits in the booth by a promoter’s representative: several
Returning next year? Yes. This is a great event for cheese enthusiasts … and Mr M’s Woodshop belongs there.
