Food Concepts Inc. Interview

On November 20th, 2008 Ryan Wanger "The Reluctant Eater" and Vendor Hippo visited Food Concepts Inc. in Lakewood, CO. Food Concepts is a food manufacturing company where small businesses who produce food products can take their business to the next level and have their products placed on store shelves.

Colleen Stephens, Food Concepts Sales Manager, was gracious enough to give us her time and a short tour of their factory. Below is a video of our visit.

If you are a food vendor and are considering taking the leap from the farmers' market to the grocery store you should give Colleen a call. Not only can she set you up with getting your product packaged but she also acts as a consultant and can answer any question you may have about how to get started. If you think the store shelves are out of reach, think again. Food Concepts makes is easy and affordable!

For more information contact Colleen Stephens at:

303-202-9982

2545 Kipling Street

Lakewood, CO 80215

email: cdstephens@foodconcepts.com

Also, I would like to give Ryan Wanger a special thanks for all his help. (He didn't know he was going to be in front of the camera until he showed up!) Thanks Ryan!

The Hippo

Editing videos - Food Concepts, Inc.

A couple days ago Ryan Wanger (The Reluctant Eater) and I visited Food Concepts, Inc. in Lakewood, CO. The sales manager Colleen Stephens was kind enough to explain the concept behind Food Concepts and even give us a little tour of the plant. I just happened to have my video camera along so I decided to put Ryan on the spot and do a video of the tour.

I am currently putting together the video - having a lot of fun with it but I am now realizing what it means to edit video. It's very detailed because you must deal with the whole thing second by second and try to make something interesting, informative, and somewhat entertaining at the same time. Seeing as how this is my first real attempt at editing a video it is taking me some time. I hope to have it up on the site later today.

Btw - Ryan was an awfully good sport considering he didn't know he was going to be in front of the camera. Thanks Ryan!

Community Garden Photos

Took some photos of the proposed area for the Henderson Community Garden. Below is one of the photos of the lot looking to the west. The ground is farily level and covered with only low level weeds. The usable are is about 120 x 60 feet.

Looking to the west from Dayton Way. Looking Southwest from the corner.

Check out more photos and details by clicking here More photos!

Community Garden update

Below is a photo of the proposed area for the community garden. You can see the area outlined in pink of course. The area inside the sidewalks is 120' x 60'. I am told there is already water available there so that would make life a bit easier.
The location is nice. It is close to the center of the Belle Creek Community and being just off Hwy 85 (you can see on the right side of the photo) it is easily accessible. Parking isn't too bad because there are two large parking lots just one block away.

One of the concerns from the community board is the appearance. What will the garden look like when it is up and working? Of course they want it to be as eye-catching as possible. If anyone out there is into landscaping perhaps we can take some suggestions - how would you design this garden?

Hmmm, that's an idea! Perhaps we could have a competition to see who can design the best garden?

Bio-bag update

Follow-up from earlier blog regarding the use of biodegradable and compostable bags

Basically this is a great idea but it costs too much. I would be great to see these kind of items in wide use at the farmers markets especially considering how many are given out each year. If you have any ideas or suggestions let us know.

New videos coming online

We are having a blast creating the new videos on the Hippo website. The new videos I am referring to are those going on the business solution pages (insurance, merchant services, review, etc.) These videos explain the services or programs. We hope that these short vids will allow visitors to get an idea of what the program is about without having to sift through all the text on the pages. Try as I might to make the pages about insurance and merchant services exciting they are still a bit.....well, dry. I'm not saying that seeing a video with me will get any one's heart racing but I think it is a step in the right direction. Perhaps also, the vids will give the site more of that 'interactive' feel . We hope to have several more up soon.

So far we have videos up on the Blog Room, the Hippo Review, and the Insurance pages. It is still somewhat of a struggle to embed the videos so some of them are simply links to our youtube or google video sites. They work just fine that way so it is not a big issue. Besides, I am still mastering the editing process and they may change as I improve. I have to say that some of this techno stuff is a lot of fun.

Anyway, check out the vids and let me know what you think. And yes, I am trying to 'liven' them up a bit.