And we still have GARLIC, lots of garlic – great discount on large orders of garlic.

Drop a note if you are looking for something, we’ll see if we can get it for you. And if you drive by, and see the door open, please drop in! And do drop by tomorrow, our last day.

We’ll keep you posted with exciting updates on our web page and on fb in the new year!

For Stanley Cup Final game day, we’re offering 25% off a fruit pie with a meat pie purchase. Or purchase a freezer pack – 3 regular meat pies and a fruit pie for $55. The pies are big, perfect for your game day guests.

Let us do all the work for your guests on Game Day…Go Canucks!

We won’t have our little pie truck at the Qualicum farmers market, so look for our tent and signs.

If you want us to bring something for you to a market, please let us know in advance. We don’t take all our items to the market, but can bring almost anything along that you’d like.

Looking forward to seeing you at the markets!

There’s a catch though….we really, really, REALLY recommend you call ahead to ensure you get your pie for Easter. We had a run on Tartan’s last year at Easter, we’ve planned to have extras for the weekend. And though Derek’s been working hard to get extras in the freezer, they’re selling as fast as he makes them.

Hope to see you at the pie shop!

Click here to take the survey

And there’s a second way to win. If you’re on facebook, for every facebook friend you get to ‘like’ us, you’ll be entered into another draw for a pie. You will have to get your friend to post, at our site, your name in a comment.

Our site on facebook is at:
The Tartan Pie on Facebook

Good luck!

AND, if you’re not a facebook fan already, just becoming a fan earns you another chance into the draw!

Good Luck

I initially chose Joomla because of it’s greater capabilities over WordPress, but hit some glitches with regards to a newly released version and older templates.  I made a beautiful template that hopefully I’ll get to use at some point.  But in the end, WordPress is so amazing and so simple I decided to us it. And the program I purchased to make templates easily converted my Joomla template to a WordPress template making the transition seamless.

In the end even with the costs of a new web server, a program to make templates and a few purchased pictures, the cost of a new web page (that I own!) is less than 1/10 the cost of having it made.  And it only took me 3 days (would have taken 1 day if it wasn’t for the problems trying to get Joomla working!) to get it up and running.

If you get  a chance, check out the new web page, www.thetartanpie.com.  The web page has more information about what we do and the products we make.  I save the ramblings for this site!

I had the opportunity to attend a local artisan and craft market this weekend, and was able to complete most of my shopping done in one spot.  Although I’d love to make most of my gifts myself, time restraints and reality kick in and I’m no Martha.  For me, supporting other local businesses is important and I especially like to support the people at the local markets.  The prices were very good, and I think I fared better than I would have had I attended the nearby mall.   And there are so many great ideas and great products to choose from.

Some of the wonderful ideas included spice mixes, herbal teas, jams, pickles, ready to prepare soups, salves, oils, sauces, candies and candles.  Consumable could be extended to wearable, and there were toques, scarves, mittens, shawls, hats and socks.  I was amazed by the quality of the items that were presented by the artisans, and the prices were definitely within reasonable.

I won’t say exactly what I bought (in-case the family reads this) , but to this I will be adding some treats from my own kitchen.  I love giving, I loved shopping and baking for this year, and I hope that the gifts are enjoyed.

We are now hitting a ‘snag’ with one of the markets, a new market for us.  We’ve only attended this market once, but  may not be able to return.  At our pie shop, in the country and on the farm, we have a tiny ‘market garden’ store.  At about 100 sq feet or so, it’s very small.   More for pie storage than anything, it was the entrance to our kitchen so we decided to make the best use of it.  I built some rustic shelves, put up some blackboards, and tried to make it look nice and inviting.  We sell garlic, flowers, soap, a few handcrafts, and pies.  The farm is out of the way, off the beaten track, not near any commercial retail locations, and you pretty much need to know we are there to visit.  And now the nearby market’s board of directors is saying that we may not be able to sell our pies because we have a ‘storefront’.   And I say it’s a slap in the face.

This fall we have purchased or are purchasing almost ALL local fruit.  Blueberries from Lanzeville, saskatoon berries from Cobble Hill, blackberries from Gabriola, Lanzeville and Errington, apples from Gabriola, raspberries from Gabriola and Duncan.  Our carrots, onions and garlic are organically grown locally.  We’re in the process of securing contracts with local meat producers for our meats including the lamb we just purchased from Gabriola – by spring we hope to be using all local meat.  We use what we can from the farm and have worked the land in anticipation for growing much of our own produce next year.  And although we’re local, support local growers and sell on a small scale locally, we may not be ‘invited’ back to the nearby local farmers market.

Errington Farmers Market and Craig Street Market (and the Parksville Chamber of Commerce) were very supportive of us through the summer and we very much appreciate them for the support.   Being supported by your community is very important for small businesses and working with these two venues has been seamless for us this summer.

It’s not easy being a food vendor – there are many regulations we must comply with, approval processes to meet, and keeping food safe at every stage is a lot of work and a costs are high.  To comply with the food safety regulations outside the shop, we have a small freezer truck that we’ve been able to use at markets.  Our truck wasn’t allowed at the new market, so we purchased a freezer and changed our booth layout.  Costly, but the costs were planned to be absorbed by attending through the fall.

I think the biggest insult is that many of the other vendors appear to have shops as we do.   Very few people rely one-hundred percent on farmers market sales for income, there are almost always farm-gate sales whether or not it’s organized into a store format or otherwise.  Who doesn’t run a full fledged market garden or home-based business without having a store, office or roadside stand out of which to sell product?

I will update later this week when we find out if we are able to attend the new fall market or not.  If not, I think it’s time to write a few letters and all the info will be posted should anyone else choose to write letters.   If I get in, then I’ll leave the market un-named and chalk it up to another one of life’s lessons.

Marketing was effective for the ‘stick’, I thought it was going to be this amazing thing.  It’s turned out to be a bit of head-ache…it’s slow, sticks out like a sore thumb off the side of the computer, in the first day I used up 1/2 of my megabytes and quite frankly I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. 

Unfortunately that means I won’t be updating my site as often and checking emails once every day or every other day. It’s actually not all that bad not being connected….the hubby gets much more done, the phone’s not ringing all the time and I’m not spending so much of my day at the computer.  Maybe it’s a good thing.

Apparently it’s a bit easier to insure these vehicles in Alberta, it’s taken a few months to get the required parts for converting it to a street legal vehicle, but now it’s ready. I am hoping to get it insured this week. Graphics are next…I can’t wait, there are so many ideas. And now we can do deliveries, markets, wholesale…it’s all very exciting. It came with a pint-sized freezer unit already installed, so we’ll be able to keep our food cold and fresh.

A few people have asked why I chose an import.  Well, quite frankly, there are no vehicles in the North American marketplace that fit the bill!  Small and economical, the small refer until will allow me to attend markets and venues without hassel, and because it sips gas we can consider deliveries.  The top speed between Parksville and Gabriola Island is 90k, and our vehicle can do 85 so it’s fast enough.  The smallest vehicle that’s available on our side of the pond is about 20x bigger than I need, which would have been a waste, and far more costly.  Our little Hi-Jet fits the bill.