31 May, 2019: You might not know this but we were this close to taking tomatoes off the menu entirely for 9 months out of the year. First our beloved Backyard Farms (which inspired the late, great Maine Tomato Sandwich) changed the way they grow tomatoes, making their price unjustifiable. Then all the tomatoes from Mexico and Canada were flavorless… Read More
30 May, 2019: Some of you might have noticed our post about the Just Mayo being out of the supply chain. We’re bummed about it and hoping it’s back at the end of the month. Paul, a customer at DTX, decided to do something about it. He came to Food Dev and shared his own recipe for vegan mayo. It… Read More
30 May, 2019: Remember the Ivan Molano coffee from Tandem? It turns out Ivan’s son, Jhon, is making coffee too. They grow coffee on the same land in Colombia. Has anyone tried one? Both? Who did it better, father or son? Read More
16 March, 2009: No avoiding this. The other day Chris accidentally set a hot soup pot atop the counter. Melto presto and the counter is branded. I figure I’ll have to work on the finish of the counters a couple times a year. In the meantime we’ll consider it a battle scar. Read More
15 May, 2019: This May has been a time of anticipation. The soil is warming, but the rain has been incessant. Despite the rain, seedlings are beginning to peek up out of the ground, and that can only mean one thing: CSA signups are live! Don’t miss out on deliveries of produce straight from a farm to your nearest Clover. Signups END… Read More
12 May, 2019: That’s me. I’m drawing Clovers (and a Chickpea Fritter). We’ve hired a design firm to help us with some very specific challenges we’re facing. We never really landed on an “icon” style logo. And we need one badly. For blade signs. Did you ever notice Clover restaurants are sign-less? And for our app. We hired Perky Brothers.… Read More
10 May, 2019: A shout out to Scott who has been doing amazing things at Clover for years now. He’s been promoted to Area Manager, and we couldn’t be happier. If you’re a customer of Clover LMA you probably know Scott. He helped us open that restaurant and has been running it since. Before Clover Scott worked in fine dining… Read More
8 May, 2019: Carlos has 3 customers. George Howell. A former employee of George Howell. And Starbucks. Starbucks doesn’t blend coffee from Montecarlos. It’s part of a program they have to bring super premium “black apron” coffees to some of their cafes around the world. (Recently it was sold in Tokyo Starbucks for about $30/ lbs. It’s sold out.) Pretty… Read More
7 January, 2010: I remember how excited I was to go through the old records, receipts, etc to try to learn a bit about the former owner and the car’s previous life. Today I picked truck #2 up from getting the generator installed. I found this package, the truck used to be a bakery truck, ATV bakery, Reading PA (where… Read More
7 May, 2019: You’re looking at over 100,000 coffee plants. They will all go in the ground in 2019 at Montecarlos. We stopped by this outdoor plant nursery late in the afternoon. You can see the sun getting ready to set behind the trees in the background. I couldn’t believe the scale of this. Can you imagine? 100,000 plants? Each… Read More
6 May, 2019: This gentleman was manning the weight station. Trucks are used to transport coffee berries from the mountain to the processing facility. When the trucks arrive they drive up to a full truck scale that is weighted. This weight is used to confirm the amount of berries that are being brought to the processing plant. Read More
6 May, 2019: That’s George Howell’s hand with the seeds of one coffee berry. Coffee typically has 2 seeds in each berry. There is a genetic defect called “peaberry” where a single bean grows instead of 2 seeds. You can notice these in a coffee bag because they look more “round” and don’t have a flat size. Sometimes roasters have… Read More
4 May, 2019: Most of the pictures you see of coffee show a red berry. Or green. Green is unripe. Red is ripe. But occasionally a coffee plant has orange berries. These are also ripe. And they are far less common than the red. They grow side by side. And the berries do seem to taste a bit different (not… Read More
27 June, 2009: Colin made this up for us. Pretty fun. So for all of you wishing you had your own Clover truck, just hit print and pull out your scissors. Read More
3 May, 2019: The first day in El Salvador I asked Carlos Batres, the owner of Montecarlos, about his coffee drinking habits. I’m always curious to learn about how people eat and drink. He told me he fills an insulated pot every morning and then takes 2 hours to drink 6 cups. 6 cups!! His wife confirmed. And she said… Read More