Open House

After we returned from vacation and retrieved our new mini donut business, we knew we needed to set the machine up and learn to use it. Danny sent out a text to some of our close friends and we scheduled our Gram's Mini Donuts open house. It took us about an hour to set everything up and soon had little mini donuts flipping out the end of the machine.

6 couples showed up for our open house and everyone was intriqued by our new contraption. We spent some time visiting with friends and experimenting with the donuts. This gave us a pretty good idea of how long it would take to set up and tear down/clean the machine.

In a few days, we received a call from one of our open house attendees. He is part of the band boosters at our local high school and they were running a concession stand at the local fair to raise money for new uniforms for the band. They were inviting us to come set up at the fair next to them and in return, donate a portion of our proceeds to the band. Our first fundraiser!

The catch was, the fair started in just a few days and we would have to pass a health inspection with the local health department. We werent sure we knew what we were getting into, but we agreed to give it a try. You have to start somewhere right????

Well, all the stressing over the inspection was not necessary. The inspectors were very nice, gave us a few tips and a score of 99. We were excited!

Even though the fair was not kind to us, we gained some experience and our little mini donuts got some exposure in our small town. We contributed the slow sales to the heat (in the 100's) and lots of competition (funnel cakes and ice cold smoothies).

Our machine has arrived!

Our family left on Monday for vacation for a week. We were expecting an e-mail on the day our Lil Orbits machine was to be shipped out. On Wednesday, after checking my messages at lunch, I realized I had missed a call from the freight carrier which was trying to deliver our machine. No e-mail.

Danny returned the phone call and spoke to the person in charge and we all decided it would be best if the shipper would agree to hold onto the machine until Monday when Danny could then go and pick it up. The shipper agreed to that arrangement so, even though our machine has officially arrived, we do not have possession of it yet. We arrived home from vacation on Sunday afternoon and Danny will be picking it up tomorrow morning.

Excited does not seem to sum up our feelings today. We are ready to have everything here, set it up and make a batch of donuts for all our friends. The trailer is not ready for the machine yet. There is still quite a bit of work to be done, but with temps in the 100's over the next week, work will be slow on that.

I will post an update and pics of our new addition tomorrow after we get it home and unpacked. I can already smell the aroma of fresh cooked mini-donuts!