— FROM OUR BLOG —
‘Thank You’
We had hoped to be open and selling our products by Labor Day Weekend. Instead, on that weekend we opened our doors and worked with the electricians as work on the distillery continued. It was a sunny weekend. The sunlight came in through the open doors. The locals stopped by and gave us encouragement.
I was reminded of Hoodsport Days this past July when we opened our doors, but just to show people the distillery and hopefully sell a t-shirt or a shot glass. The shot glasses were on display, but it was not easy to read the words on the glass, so I put coffee from the day before into the shot glasses, and added a little water.
Our First Bottle Delivery: Full of Surprises
We have had our first delivery of bottles.
This order included one-liter bottles and 375-ml bottles. There were approximately 3,000 bottles.
There were several surprises with this first delivery.
First, the bottles were delivered a day late.
Second, the bottles were taken to the wrong address. FedEx gave the driver an incorrect address, and the bottles were taken to the wrong place, about twenty miles down the road.
Moonshiners
How many moonshiners are there? Just about everywhere I go I meet someone who is distilling at home. The backyards of America must be full of stills. I recently bought a 3-basin sink. When I told the kitchen store employee what I wanted it for, he told me that he...
Finish Line
FINISH LINE The Fourth of July in Hoodsport is a fun event. There is a street-fair, an auction, a town crier and, best of all, fireworks. I do not know the source of the town's display of fireworks, but there are fireworks stands just a few miles away on the...
Sophie Bell
We bought our home in Seattle from Sophie Bell in 1988. She had lived here since 1944. At that time, she had moved into the home with her husband and six children. When we bought our home from her, she was living alone. She had congestive heart failure, and, against...
A Generous Welcome
Recently new oak barrels were delivered to the distillery. We had thought the delivery was not yet scheduled, but were mistaken. To make matters worse, no one was at our building to accept the delivery. On that day, Chuck and I were in Seattle. The delivery-man called...
Golden Northwest Distillery
We met the owners of the Golden Northwest Distillery, Jim Caudill and Bob Stillnovich, at the 2012 American Craft Distillers convention, where they won first prize for their Samish Bay single malt whiskey. We knew we wanted to visit them and try their award winning...
Just a Little Different
Lake Cushman Booster Club Meeting:
Salads and Rums
Chuck and I were invited to speak at the May 2 Lake Cushman Booster Club meeting. The Booster Club supports the local fire department, the community disaster center, the food bank, and other organizations.
Lake Cushman is a beautiful community set in the outskirts of the temperate rain forest of the Olympic National Park. It is on Highway 119 between Hoodsport and the National Park.
We were invited to speak about the distillery and to share their pot-luck dinner at the Fire Hall.
A Twisted Tree Tale
Our 100-year-old tree moves on to a new life
We have an old black republic cherry tree in our front yard in Seattle. This type of cherry tree has a life span of about 80 years. Ours is at least 100 years old. Most of its branches have died. The trunk has a circumference of about 93 inches and is twisted.
Back in its prime, it produced buckets of large black republic cherries. These cherries are larger than bing or Rainier cherries, with a dark rich juice. When our older son was in grade school, he sold bags of the cherries to our neighbors. He had consistent sales in the summer, making a much higher profit than the neighbor boys, who were selling rocks from their backyard
My own pocket scale
My gin recipes call for small quantities of roots, herbs and spices. So, I had to buy a small, digital scale. A quick search on the Internet yielded a digital "pocket scale." I gave no thought to this description, thinking only that it meant small, and immediately...