We just took delivery of a bunch of Shagbark corn chips from Ohio. It’s our first “far away” specialty food offering–everything else we handle is from the Carolinas. We are carrying Shagbark because they make the finest corn chip on earth, and because they were making the trip to Pittsboro for Death Faire anyway. When someone is driving by, we call it the “Marco Polo rule” and allow far away food into our local diets.
Over the years I have used the Marco Polo exception to haul in citrus from Florida, maple syrup from Cape Breton and lots of other items for myself and my locavore friends.
Michelle from Shagbark marveled at the transformation of the Plant. We’ve gone from a roaring industrial landscape to a “Beverage District.” She studied Fair Game’s Pantry, and we discussed the local food business at length. Together we coined the term “Post Industrial Snacks.”
Arlo has been digging the Pantry lately. He’s been helping me trick out lighting, and signage, and we’ve been doing deep dives into branding and social media. We’ve been selling his Hempsmith hats and custom t-shirts. When he was a kid we used to refer to him as a “pantry elf,” because he was an accomplished cook and adventure eater. I can’t really call him that anymore. He’s bigger than me…
