Springing forward
“Spring is far more than just a changing of seasons; It’s a rebirth of spirit”- Toni Sorenson
With this quote I feel Sorenson captures the feeling and essence of change that come along with spring. Its a time for trying something new or old (again), and over at Jules Place we’ve been enjoying the coming vibe. With March drawing to a close our last cold season market is right around the corner, we’re already planning some amazing new offerings and figuring out where you’ll be able to find us!
Our set up for the markets, the povitica and rotating flavors of kringles and cookies seem to be a mainstay, and we plan to add some options for summer.
But one of my favorite part of the changing seasons (Cate) is the social palate is changing to a new set of flavors. With the seasons comes certain flavors that become popular again as in, cherry during the summer and cinnamon for the winter. Now no ones saying you cant cook with you’re favorite flavors all year long but the taste of fresh local strawberries in the summer just feels a little different. During this time I feel as chefs its one of the best times for new ideas and flavor combinations, everything feels fresh just for a little while. And hey! The extra sunlight isn’t hurting either.
But speaking about the coming change and flavors, chefs and food industry movers have been predicting the new trends for the year. These being more floral based like chamomile and jasmine and leaning towards natural and supposedly ‘cleaner’ products. This push for cleaner products is a vast topic and seems like it due to the facts that sugar is now one of the largest dietary concerns for Americans. This isn’t a bad thing, its pushing people to make more complex flavor choices due to the lack of sweetener to make up for it. What this will hopefully lead to is a big push for more mainstream clean options for consumers as well as a larger array of new flavor profiles coming to the market that the public is excited for.
Another rising trend that has been coming to the mainstream lately is tea. Not saying that tea hasn’t been popular for hundreds of years if not thousands, but some new ideas in our culture has led to somewhat of a boom in the market. Take green tea for example more specifically matcha production, from the year 2023 to 2024 the Japanese matcha production saw an increase of 25% which is around a 24 million dollar increase. But why are more people leaning towards matcha instead of coffee? Some of the same reasons for the other trends for this year, health concerns.
Now how is matcha different than other forms of green tea? During the last couple weeks of the growing season the plants are covered with a shade to promote the production of antioxidants and phytochemicals (such as chlorophyll and quercetin) and then the early leaves are harvested by hand to try and keep the vibrant color. This tea type also has around the same amount of caffeine as a coffee which is why some have also been shifting completely to tea. But outside of tea matcha can also be used to flavor pastries which I’ve heard can be done very well if using the correct matcha powder. And hey maybe you’ll see us with some matcha flavored goods this year and you can give it a try!
But talking about things that are a little more close to home, we’ve been absolutely thrilled that things have been going the way they have. We has a rocky start getting everything figured out for our markets like how much product to make, when to arrive, should we do samples, get stickers, and so many more things. That being said we feel so grateful to be able to share our passion with you and so happy that this is what we get to do now. This business has opened up a new area for creativity where Alex and I can focus on how we want to impact the food industry and our community as a whole. It has also opened up more time for us to focus on our self and family so we just wanted to say thank you, even if its liking the Facebook or looking at the blog we really appreciate the all the support.
Keep on the look out for us in the coming months we’re hoping to have a few special announcements about the events and farmer markets we will be attending this coming late spring and summer. And we’ve been supplying the pasties for the Lac La Belle Pit Stop, they are currently closed for the season but once they open back up May 24th make sure to come on down an grab one hot from the warmer. Also closer to town we have been supplying the bread boules for The Michigan House, so it your craving some soup or fresh bread we’ll be there. We also will be doing Povitica loaf orders for Easter. They will be Delivered on April 19th the day before Easter for peak freshness, they will be 25$ each and we will have orders open for a limited amount until April 13th.
Here’s to hoping there’s no more blizzards…
Cate, Alex, & Jules
