Made in Montana Market Place

Wlady and I are participating in the "Made in Montana Market Place" in Great Falls this weekend. We are committed in helping our local & state's economy and really want to extend our products to buyers outside of our shop. You know...to grow La Châtelaine, we must continually enhance our products.

The feedback from the public has been positive so far (one more day to go). We won an award: Honorable Place for best booth! And to think I worried that my booth wasn't professional enough. That'll teach me to follow my instinct. It was important for me to design a booth that sincerely reflected our personalities - not a big box store. We wanted our booth to look charming, incorporating some of my vintage cake stands and tin trays.

There is one big hypocrisy I continually battle with while trying to launch my products outside of our shop. Wholesalers still remain hesitant about shelf-life. Because we never add additives and preservatives (ARTISAN chocolates should NEVER contain them), the shelf life is one month. "But you can buy truffles at World Market with a one year shelf life", for instance. Uuugghhhhhhh!!!!! In due time, I suppose it boils down to customer awareness which will eventually reflect Wholesaler's purchases.  I'm positive about this.