Did I not say one month ago that making smaller fruitcakes would lead to insanity?  This may come as quite a shock, but I’m going to be packaging over 1,000 smaller fruitcakes for Nokia Canada!  Thankfully, Marilyn’s going to be baking with me for the next two weekends so that I’ll have enough product for the onslaught.

And what an onslaught I’m expecting, if the craft event at Prospera Place was a foreshadowing.  They opened the doors at 11:00 AM, and within ten minutes I’d made the first sale.  After that, I was just slinging fruitcakes at people right and left.  Mom came to help, and left at 3:00, ashen-faced from the experience.  She couldn’t move from her spot, maniacally putting pieces of fruitcake samples into muffin cups as fast as her hands would go.

There were the usual suspects at the event: the dad with the four shabbily-dressed kids pushing samples of everything and anything into their mouths; the pregnant woman worried that the amount of booze in the sample piece might be harmful; the mentally ill devout person, hoping to convert the hapless vendor on the spot.

Of course, there were also the serious shoppers, and those who said they’d bought last year and who were happy to have found me once again.

Gerry had accompanied mom, so went into the bleachers to listen to his books on tape for four hours.  I suspect he spent a bit of that time sleeping.  Once it was time to go, mom had to search for him briefly, and once found, they were out of there as fast as they could go.  Mom still had five cases of fruitcakes to deliver to Buy Low Foods in Osoyoos!  I hope I’m that spry at 82.

Next week an article will appear in Okanagan Life Magazine, so that should be exciting.  I also contacted Steve MacNaull of the Daily Courier, and will do the same with Maxine Dehart of the Capital News.  I also e mailed someone who I’ve know for over 40 years, who happens to be the owner of the Osoyoos Times.  Sometimes it helps to be from a small place!

Or, sometimes it just helps to be brash.  I e mailed the food writer from the Victoria Times Colonist and asked if I could send him some more fruitcakes.  I reminded him that he’d written a lovely article last year and how much it helped my sales.  He e mailed back and said, sure, go ahead and send them.  So, hopefully I’ve covered some major areas with these latest efforts.

Because of all of that, I’ve neglected the garden entirely, so am behind in my yearly ritual of digging up the dahlia bulbs and storing them.  I still plan to do it, but now with the packaging and shipping for the Nokia order, I’m trying to figure out how all of these things will get done.  Certainly it would not occur to family members, often found in recumbent positions around the home, to offer.