Quelle joie! I have several tomatoes and one adorable little green pepper in my vegetable garden.  Being completely stupid, I had no idea that the onions were to be separated, so planted the clump and of course they died.  However, I have so much chard and lettuce that I made my first delivery to the food bank last week.  The other day I said to Denis, “Get used to having a salad nightly.”

But even more thrilling than the vegetables is my recent spate of luck regarding CBC Radio.  The wonderful producer of Sounds Like Canada set me up with two entrepreneurs, and I was able to tell each of them about my business, and they each gave me suggestions.  Needless to say, I’ve been ruminating about each and every one of them ever since.

The first person with whom I spoke is a very successful bakery owner in Toronto named Dufflett Rosenberg.  She’s been in the business for 30 years and has three very popular and successful bakeries.  Upon hearing of my tiny, silly, wee business, she suggested that there may be nothing wrong with staying small.

She pointed out that I have a lovely lifestyle, and this would certainly be compromised by insane, rapid growth.  Dufflett thought if I sold more to customers directly, rather than to stores, I could bake the same amount, but make more money.

The second person I had the great pleasure to speak with is a 20-year-old go-getter named Prerna Chandak.  She has a business which assists young entrepreneurs access funds.  I spoke with her for 45 minutes, and again, another poor person had to listen to the story of Nuttier.  However, she was completely enthused by my story, and suggested as she has connections in Toronto, that she might be able to get me onto City T.V.  If that happens, well then you can say, “I knew her when.”

However, both women cautioned that this sudden infusion of fame will bring offers and ideas from others, and that I’ll have to remain completely focused on my goal.  Because I’m as malleable as Plasticene on  hot summer’s day, I know I’ll have some difficulty with this.

On Wednesday at 8:45 AM I’m to be at the local CBC Radio studio where my interview will be taped, and then hopefully it’ll be played on Sounds Like Canada on Friday, July 4th.  Once that’s happened, I’ll just have to see what the fates bring my way.  After all, just three weeks ago I was just an unknown fruitcake monger on a mission, and now I’ll be on national radio.  Quelle joie!

As you may recall, last week I’d e mailed CBC Radio’s Sounds Like Canada show about my business.  Can you believe it, but the producer left a message saying that I was one of two people chosen!  She said I would be paired with a marketing student, and perhaps interviewed on the air.  After leaving messages back and forth for two days, we finally spoke at length, after which she said, “We are definitely going to interview you on the air!”

I guess there’s something inherently funny about a fruitcake business, as well as the type of insane individual who would envision such a thing.  And perhaps I am going mad from it, as witnessed by a dream I had in which I was constantly packing and unpacking.  When I went to my favourite dream interpretation site, it said this generally denotes chaos.  I guess that pretty much sums it up right now.

Not only am I going to be on CBC Radio, but I’ve also browbeaten business reporter Steve MacNaull of the Daily Courier to write another fruitcake update.  Plus, there’s the upcoming article in the summer issue of Okanagan Arts Magazine!  With the help of the marketing student, coupled with this flurry of media exposure, I guess it’s understandable if I’m trying to work things out even in my sleep.

It’s really just the same old thing.  I phoned some people to follow up re: the Okanagan Fruit and Rum bar.  Several said “No thanks.”  This drives me into a tailspin of hopelessness.  Then, I remember what’s to come media-wise, and my blood runs cold as I imagine the thousands and thousands of orders I’ll have to fill.  This cycle continues all day until I fall into bed, exhausted.

In the midst of this, I drove home behind a car whose customized license plate read, Let Go.  I read it, and thought nothing more of it.  However, the words came into and out of my head for the next couple of days, and I was thinking to myself how strange a coincidence it was.  Then it finally hit me that of course, this was not coincidence!  It was the universe saying that I really do need to let go.

And when I  do honestly and completely say and feel those words, I feel fantastic.  Plus, there’s always my sainted mother giving me pep talks, such as “So what if it doesn’t work out?  It doesn’t matter.”  To which I beg to differ, but I understand the philosophy of thinking of the worse thing that could possibly happen.

On the up side, mom has decided to become my image advisor, as she’s sure the Ellen Degeneres show is next.  However, she said I’ll need a signature look, such as Hill’s pantsuits or Martha’s tailored shirts.  As I’ve just eaten an entire iced angel food cake over the past two nights, I’m voting for a muumuu for summer, and a flowing tunic for winter.

Working from home can be lethal.  Yesterday around noon I thought I may as well turn on the TV while I ate my chicken salad sandwich.  I tuned in to KCTS, the public television station, and saw that Deepak Chopra was on.  It was one of his talks about how to find happiness.  As I watched and listened to his words about the Buddha, I became completely and deeply relaxed.  Wouldn’t you know it, by 1:00 PM I was soundly asleep!

Damn!  That can really cut into a person’s schedule.  However, I decided that I had probably burnt myself out the day before.  I had bravely gotten into the van, loaded it with some Okanagan Fruit and Rum bars, and took my dog and pony show on the road.  I drove south, and managed to hit a total of eight stores.  As luck would have it, I made a sale at Summerland Sweets.  I’d never been to their store before, and I would recommend it as a darling place to take out-of-town visitors.

I’ve now been to 29 stores, and 11 of them have bought.  I now need to hound those who said they were going to sample the product and get back to me….. nicely, of course.  I’m fanatical for round numbers, so either want to get four or nine more stores.  Next week I’m going north, so will hit places like the O’Keefe Ranch in Vernon as they have a gift store.  Anywhere the intrepid tourist lurks, there lurks my product.

You know how I love entering any CBC Radio contest presented to me.  I feel this one is fated to be The One.  As I left Hainle Vineyards in Peachland on Tuesday, Sounds Like Canada guest host Katherine Gretsinger was doing an article about small business.  Then she said, “We’d love to hear from small business owners out there.”  Apparently, they’ll pick some and pair them with marketing students.

I sent them an e mail yesterday about my dear fruitcake business, so am keeping my fingers crossed.  Wouldn’t it be fabulous to be chosen?  And why not, as who needs more help than a fruitcake monger?  Only someone making stuff out of spinach or liver would need more help.

It’s finally sunny today, so I’m heading down to the vegetable patch to do some watering, and will try to regain the tan I began in Nicaragua.  Wonderfully, I’ve begun picking leaves from the Swiss chard and curly lettuce on a daily basis.  After that bit of fun I need to bake and package, and so I just prey there’s no more Deepak Chopra on TV or I’m dead meat.

Oh, my poor aching body!  I’ve been working on my insane gardening project and it’s nearly killed me.  I started innocently enough the other day by jauntily walking down the path to the garden.  I picked up a shovel and placed the tip on the ground, then attempted to push it into the ground with my foot.  The shovel skewed this way and that, and the end went in about an inch.  I realized that I was trying to dig through dirt the consistency of cement.

The ‘dirt’ is actually sand filled with various sizes of rocks, some the size of my head.  Where the six dump trucks of so-called soil went that were delivered I have no idea.  It appears to have mated with the existing gravel, spawning a field of hell for the would-be gardener.  I can’t believe the early settlers had to work through this.

On Wednesday it took me about four hours, but I managed to remove all of the gravel from one of the beds.  I had sweat dripping off the end of my nose as I carted the wheelbarrows full of gravel to the side and dumped them.  Once the bed was emptied to a depth of about one foot, I had to go up and down, up and down the steep path to get the decent soil.  When I had the bed filled with that, I got out my bedding plants and started the fun part.  Oh man, when those tomatoes are ripe….

So now I have a greenhouse, and three beds filled with tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cabbage, lettuce and cucumbers.  Three beds left to go, and then next year we can start on some landscaping.  Don Burnett suggested some dwarf trees, so I’ll enjoy looking into that.  For sure, I’m thinking an apricot tree would be wonderful to have.

One would imagine that physical labour would burn off an awful lot of calories.  And I suppose it would, if one didn’t have the appetite of a large draft horse.  Plus, doing that kind of work makes it all seem perfectly legitimate.  Yesterday I was lined up at the till at Lakeview Market, when lo and behold a box of cordial cherries caught my eye.  Usually only available at Christmas, yet here they were.  I took that as a sign, and last night easily ate the whole box.

So this morning’s agenda includes fitness, then some marketing, and as a reward, a very large lunch.  I’ve been forcing myself out to winery gift stores, and am waiting for a couple of them to get back to me.  The fact that some stores don’t even bother to reply irks the living daylights out of me, but what can I do?  I can only wait until I get discovered and my limited product is in wild demand.  I can feel that this moment is just around the corner.