Unemployment and salvation in books

Salvation lied in books for the period of time that I dealt with un-employment. How Michael Connelly books saved my sanity. It was fun to write about this adventure in my life but I really can't say I would want to re-live it.

Sexy Shoes Expert!

Silke has now started a new blog for shoe lovers. www.sexyshoesexpert.com was started from her obsession with shoes. Check it out.

Going Camping?

Bring along some Shiitake soup mixes on your next trip.

Light weight, easy to make and very nutritious.

All of our soups are made without MSG, preservatives or sugar. Our soups are low in saturated fat (.5 gm/serving or less), have 0% cholesterol and are non-perishable. This is a complete product, all you need to add is water. Each gourmet soup package makes 5 - 6 servings.

Minnesota Wild Rice facts

This excerpt was taken from the Minnesota Wild Rice information site. Jager Food's Shiitake Wild Rice Soup contains the natural rice harvested right here in Minnesota. If you would like more information on this and other plant life harvested here in Minnesota check out the DNR web-site.

Stacy Ann Karolus, Sartell, MN, Management, Cum Laude

LARGEST NUMBER OF GRADUATES EVER AT ST. SCHOLASTICA; COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY IS MAY 11 AT THE DECC

My sister, Stacy, recently graduated from St. Scholastica. She has diligently worked at accomplishing this while working full time, wife, and mother of two teenage kids. Her commitment and perseverance have paid off. Congratulations Stacy. We're proud of you.

Rain, rain, go away! It's a dreary day in Central Minnesota.

After so many months of snow, we had our last snow storm two weeks ago, it is nice to see the countryside turn green. I suppose this rain will help wash the last of the winter grime away. Can't wait for the first flowers to bloom, the tulips haven't even flowered yet due to the late snow.
Another busy week comes to a draw.
The soup business is slowly picking up again, we've had several case orders this week. Thank goodness we don't have to rely on soup sales to pay our bills, we would be out on the street by now. But hey, at least we'd still be eating healthy, Shiitake mushrooms and gourmet soups. ;)

New photos added to the Jager Foods web-site

It was over a month ago that Silke and I went out to West Virginia! We finally added the photos to the web-site. You can see them at:
http://www.jagerfoods.com/popup.html

Minnesota finally got a nice day so we decided to work on our golf swings. 24 golf balls and lots of laughs later we might have developed our own technique.

Bluebirdshopper.com

I had mentioned in another blog that Silke and I had been fortunate enough to be able to put our web-site together ourselves. The Jager Foods web-site was one of the very first that Silke had made. Since then she has worked on several web-sites and e-brochures for businesses as well as an on-line classified space. Some of the webpages that she has worked on are:

• Alexandria Lakes Area Vacation Planning Guide
• Definitive Woman Magazine
• The Bike & Fitness Company

On Bluebirdshopper.com, people can list their items for sale and post them right on the site. Businesses can also put on there e-brochures to let people know about their company.

All in all she's been very busy and I wanted to take this time to highlight her work.

The last gift sets

We only have a couple left. If you are interested let us know. Mention that you saw this post on our blog when you order and we'll ship it to you for free. Now there is an offer you can't refuse!

The gift set includes all four of our soups:

• Wild Rice
• Vegetable
• Onion
• Oriental

Two brick red place mats and two napkins, a ceramic pea pod salt and pepper shaker, and two Melba Toast packets.

SEO (search engine optimization) and your companies bottom line

Silke and I have reached that point in time that we had marked on our calendar. It's the time to step back from everything and take a long hard look at what we've done and what we have yet to do. We patted ourselves on the back for the things we accomplished and shook our heads at the things left unfinished. All in all we have accomplished quite a bit in a very short amount of time. We'll continue down the path that we started, keeping in mind the goals we had set up for ourselves from the beginning.

There is one thing that we're looking at that can't be shaped or defined. Every business talks about the on-line presence. They go to great lengths to compile enough information that can be translated into 'web content' and they layout a design for what their web-site will look like. Silke and I have been fortunate in that we have done all this work ourselves. I can't imagine what kinds of costs we would have encountered if we had hired people to put all this together. This was a classic 'shoe-string' budget.
So, we've got all the information together. The web-site is up and running. We've even gone back and updated the content. We now have a web presence and our product is ready for mass consumption. We informed all our friends and family and we slowly saw our web traffic increase. After all the hype and family and friends viewed the site we reluctantly saw our numbers dwindle and realized the party was over. The 'hard part' wasn't getting on the web it was keeping the site alive. The question that every company asks 'How can we get customers to our site?' We've incorporated blogs and web press releases. Backward links and forward links. Keywords that best describe our product. Its all very time consuming and you really have to work hard to keep up with all of it. I don't have all the answers and theres plenty of books on the subject matter but I can't help but wonder how much time I can invest in this line of marketing? Would time be better spent with direct marketing? More advertising of the printed variety? Ad words?
We've both agreed that we've done all we can for the web-site and that its time to spend our efforts elsewhere. (i.e. new product development, health food fairs, and direct sales contacts) It's been a learning experience and we still find new ways to change the content all the time. It's time to leave well enough alone and concentrate on the other aspects of the business.

Any thoughts on this matter or personal experiences that you would like to share are more than welcome.

Suppen mit Pilze

Hallo Freunde und alle die gerne Pilze essen.

Nick ist im Moment sehr bescheftigt mit dem Verkauf unserer Suppen und ich sitze den ganzen Tag vor dem Computer und bilde Websiten. Meistens habe ich dann abends wenn die Kinder gegessen haben auch keine Lust mehr noch viel zu schreiben.
An den Tagen wenn es zu spaet wird um noch gross aufzukochen haben wir, mindestens einmal die Woche, eine von unseren Suppen, entweder als Haupt Gericht oder Vorspeisse. Sie sind so einfach zu kochen und sogar die Kinder moegen sie sehr und die Suppen sind halt gut fuer die Gesundheit.

Das wars fuer heute, alles Gute und bis bald,
Silke

Trip to Virginia

We made it back safe and sound. It was a good time and we got to meet with Paul and Nan Goland from Hardscrabble. They made us an excellent supper and we got a chance to catch up on all of Paul's travels. He had just come back from Turkey.

We then drove out to the Shenandoah wine valley and visited with Will and Diane Ellidge from Wolf Gap Vineyard (pictured above). Will let us sample all of his excellent wines and we couldn't part without buying some.

On Wednesday we traveled around Washington and visited the monuments and war memorials. Neither of us had ever been there and I can only tell you to visit it first hand is to truly experience how intense the war monuments really are. The Vietnam war memorial held such an awe and reverence and everyone held the utmost respect while moving around and looking at it.

Maybe we can get the parents to take a trip out there sometime soon.

Back to our Shiitake soup kitchen

We are back from our trip to Virginia, West Virginia and Washington D. C., we enjoyed the wonderfully friendly people, beautiful country side and had a good time all the way around.

Got back to Minnesota just in time for, hopefully, the last snow storm of the season.

More to come on our trip and other exiting news next week.

Updated Shiitake soup pages.

Nick has finally put on his writing hat and re-wrote the main content of the four soup pages:
Wild Rice
Oriental/Miso
Vegetable
Onion
Yikes, it took 6 months to come with this but we think it reflects our love for our product.
Please feel free to comment, we are always open to constructive critizism.

We are almost ready to launch our single serve packaging. Send us an email if you are willing to test and comment on any of our soups.

Road Trip!!!!

We are off to West Virginia to visit our long time food distributor, Paul Goldwyn of Hardscrabble. Paul has been instrumental in helping to establish our soup line on the East coast. We look forward to visiting with Paul and his wife Nina.
The second leg of our trip will take us to the beautiful wine country of the Shenandoa Valley where we will be visiting Wolf Gap Vineyard and Winery. 'Wolf Gap Willy', the owner, has been a friend of Dad's since the Air Force days back in the 70's.
Of course we will be doing some Jager Foods soup promotion along the way.
Here's to soup, wine and friends - is there a better combination?

Minnesota grown Wild Rice

clipped from http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/snapshots/plants/wildrice.html Wild Rice (Zizania aquatica) This water-loving grass produces a nutty-flavored seed that is eaten by humans and waterfowl. Once found throughout Minnesota, it has been an important part of the lives and culture of American Indians who have lived in the Great Lakes region long before the arrival of European immigrants. Today it is Minnesota's official state grain.

Since Jager Foods is a Minnesota based company we decided many years ago to include Wild Rice Shiitake Mushroom Soup Mix into our product line.

Shiitake Tea

.2 oz dried Shiitake mushrooms in 1 cup of water. Bring to boil, simmer 30 minutes. Strain before drinking (save bits for supper).

clipped from http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/gabris96.html Shiitake tea This satisfying tea is especially good for those with high blood pressure or high levels of blood cholesterol. Shiitake tea is a perfect drink for taking the edge off hunger pains and is excellent medicine for breaking up a cold and soothing sore muscles that often accompany flu. It can help relieve headache and stuffiness and is good for calming the nerves. A cup of shiitake tea is bound to pick you up every time.

Miso Soup

Shiitake mushrooms are found in a variety of cultures & cuisines. Russia produces and consumes large amounts of Shiitakes, although they are mostly sold pickled.
Of course the Shiitake has its home in Chinese & Japanese cuisines where you will find it in miso soup.
Try our very own version of miso soup aka Oriental soup.

High Cholesterol?

Research has shown that Shiitake mushrooms contain an amino acid called eritadenine, which is noted for lowering cholesterol. Findings indicated that adding shiitake to one’s diet helped lower blood cholesterol levels by almost 50 percent, especially in cases where high-cholesterol foods were eaten simultaneously with the mushroom.

For a quick and healthy meal containing Shiitake mushrooms and other natural and healthful ingredients, try one of our four
Gourmet Dried Soup Mix flavors.

The healing power of the Shiitake mushrooms.

Ancient Oriental healers prescribed Shiitake mushrooms for a host of ailments including cold, flu, sinus, headache, measles, worms, constipation, hemorrhoids, gout, liver disorders, nutritional deficiencies, poor circulation, and sexual dysfunction.
The healthful fungi has held its ground in the medicinal world for thousands of years and many modern day herbalists still recommend Shiitake as treatment for the above complaints.