They're kind of the best.
I love them so much & I know that those who’ve had the opportunity to try them out have also enjoyed. They’re perfect for those nights you when you get home late from work and don’t have the time to light up a pile of candles before company arrives, those times where it's smelling a bit too green (I think we know what I'm talking about here) or like whatever you made for dinner last night (nobody likes the smell of salmon the next morning) or those moments where you just want that instant gratification of a space that’s beautifully fragranced.
Personally I love taking them up out the cabin - when we’re opening things up and want to eliminate the stale, slightly musty smell. They're also great for when it’s too warm inside to light any candles and for those times where it’s a rainy day and we’re stuck inside with a pile of stinky dogs.
I’ve been trying to get my line of incense cones off the ground for years now & it’s that project where I’m just too damn stubborn to quit trying or to walk away from the work that we’ve put into them.
While they’re in the shoppe and online, I haven’t been able to roll them out to our stockist partners or even promote them as I haven’t been able to find the unscented charcoal cones that need to produce them. We buy raw, fragrance free cones in bulk and then hand dip and cure in our exclusive Farmer's Son Co. fragrance blends.
There have been a pile of starts and stops as suppliers have closed or switched their offerings to only sell pre-dipped cones which has all been a bit of a thorn in my side.
As we were running out of cones earlier this year, I thought my problems were solved when I'd finally found a new manufacturer overseas who said they’d be able to produce our raw cones to spec.
Amazing.
So we sent in our order, made a wire transfer and then received regular updates via email and phone about our order until our order was scheduled to arrive.
In place of a couple of gigantic boxes filled to the brim with enough materials to last me the year, I ended up with an envelope with 25 cones.
25 little cones. That's it. That's all.
They looked great, but basically I ended up getting taken for a ride and scammed out of my time, energy and the value of our purchase order.
I’ve never had this happen my 15 years of buying, sourcing and product development. I generally know my shit. It’s what I’ve done professionally since I was 23 and while not perfect, I like to think that I'm pretty good at what I do.
I know how to find manufacturers and trading partners around the world - understanding how to vet them. The questions to ask and how to go about finding their credentials. Ordering samples, understanding quality and what it takes to bring an idea to life.
So, this hasn’t been a great feeling.
Dozens of late night phone calls and emails. Lots of false promises and then just a pile of nothing.
It’s not a pile of money, but it’s enough of a hit that it's just really disappointing and leaves me without those funds to invest in new ideas.
I’ve bootstrapped this little brand from the very beginning, investing my own funds as I had them and have always been very careful with my resources. Trying to ensure that whether I’m investing my funds or I’m trying to collect money, that everything is accounted. Even if that’s meant driving two hours to collect a couple hundred bucks owed by a (now former) store who'd ghosted and refused to answer calls, emails or DMs. It’s the principal of it all.
But I'm persistent.
That and I'm sitting on thousands of little incense tins that I designed and had crafted this past year in anticipation of a wider role out and bigger mission. I could offer them as tins for pre-rolls, but that's pushing it. Not that you can't use them for that once you've finished your batch of cones...
So it’s been back to the drawing board and I’ve now just placed an order with my fifth supplier.
Conversations have been had. Investigations have into the supplier's background have gone well. An order has been placed and and everything has finally gone into production, for real I hope. All to eventually make their way to my lab where we’ll dip and cure each cone, before counting out and placing in our little green tins, readying them to ship out to you and our stockist partners.
Sometimes things are an adventure. Sometimes a project or an idea comes together quickly. Sometimes it’s four years of development, a pile of testing and a few more gray whiskers in the beard.
Either way, I just keep rolling. These cones are too dang good to give up on. That and I'm just too dang stubborn.
I'll keep posted & let you know this all comes together.
Cheers,
Dan
Curious to know my coffee story and how we're bringing my love of good coffee to Farmer's Son Co., then dive in. About a five to eight minute read.
]]>Growing up on the farm, we were always busy & instant coffee was a staple in our house. When teatime hit and you came in from doing barn chores or whatever the task of the day was, flipping the switch on the kettle meant that you could get everyone hot water quickly - so whether it was a tea bag or scoop of instant, we had you covered. There wasn’t a lot of slowing down to talk about bean varieties and whether you were enjoying a single origin roast from a high altitude or a blend with an array of beans.
I tried to enjoy instant coffee…hoping that if I added a few extra teaspoons of it to my cup that I’d be able to improve on the taste of what I was drinking. It didn’t really work, and I’d always end up with a slurry that I’d then try to gulp down.
I was always curious, but this was 25 years ago in small town Manitoba. Roblin wasn’t exactly a Mecca of great coffee. But I wanted to understand the why. If anything, the social side of enjoying a cup is what drew me in and made me want to figure out “what is it about this stuff that people love because it’s not the actual drink itself.”
If I stop and think back, it was always more social side vs. what was in the actual cup. As I write this, I find my mind racing back to memories of Styrofoam cups at the auction mart while watching cows being sold. Of early mornings spent hopping in the truck and heading to town with my dad. Grabbing whatever we needed from the feed store before heading to the back storage room of the local auto & tractor repair store.
That place was like a secret club for area farmers, and I loved going to see the personalities. That farmer who would change into clean coveralls & new boots before coming into town. The guy who’d just finished cleaning his barns before walking in, straw stuck to his boots. The old guy who always had an opinion that nobody wanted to hear, but everyone would hear him out regardless of that.
A quarter tossed into an old coffee can got you a cup (just make sure you rinse it when you’re done) some of that white powdered creamer, along with a stool or pail to sit on as you caught up on all the neighbourhood stories, learnt about who bought what tractor at auction, while staring up at posters with models advertising tractor grease and hand tools. It was a different time.
The social side made sense. But it was the taste that just didn’t make sense.
Moving to the city in my early 20s and working in that first office, the coffee didn’t get a lot better. Rolling in the door at 6:45 each morning & pouring myself a cup of what tasted like roofing tar. It was more about trying to stay awake than anything. I drank it, but I just didn’t enjoy it like I wanted to.
Dan from the farm just didn’t get it. That idea that this, THIS was what I was supposed to love as newly minted big city career guy…I just didn’t get it. It was also around time that I was first introduced to sales reps and visitors to my office who’d tried to win me over by bringing in something that resembled coffee but was covered in whipped cream or a bunch of sugary syrups. They’d mask the taste of the bitter brew at the bottom of the cup, but it wasn’t a lot better.
About 10 years ago I started looking to see if could find a cup of Joe that I really liked. At the time I was walking across a parking lot of my office each morning to grab a paper cup from one of the chain places. It was more about escaping a toxic office situation for a few minutes than anything, but I realized I was emptying my change bowl quicker than I wanted to. I figured if I could find a better coffee then I’d just make a thermos each morning and split the difference.
That was the game changing moment for me.
I stumbled across a good looking back of Colombian single origin that looked interesting. If anything, I was more intrigued by the branding and presentation vs. what was inside the bag. At the time a bag of whole beans and a $20 grinder felt like a bit of a splurge, but I picked them up and after making enough coffee for that first thermos, something just clicked. A cup of coffee that I liked. A thermos full of something that had some flavour and body to it. A cup so good that I didn’t need to add milk or cream to it. The opposite of the tar-like slurry I’d been drinking for years.
It was at that moment that I wanted to know more. That moment that I NEEDED to know more.
So started to explore, and explore I have.
I’ve spent the past decade diving into this love, wanting to learn as much as I can. Am I an expert? Hardly. Have I learnt a thing or two along the way? Absolutely. Much like finding that perfect go to bottle of wine, it takes more than a few cups to find that perfect flavour profile and what tastes good for each of us.
I’ve been fortunate in recent years to have travelled through a number of coffee producing countries in South America. My husband Rory and I have tried to incorporate this love into our travels, seeking out favourite local roasteries and coffee shops along the way. We’ve also made it a point to try to connect with those in the industry – immersing ourselves in the coffee scenes of different cities, taking classes to expand our coffee consciousness, doing cupping sessions to understand we enjoy, while wanting to learn and understand the language and the beans themselves.
Washed, natural, honey washed? High altitude? Arabica vs. Robusta? Single origin vs. blended? Understanding the different flavour profiles that add to the tasto of a coffee? Why do certain coffees have a citrus taste, or a nutty & earthy flavour? How does the altitude of a location affect the flavour profile? How can a few bad beans wreck an entire shipment? Why is Gesha so revered? Is tinto as bad as it sounds?
Plus, so important to me coming from a small family farm, I’ve tried to learn about those who grow the beans & their stories as farmers. With such a complex industry that’s generally been controlled by large corporations or in some countries, government regulation, it’s been so interesting and eye-opening to learn about those who working to bring awareness, respect and fairtrade price to those who produce coffee.
Like any hobby it’s taken time to learn and I’m far from being an expert. I’ve a lot over the years, but at the end of the day I’m just that guy that’s found something he loves and enjoys talking about it, while trying different cups, reading, learning, while continuing to explore and research.
One of the great things about Instagram is the ability that it’s given me to learn about my community and client’s interests. I recently ran a series of polls on my Instagram to gauge our client’s knowledge and interest in coffee as I’d not so secretly really like to explore this love of mine within the world of Farmer’s Son Co.
Over the past few years, I’ve offered a small selection of beans on both my website and in our physical space, but other than saying “hey, coffee and candles really go together” I never really took the time to explain that this an actual love of mine that I really enjoy discussing and sharing it with others.
I was blown away by the engagement and level of interest in my love for coffee and it all signs are pointing to a resounding “yes, we’d love to explore this with you and purchase these goods from you.” In turning, helping to solidify this as a new category of goods for us.
As I use this year to evolve my business model and bring new ideas to the Farmer’s Son Co. brand, I’m going to be introducing a few of my favourite coffee brands from around the world along with a curated selection of coffee preparation tools. These will be available not only on our website, but in our physical shoppe located in Winnipeg’s West End.
Like everything I do and offer, my goal is to offer goods and brands that aren’t available locally. You know that feeling when you’re travelling to someplace different and you stumble across something cool that you can’t get at home? I want to bring that feeling to our shoppe. That idea of cool finds that aren’t available. I want you to feel the excitement that comes with finding something new and special.
We’re one of the only shoppes (if not the only shop) in Canada to represent the Pergamino brand.
Pergamino Coffee was created with the goal of being a game changer in the world of specialty coffee. They either grow their own coffee or work with amazing small producers across Colombia, and then they craft roast these coffees in the city of Medellín, right in the heath of Colombia.
I had the opportunity to visit Pergamino’s roastery in early 2020 and it was love at first sip. So in good in fact, that upon returning home from Colombia and finishing the bags that we’d purchased I started to bring it in for myself. I brought in small quantity during the 2021 holiday season to rave reviews, so am excited to reintroduce this brand this brand to those who originally fell in love with it and those who are looking for something new to try.
We also have a selection of Birch Bark Coffee Co. available online and in shoppe. Located in Ottawa, this Indigenous owned roastery has a great story and an awesome range of certified organic, fair-trade coffees, using beans sourced from small Indigenous family farms throughout the world.
A cause driven, social enterprise coffee company, Birch Bark Coffee Co. channels a portion of their profits into helping bring certified water purification systems to members of Indigenous communities in need. This is a no brainer for my team and I. Good coffee that also supports basic human needs? That’s something we can easily get behind.
There are a pile of ideas to explore with this category of goods. I’m going to walk before I run, but if you’re a coffee lover I’m excited to share some new brands, beans and ideas with you.
Don’t worry if the knowledge isn’t there yet, I’m going to find ways to share what I’ve learnt with you with Instagram and website posts, while continuing to learn myself. Coffee’s fun to explore and I don’t want to overwhelm folks but rather help open this world up and make it accessible and enjoyment. Forget about terms like third wave or wondering if you’re doing it right, at the end of the day if you’re a hobbyist who has a curiosity, that’s good enough for me.
We’re going to have some fun with this. I’ve got some ideas up my buffalo check sleeves.
More to come. Stay tuned.
Cheers,
Dan
I hope September’s treating you well and that you’re finding your groove as we put another summer to sleep and settle in for a new season ahead.
I’m still having trouble believing that we’re already three weeks into the month, but what are you going to do?
This time of year, things start to pickup for us. While folks like to enjoy our candles throughout the year, autumn the coming winter are where we find ourselves the busiest. With come that comes a pile of candles to be poured, planning, projects, coordinating.
Sometimes it kind of feels like we’re putting together a puzzle. Some pieces of the puzzle arrive quickly, others slowly (oh so slowly). Sometimes you didn’t know you needed another puzzle piece or forgot about a piece you had.
And then you start building, doing so without the picture on the puzzle box to guide you. You’ve got an idea of what the end result is going to hopefully look like, some memories from the last time you did a puzzle called “MAKING IT THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS IN ONE PIECE” but you’re kind of just winging in, figuring it out as it comes together.
Sometimes pieces come together easily. Sometimes there’s a bit of jamming, but eventually you get there.
Slowly my team and I have been finding our puzzle pieces and putting them together.
I thought it’d be fun for 02. DISPATCHES to tell you about how this season’s puzzle is coming together.
With each autumn and holiday season, I find myself having to do a bit more coordinating. The planning and puzzle piece hunting starts earlier and earlier in the year. Throw in stuff coming from six countries (Canada, USA, Mexico, China, India and Nepal) and things can get interesting.
We usually stop pouring autumn candles in the middle of October, with the focus shifting to making sure everything’s ready for the holiday season. I think we’re in good shape. Well, kind of. A rush order of fragrance went in yesterday and should be here by Friday. With so many fragrances and different notes used, suddenly you can find yourself walking into the fragrance room and saying, “oh shit. Looks like we’re out of everything we need to do our next round of production. Better get on that.”
I haven’t always gotten it right. Not even close. Growing the past few years from a tiny solopreneur operation to a full-fledged lab & creative studio hasn’t come without its own growing pains, bottlenecks, supply chain issues, pandemic fun and “Dan, you said you were going to order that stuff. Did you?”
But, in the same breath it’s been fun to grab my imaginary trench coat and magnifying glass, as I look for all the piece that makeup the puzzle that is #candleseason for us.
I’m really excited with where my team and I are at. There’s a pile of new fun on the go and treasures that have just arrived. You know I’m that guy that looks up from his desk anytime a courier truck drives by.
All holiday artwork is on the way. Earlier this year I started working with two new printers who I love. It’s all about the details for me & I wasn’t happy with the quality of the labels that we were using. It’s all about continuous improvement and tweaking around here and the new linen texture paper that we’ve selected just looks and feels like a million bucks. I want everything we make to look as good as it smells.
This holiday season we’ve got seven fragrances in our core winter lineup, including two new ones – Cypress + Mint along with Evergreen. Both launching ahead of November 1st! All seven fragrances will be in our 8oz tumblers, along with 4oz mini jars – another shakeup.
I decided to phase out the little tins. Sometimes I just get bored. That and they were a pain to label. Half the time my label applicating machine didn’t work with them, so it even last season I found myself sitting in the lab at 3 AM watching Murder She Wrote while hand-applying Forest Frost labels.
That and the jars just look nicer (those tins served their purpose but like, meh). With a bigger surface area on each jar, I was able to design a new label that really lets me tell you the top, middle and base notes of each scent. Something I’ve wanted to do for years.
I’d originally hoped to hunt down some cute reusable tins that I could emboss with fun looking graphics, but it just wasn’t in the cards. We’re a growing studio, but we’re still tiny enough that sometimes folks won’t give you their attention when you approach them about custom fabricating something. There was a lot of sweettalking to get our incense tins, it’s didn’t go so well with this latest idea. Maybe someday.
I think we’ve got most of what we need for fragrance to get us through the holidays in-stock or on the way. If you had to ask me off the top of my head how many notes we’re using, I don’t think I could tell you. Lots. We’ve had some fun exploring and trying new things. Looking at ideas that on surface might not feel really Farmer’s Son Co., but that’s the point. It’s important to shake it up & draw from new inspiration.
What else can I tell you.
I think we’re doing okay after the great wick shortage of 2021. A key supplier of bulk candlewicks in the industry (like talk about a niche business?) closed for awhile and experienced a pile of supply issues that everyone making candles professionally felt. There were a lot of late nights searching online and making calls to everyone to find enough wicks to get us through the season.
Same goes with glassware. At what felt like the eleventh-hour last year I managed to get three pallets of our tumblers in. Sometimes you just need to trust in the process and hope it works out. On that note, I need to make sure I get another pallet of tumblers on the way. We tear through them – especially when doing big pours of classics like Mulled and Forest Frost.
We’ve also got our new recycled blown glassware from Mexico to play with! It arrived earlier this month and has been flying out the door. I figured I’d launch it first as barware (so many folks kept asking) and then let the collection of fragrances follow.
Let me tell yah. It’s going to be good.
When I started thinking about the look and feel of the glass, I knew I wanted to shift gears a bit. Make that a lot. Which is the brief I gave my team. The vibe is dirty / sexy / mood / late nights / whisper tones / long drawn-out conversations / heavy / a half empty wine bottle / incense / the crackling sound of a record player. You know where I’m going.
It’s coming together. I’m hoping for November. I should probably make sure I order the right size boxes this time.
Bags, boxes and ribbon are looking good. Talked to the bro-in-law about getting another couple of workstations built (I never thought we’d run out of counterspace).
I’m also anxiously awaiting the departure of our 2022 holiday range from our partner in Nepal. I’m going to introduce you to our workshop and the range soon, but, dang, if this range isn’t just the cutest. We weren’t even through last holiday season when I started working on it, knowing we’d set the bar high with those goofy bells. Man I love those bells. We were able to get our paws on a few more for this season (sadly no 4pc hanging set)…but still some good stuff.
And then there’s our new brassware that’s being enjoyed and the new coffee range I just ordered.
Last but not least, it’s time to figure out the flow and layout of our physical space outside the lab. Our studio couch went into storage and fixturing is starting to roll in. I’m not opening a store. I said I’d never open a store…an experience though…I do love a good experience.
I'll share what I'm thinking soon enough.
With that, I’ve just realized I need to do a rush order for more candle bags. I should probably go figure that out...
More DISPATCHES to come.
Cheers,
Dan
I hope that you enjoyed your Labour Day weekend.
Like many of us, I used this weekend as an excuse to get out of the city and head back out to my family’s farm. It was exactly what I needed – a bit of downtime ahead of what’s shaping up to be a busy fall season filled with holiday production, markets, and pop-up dates. It’s always good to just sneak away and turn your brain off for a few minutes.
I love where I grew-up in Manitoba's Parkland region (north of Roblin if you're curious). It’s some of the prettiest countryside that I know of, so I’ve always got my camera at the ready and will look for any reason to pullover and capture something new. It’s only fair that I pepper my first dispatch to you with some of my favourite photos from the weekend.
As you’re reading this (and as I’m writing this), we’re both probably asking ourselves “what is Dispatches?”
I’m not totally sure – which I’m okay with. I think I’m still figuring it out. Maybe we’ll figure this out together. This might be my best idea ever, or it might be like the time I bought a tanjine and convinced myself that I was going to make Moroccan chicken weekly. Five years later it’s still in its box on the top shelf of my pantry.
I think I want to use Dispatches to share and connect. Probably even babble a bit. How this looks, we’ll figure out as we go.
This autumn marks six years of building Farmer’s Son Co. and a lot’s has changed in that time – including how we connect and catch-up with each other. In those early days I signed up for every market and pop-up I could. I just wanted to meet folks and share my art. We talked, shared and got to know each other. Anytime an order would arrive on the website I’d get a sore wrist from writing those notes to you.
But it’s through meeting face to face, those notes to and from each other (I’ve saved your cards and emails), plus all we’ve experienced together on Instagram that we’ve gotten to know each other, which is something that I wouldn’t change for the world. We’ve shared stories and life experiences. The good, the not so good and everything in-between.
While I might not be able to write half page notes with each order like I used to, I enjoy what we’ve created. It’s a unique little community that I love. I feel a kinship to you.
So that’s what I want Dispatches to be. A continuation of what we’ve created. A way to connect and share that doesn’t rely on Algorithms or necessarily even on the candles that I’ve build my little brand on. We like a good story. We appreciate experiences. We like nice things. We want to talk about places we know and love so well. We want to share those common experiences and memories. Recommendations and things we love.
So that’s what we’re going to do.
Along the way, I want to use Dispatches as a place to explore new ideas with you while reconnecting with some of my favourite things and hobbies. To share parts of myself and my team that I haven’t. A lot of my loves in life took a bit of a backseat when I dove headfirst into the world of entrepreneurship all those years ago. Sometimes you just run out of hours in a day, week or even year.
Suddenly you find yourself saying “remember when you used to bake? Remember when you used to just take photos for fun? Remember when you used to just write for the fun of it? Remember the things that used to just make you, you?”
Obviously, I’m going to share about candles and the lab and the new goods I’m creating, but this is about having some fun. In many ways, this is a way for me to reconnect with all the things I love and want to talk about.
So, while I’m not a great baker I might show you my half-assed (or failed) attempts. I love to garden and it's always fun to talk about what's happening during any given season. Give you a glimpse of the goods I’m designing and my thought process. How I think about product and what inspires me. I love travel – be it near or far and it’s always fun to share those favourite spots and finds. I want to talk about the places I’ve been and how they’ve inspired me.
I’m excited to have you along on this journey. Sometimes I don’t feel like I know where I’m necessarily going. I mean who’d of thought six years ago that I’d be creating neat things in an old warehouse space that's been transformed into a unique spot complete with buffalo check wallpaper and a team of trained fragrance designers?! All this while I sourcing artisan blown glassware, boxing up and shipping candles to folks across Canada and beyond (while also trying to track down the shipping status for 900 strands of pom-poms...(more on those later). It’s all kind of been goofy and doesn’t necessarily make sense sometimes – but that’s kind of the fun part.
I’m not one of those people who can follow a schedule. I struggle with them. I blame the relentlessness of my past corporate life where every 15 minutes of my working day was scheduled. There’s not going to be a formal process to Dispatches. I’m just going to share as I’m feeling inspired. As I can. When I’ve got a soapbox to stand on. When I have things to tell you about. Dispatches are just going to arrive when the time is right.
So with that, I can't wait for what's ahead and am looking forward to sharing everything with you.
I'm going to leave you with a glimpse of what's just arrived in the online shop and for sale at Candle Canteen counter in the front end-end of our lab + creative space.
My beautiful new barware designs have arrived from our friend Jaime in Mexico! His team of artisans creative beautiful mouth-blown glassware exclusively from recycled materials (think old beer and juice bottles collected from resorts and garbage dumps). Jaime and his team know their stuff - their creations are enjoyed in some of Mexico City's leading restaurants and independent boutiques. As well, their work has caught the attention of leading design focused brand Soho House who Jaime has consulted with to create pieces for their exclusive clubs.
I wanted to create a collection of pieces that are classic in design (a Collins glass, a stemless wine glass and a lowball tumbler) in a moody hue suitable for the months ahead. I really look at these pieces and think of them as modern classics that you'll enjoy for years to come.
Each piece is skillfully blown by a talented glassblower, so no two are alike.
After three years of offering candles poured in our blown Mexican glassware with folks slowly collecting pieces a glass at a time, I wanted to create a glass family that was available immediately as barware / drinkware first, with a collection to follow.
We're still conceptualizing the fragrance collection - but we're going dark and moody. A little bit sexier and dirtier if you will. A new direction, but one that I'm excited to tell you about when the time's right.
But until then, I hope the days ahead are good to you!
Cheers,
Dan