key limes + sea salt + spring water = fermented Florida magic
Like usual decided to bury a more serious post in a simple one about preservation methods
I spend a ton of time in conflict with capitalism
Embracing the system has never been my thing, been a reluctant participant forever
I've always put the needs of our customers and the quality of the product in the forefront-- structuring the business around both and certainly over profit
The amount of bartering we do has always felt good and totally outside of the normal flow of capital
The farmers' market's seasonality gives us the ability to reorganize and reorient ourselves year after year which is totally different than the corporate approach of more more more
Happy Belly has been on the slow growth path and we've been largely okay with that over the last decade
But lately because of shortages and inflation I've been looking at capitalism differently
We're kind of fucked if this thing falls apart without something else in its place
It's a lemons into lemonade situation
Sucks but it's all we got on the large scale
With that said...
I thought becoming a business owner would give me the freedom that I needed to create the vision I had (what an ego 😆)
I thought owning a business would help me create a better work-life balance than when I was working with a super abusive boss (now I abuse myself working 7 days/week and 10hr+ shifts)
I thought owning a business meant that I could write my own rules (not exactly)
Gonna be honest [and I know my entrepreneur friends out there get this!] but this business has taken over our lives, our home, our conversations, our vacations, our finances
Sometimes it doesn't feel like freedom. Sometimes it feels like prison. And we've let it happen by giving so much of ourselves to it
Sometimes it feels like the righteous path and sometimes it seems like a fool's errand
Sometimes I'm jealous of 9 to 5ers
I'm pissed that this is the system we're stuck in and know that in order to get ourselves in a better position we have to learn how to play the game, diversify our revenue streams, and double down on investing in ourselves
Real cost of it all though 🤦♀️
