Nudi Pasta.The start-up of a fresh pasta business.

Any person that knows me well, knows I'm always thinking of new business ideas. I could probably say I've been doing businesses (or at least researching about them) all my life. It started in kinder garden with silk worms, $1 each, 2nd grade handmade hair pins, 3rd grade a small bank where my parents would "deposit" pennies, a monthly newspaper that covered 4th grader things like school crushes, then I got more fancy with holiday presents like brownies and cookies all nicely packed and everything.

Sharing some home-made brownies in Kinder garden.

My mom was always very supportive, and I thank her for taking me to buy ingredients, bulk colorful necklace beads, and waking up with me at 5 am to pack cookies in nice little bags to sell that morning in school.

My dad, even though he never woke up at 5, he always listened to my ideas and inspired me in a way that felt like I could do anything I wanted.

Now I'm grown up and it's time to start new adventures. But this time, with a bigger market than 5th graders. So through this blog I'll share with you my story, of the start-up of a small artisan pasta business, everything from ups and downs, and maybe you can one day become part of my adventure too.

Karla



13.10.08

I've landed on SRE world!

Domenico is Italian, 64 I think, really funny, a great example of the American dream, and the owner of a company called SRE, and it is worth to say twice... really funny.

I found Domenico and his company SRE (Specialty Restaurant Equipment), while doing my search for a pasta machine supplier. To say the least, his website is truly interesting. He started it in 1995, and had as a goal to inform and entertain in the same time. Among my favorite things are the doors that open and close (which you click to enter different parts of the website), which he explained to me later "well, I thought, if Bill Gates has windows, I'll have doors!". Then there is the spaceship. You know when you enter a site there is the typical visitor number, well on SRE's site, it is your spaceship landing number. Click and see for yourself.

So, last Monday it was time for me to go beyond the website and meet Domenico personally to finally acquire my pasta machine. He picked us from the airport and then we went to SRE's facilities. SRE is gigantic, which I guess confirms the saying that "everything is bigger in Texas". It had wonderful copper covered coffee machines, granita machines, gelato displays... you name it. And after sipping some coffee, taking a tour (we found the spaceship! Domenico made it himself) and meeting the staff, we arrived to the awaited pasta machine room.


There Domenico and Bill chose a machine. It is a pretty heavy duty Italian extruding machine. To the difference of sheeter machines, which roll the pasta sheets trough rollers and then you cut them, extruding machines forcefully push the dough through some dies which extrude pasta in an infinite number of shapes. The machine included bronze dies, that become a little hot while you use them, which produce a rougher finish and less sticky pasta; compared to their silicone counterparts.

Love at first site... my machine comes out of the pasta room.



Learning the machine basics


Notebook on hand, we then went to try it and learn everything I could about it. I was literally amazed on how faster and better it comes out than the small machine I had at home. Soon, it will be also sitting in my pasta studio. And when it does arrive it will be time to try a million recipes.

12.10.08

Pressure is On... VIP has set heavy demands

Ok... now the pressure is on.

With this kind of picture sent by my sister, I better find really happy chickens and start looking for shipping options to the states A.S.A.P.

To my relief, at least I have some time on my side to get this all sorted; Baby Dylan still has to grow some teeth!

9.10.08

1st visit, Hato Rey's Organic Farmer's Market

So, I've started looking for ingredients, packaging and everything else needed to start making my pasta. It is of greatest importance for me to find the best quality ingredients that I can. Thus, I've done egg-hunts (for real, see related post), talked (or better say, tried to talk) to people in Italy and last Sunday went to meet Jessica, an organic baker who sells in Hato Rey's Organic Market.

pic taken from: www.energiaverdepr.com

The organic market in Hato Rey gets together every first and third of the month. Besides, the typical Puerto Rican fruits and veggies that you can find everywhere else (except they were organic), what mostly made it different was all the other organic products hand-made by other Puerto Ricans. You could see organic brownies, hummus, breads, Tati' son giving massages, soaps and jellies.

On my arrival, first thing, the nice green-topped carrots got me all excited. Later I see a small tent with bakery products; there was Jessica, baby and husband. Previously we had exchanged emails on how to get wholesale prices on organic flour and when I finally met her she gave me all details on how to become part of the Organic Cooperative. Thanks Jessica; seems like I'm getting a step closer.

Later met a farmer from Orocovis which usually brings organic eggs, but to my dismay told me:

"No eggs today... the neighbor's dogs ate our chickens!".

Since my pasta will have sooooo many eggs, the usual 100 eggs he brings won't be enough. But he said not to worry, "he can always just buy more chickens and thrown them in".


So, the results of my visit:

1.closer to finding wholesale organic flour.... check!

2. making some local organic networking..... check!

3. finding potential organic egg distributor.... check!

So,

---- "ready to go Phil, Royce and Troy?"----

---- "Yeap"----

---- "Oh, wait a second."----

4. buy delicious, dark, rich organic brownie for dessert.... CHECK!!!

8.10.08

Egg Hunting Part 2

So after meeting Tati, we started driving east on our hunt, without any direction, for eggs. I know I want organic eggs, and if that is not possible, at least local free range eggs. But how do I explain that to the person from the country that doesn’t really know what “organic” or “free range” means?

So, I came up with a nice way to explain to random country-side people what I was looking for. “I am looking for eggs from happy chickens’’. Most people looked at me like I was crazy, like: “aren’t all chickens happy?”

Phil and I were starving and decided to stop and eat a roadside “tripleta” (3 meats) sandwich. The owner told us to go to a stand on another road by Wendy’s where I can find local eggs. “Great! I’m getting closer!”. So, I thought.

So there we went. The egg-less hotdog stand, had several nice older men, which explained that they were out; if I had been there earlier I could have bought some. But, that if I went, left and then right, and saw a car wash, later I would see a blue tent, with a red pick-up truck on front. That is where the egg-man would be.

So there we went. The egg-man-less red pickup truck, had other, helpful nice men, which explained that he was out; if I had been there earlier I could have bought some. But, that if I went down the street I could find his house.

Well, at least I did find the house. But is was egg-man-less too.

So, we came back to the men and ask where could we find the agricultural center, someone had mentioned. “left, right, you’ll see Condom World, you know… Condom world!? Right? and then there it will be”. That is when I loose it, and start laughing so hard, I almost cried. So Phil had to come out of the driver’s seat and with his good Spanish get all directions.

And after that, hours and gas were spent looking for happy chicken with no reward.

After driving all day and feeling such defeat, we couldn’t keep ourselves from noticing that Pinones is full of chickens running around. But no one sold eggs. They were mainly just for family use.

So my new idea comes up… how awesome would it be if someday I could help some families to produce eggs organically in their backyards and then sell them in stands in Pinones road 187. Maybe someday!

Egg Hunting Part 1

I know it's not Easter. But I'm in a real egg-hunt! For Nudi Pasta I want to find the freshest eggs. Organic local eggs if possible, or at least free-range. I want to be able to look at where they are raised and have a relationship with the owner... and the chickens. :)

So that is how the egg hunt started. First I went on the internet and found about a lady named Tati, that offers workshops on how to grow vegetable gardens like our grandparents did. After finding out she's the sister of one of my dad's best friends, I quickly decided to embark on meeting her... I mean, she must know other eco-conscious people that might have eggs!


So my husband and I started driving down road 187 towards Pinones. This beach-front area has a heavy influence of our African heritage and has enormous ecological value. It is a unique place in the island where you can go and experience mangroves, lagoons, beach and have a taste of some fritters and coconuts filled with rum too. One of their victories was keeping out a pretty big development that menaced the area's heritage and ecology; and actually the pinoneros managed during their battle to make 30,000 acres of the area a natural reserve in 2007 .

Pic: entering Pinones

We arrive at "La Terraza de Domitila", and Tati quickly made us feel at home. She showed us how to make hanging planters out of coconuts, let us touch her natural compost and even invited us to eat some lunch. But we really had to keep going with our egg-hunt, and she provided some contacts, which I could never get ahold off.
Pic: Terraza Domitila

So we decided it was time to go, and to try our luck at finding eggs in the mountain.