We’re kickin’ off a new interview series to help you get to know the producers on Foodzie. Seven questions every week with the people behind the drool-inducing food that fills our marketplace. Renee and Robert from Doc Popcorn, an all-natural popcorn company from Boulder, Colorado just launched their store today and we’re excited to introduce them to you. Check out 7 Questions with Renee from Doc Popcorn!

1) Why did you choose to start making popcorn?
The concept for the company was born when Rob visited a Boulder farmer’s market, where he had his first taste of kettle corn. He literally thought to himself, “Why isn’t this amazing tasting concoction more readily available”? He did some research and found that kettle corn was really a mom and pop business with only one flavor option and not always cooked in the healthiest manner. As a serial entrepreneur, Rob decided to create The Doc Popcorn Fresh Pop Flavor SystemTM, a proprietary process that would enable kettle corn to be cooked in corn oil in a variety of flavors using natural and organic ingredients.

2) What’s your secret weapon for creating the best popcorn flavors?
Rob’s nose. No kidding! He has the most stupendous sense of smell and taste!

3) Which flavor is your personal favorite and why?
It depends on which day you ask me. Today I took home a mixture of our newest flavor, Sweet Butter with Better Butter and Sinfully Cinnamon—my favorite holiday mixture. I love mixing the salty and sweet flavors to create new tastes.

4) Tell us a unique way to enjoy one of your products that we may not have thought of.
Although we have 12 flavors, each can be mixed with one, two or more flavors to create sensational new tastes. Many of our customers come to the stores and ask for combinations of two or more flavors.

5) Any new products or flavors in the works?
Our latest flavor is Sweet Butter. We always have something new in the works—stay tuned for our next delectable concoction.

6) What advice would you give to someone who wants to get started in the food business?
Know and listen to your customers and give them what they want.

7) Which product on Foodzie makes you most hungry? We’ll chat with that producer next!
As a chocoholic, I would have to say fellow Boulderite Seth Ellis.

Foodzie is looking for an efficient, smart, experienced HTML/CSS coder to join a startup that is opening up the world of artisan food to consumers online. We are a venture backed, revenue focused company.

We are an extremely small team working very hard to make a dream come to life. You’ll find your position comes with an enormous amount of freedom and responsibility. We are looking for people who are excited about artisan food want to make better food more accessible. Our motivation stems from our passion and we won’t settle for anything less in those we bring on board.

We have a culture of curiosity within Foodzie. Side projects, speaking engagements, and other enriching/community activities are encouraged.

Apply. Taste something different. jobs@foodzie.com

EDIT: Changed some bullet points to make it clearer that the work we’re hiring for is primarily front end development.

Tuesday was a big day for Foodzie. We launched our newest version of the marketplace and we announced the closing of a $1 M financing round. TechCrunch, TechStars, VentureBeat and many others shared the news and thus sent many hungry techies to our doorstep. Ever since, the orders have been flowin’ and we’re excited to see so many orders for our producers. So you’ve got us feeling all warm and fuzzy, and by golly, we’re ready to spread some holiday cheer! We’re offering 20% off every product on Foodzie. Yes even that Pumpkin Pie Bar you’ve been drooling over. We’ve made it easy, no coupon code to enter. You’ll see the discount when you get to the checkout. So go, shop, buy and enjoy!

In the announcement of our recent funding, we mentioned that we’re working with First Round Capital. We couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with Rob, Kent and the rest of the First Round team. They made a pretty sweet holiday card this year with all their portfolio companies and we were excited to be a part of it and show off our dance moves. Eating isn’t our only talent.

We’re happy to announce that we’ve closed a $1 million seed financing from Jeff Clavier of SoftTech VC, First Round Capital and strategic angels. We’re going to be using this investment to build our community marketplace and to implement marketing to attract artisan producers and foodie consumers.

You can read more about our financing at TechCrunch and TechStars.

Did you miss us? 

We’ve been quiet over here on the Foodzie blog. I know what you might have been thinking, and no… we haven’t been in a food coma since Thanksgiving. In fact, we’ve actually been quite busy!

Since TechStars ended in August, we’ve been learning a lot from the four beta stores that took a leap of faith and started a store with us. To Rick, Bill, Brianne and Mary Jean, we can’t thank you enough. Also, a big thank you to all the customers that visited the site and walked away with an order of heirloom popcorn, organic tea, handmade cookies and organic truffles. We hope you have enjoyed the products you purchased and will make your way back soon! And now you have even more reason to come back. 

We just launched the marketplace with 25 new producers and products ranging from handmade Cherry Chocolate Macadamia Nut Granola from Michele’s Granola in Baltimore, MD (I am officially addicted!), handmade Pumpkin Pie Bars from BonBonBar in Los Angeles, CA (stocking stuffer maybe?), and Bravo Farms Silver Mountain Clothbound Cheddar (aged and rubbed with olive oil - oh yum!).

So no sense in sticking around here on the blog, you better hop over to the marketplace. We’ve got plenty of food porn waiting for you. 

This evening we’re going to be featured in a Current TV documentary that highlights some of our experiences in the TechStars program.

StartUP takes place in Boulder, Colorado which is becoming a hub for web startup companies.  This story is about Techstars, a mentorship-driven seed stage investment fund, who selects 10 companies made up of young entrepreneurs to join a summer program where they are exposed to many mentors and investors.  We focus on two of the companies in this incredible program, Ignighter & Foodzie. They had the opportunity to meet people like Matt Mullenweg of WordPress to the founders of Photobucket. We hope this inspires any of you out there with an idea and a lot of passion.

We just returned from a week-long trip to San Francisco and as you may have noticed, I don’t quite have the whole blogging-while-traveling thing down. Since the Boulder Market is now officially closed, it was nice to head to California where the markets stay open all year long. Susie Wyshak, a fellow foodie who’s helping us discover new producers for Foodzie, gave us the grand tour of the Ferry Building Farmers Market. If you’ve been to San Francisco or flipped through a Food & Wine, Saveur or Bon Appetit magazine you’re probably familiar with a bunch of the producers we bumped into - many that could be considered celebrities in this town!

I’ve been a fan of June Taylor ever since I discovered her in the Silver Lake Cheese Shop in LA and fell in love with her apricot conserve. It was nice to meet her in person and I truly enjoyed my chat with her about cooking and the idea of expanding our jam horizon beyond just jam and toast. (why not duck, fish, cheese…) June’s a producer of artisan jams, syrups and occasionally, if you’re lucky, she’ll craft her famous shortbread or Christmas Cake. June still makes each flavor just one teeny tiny batch at a time (the jams are cooked on her stovetop). She hand labels each jar and even hand-dyed the tissue paper she wrapped her Christmas Cakes in this year. If you want to get a sense for artisan, just talk to June - she defines it in its purest form.

I just mentioned Steve Sando and Rancho Gordo heirloom beans in my recent post about the Obama Bean Art. I was able to pick up a few bags of his beans, the Mayacoba, Brown Tepary, and Christmas Lima, which will most likely accompany my Heritage Turkey for Thanksgiving dinner this year. He was featured in Food & Wine this month and shares some sophisticated recipes that bring out the best in his beans. The Rancho Gordo brand embodies Steve’s colorful and fun personality that I was able to enjoy first-hand at the market. He’s got a basket of beans out on display that shows off the stunning color variations in the heirloom varieties. I couldn’t help but dig my hands in and play with the beans!

We also got to hang with the guys and gals at La Cocina and I fortunately (or unfortunately now that I am totally addicted…) got to try the famous Clare’s Squares. They are seriously sinful, starting with a buttery, crumbly shortbread cookie base and topped with silky caramel and a crisp layer of dark chocolate. I also got to meet the famous Christina from Kika’s Treats, munch on Gabrielle’s Delights and sip on Morning Glory Chai - all La Cocina producers.

Some like to rag on the Ferry Building Farmers Market, that it’s not a REAL farmers market. Although, yes I will admit - many of the producers are more sophisticated than those that fill other farmers markets at the end of the day, they are still real people, making really good food that they are really, really passionate about. 

It’s always a sad time of the year for me when the farmers market comes to a close. This past Saturday was the last day of the Boulder Farmers Market and in usual fashion, I strolled around to all my favorite vendors. I stocked up and filled my shopping tote until it was practically overflowing. So heavy in fact, that I had to alternate shoulders during my trek back to the car. I completely forgot that we would only be around for three days before taking off for San Francisco on Tuesday. So since then, the veggies have taken center stage to ensure we consume all this good stuff before we go. 

For lunch this afternoon, I whipped up some of the itty bitty brussel sprouts I picked up from the market from Oxford Gardens (also my favorite farm to get beets). If you’ve never enjoyed brussel sprouts, (I once was a brussel sprout hater too…) be sure to try really, really fresh ones before you write them off. They’re tender, slightly sweet and not a bit bitter. 

I started by parboiling the brussel sprouts for about 4 minutes. Meanwhile, I sauteed some fresh Lions Mane mushrooms (looks like cauliflower and taste like heaven) from Hazel Del Mushrooms in Fort Collins, CO. I sauteed them in Balzana Olive Oil, a light grassy olive oil from California that I absolutely adore. I then tossed in the brussel sprouts and sauteed them until they just started to brown on each side. I had just pulled out my last pack of Benton’s bacon this weekend from my first order back in early summer and I had a crispy piece of bacon leftover from Sunday brunch, just waiting to be used. So I added some crumbled, crispy bits of Benton’s bacon, which gave it that perfect subtle smokiness and just the right amount of salt. The recipe cleaned out a few more veggies out of the drawer and better yet, was so, so tasty.

The only produce I have left to put to good use is a bag of fresh salad greens and some of Oxford Farms beets. This evening I plan to do a light salad starting with the greens topped with the roasted beets, toasted pecans and some Chevre from Haystack Goat Dairy. Oh and possibly a honeycrisp apple from First Fruits. Delish!

Beans, beans they’re good for the heart…and wouldn’t ya know it, they’re good for art! I stumbled upon this masterpiece while catching up on the blog over at Rancho Gordo. Rancho Gordo by the way is an incredible heirloom bean producer. They grow the tastiest varieties of beans. Honestly, they are packed with so much flavor you won’t believe the difference from the mediocre beans that get crammed in cans and slapped on the shelf that the majority of us eat. This is what beans used to taste like until we decided to pay more attention to things like size, yield and disease resistance over flavor. 

I don’t think this mural was made with Rancho Gordo beans, but nonetheless it was made with beans, which just blew me away. Talk about some talent. One of the community members on crafster.org posted this project that took about 2 1/2 pounds of beans, lots of gluing and lots of time. 

Oh and if you think I’m trying to send a subliminal message now that we are just 5 days away from election day…I am. Go vote. 

Photo Courtesy of Crafster.org