Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
"TBI" wrote in message
...
"Melba's Jammin'" wrote in message
...
I agree with you totaly, but citric acid sounds chemically - and so
does
dextrose. I know what they are and where they come from - I've no
problem
coz I understand food, but to the uninitiated they don't look natural.
It's
more of a branding thing. It gives people a warm fuzzy feeling.
Mat
In a word, pishtosh! You're talking about a "branding thing" and giving
people a warm fuzzy feeling. Kewl. So your labels say, "Ingredients:
Sugar, vinegar, peppers, fruit pectin (mixed with dextrose [a natural
sugar], and citric acid (to brighten the flavor and assist in the
gelling process). BTW, citric acid sounds no more chemical than
ascorbic acid, er-r-r-r vitamin C.
I totally agree with you... but folks don't get that - same as they don't
see the 'no added sugar' thing. It's a culture and education thing I
guess.

I hate to burst your bubble but if you slap the term "Natural" on jelly
you are breaking the law. There is no such thing as "Natural" jelly.

The definition for Natural is he

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets...erms/index.asp

"...A product containing no artificial ingredient or added color AND IS ONLY
minimally
processed..."

Making peppers into jelly would NOT qualify as "minimally processed" because
it fundamentally does alter the raw product.

Now, let me give you a bit of advice on this jelly thing.

The SINGLE biggest difference between small-batch jellies and the big
commercial jellies and jams is the use of HFCS. (High Fructose Corn Syrup),
AND the selection of raw fruit used to make the jam or jelly.

There is absolutely no way in hell to disguise the taste of HFCS. The
big commercial food industry has spent 40 years gradually weaning the
buying public off Cane Sugar and onto HFCS because Cane Sugar is
more expensive. But there's a solid minority of people who are fighting
this and can still taste the difference - that is why Coca Cola is able to
sell Passover Coke, and why Haggen-Daz is able to sell ice cream that
is 3 times more expensive than the cheap stuff.

Furthermore, there is ALSO a NOTICEABLE difference in taste between
Beet Sugar and Cane Sugar. In fact, I deliberately use beet sugar for
Blackberry jam and Cane sugar for Rasberry jam because the Beet
sugar flavor is heavier and overrides the Rasberry flavorants in the
fruit, whereas the Cane sugar flavor is much lighter.

The other major variable is the ripeness of the fruit. The large commercial
houses make jam in such large batches that they have to take the fruit in
whatever shape they get it. Fruit that is on the green side of ripeness
makes one kind of taste and fruit that is well advanced in ripeness makes
an entirely different taste.

If your goal is to be successful in selling small batches you will need to
focus on a particular flavor that is different than the large jam makers.

Besides making jam myself I have bought at least 1 jar of most of the
local small-batch productions in my area over the years. There are very
definite
taste differences between producers. In a way, making jam at that level
is much like making beer - you can adjust the type and quantity of
sugar to affect flavor, you can adjust the ripeness of the fruit your
putting
in to affect flavor and so on. You will find that if you are able to figure
out
a flavor that is unique to you and reproduce it with some regularity, that
doing that will be FAR more important than whether your labelling is
able to mislead the public that your product is "natural" because people
will
try your product, and the ones that find that they like it will go out of
their
way to buy it again. THAT is the hook that will get you your repeat
customers and get your sales up, it is the TASTE.

Your hung up on the ingredient list, but only a few really off-the-deep-end
people actually buy all their food based solely on the ingredient list.
Most
buy their food based on if it tastes good or not. (of course, loudly
complaining
all the while to anyone who listens that they care about the ingredients)
And you must understand that
the big food producers have very severe constraints on them in that they
must use ingredients that are cheap, and available in bulk, whenever
possible
and that is fundamentally in opposition to the delicate bouquet of flavors
that is achievable with small batches where your free to use the higher
quality raw ingredients.

Ted


He lives in the UK Ted, laws are different.

George

"Melba's Jammin'" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Kathi Jones" wrote:

"Melba's Jammin'" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"TBI" wrote:

"Melba's Jammin'" wrote in message
...

marketing thing.

Kind of like here where the "all-fruit spreads" are pitched to the
public as having no added sugar? Whoops!! "Liar, liar, pants on
fire,
nose is as long as a telephone wire." They use fruit juices as
sweetener -- typically apple, white grape, or pear juice. (Hint:
they're sweet because of the sugars they contain.) The end product
ends
up having maybe 10 fewer calories per tablespoon than a full sugar
product. A few grams less of carbohydrates, too.


"TBI" wrote in message
...
Hi Folks,

I'm looking at making red pepper jelly for sale to local
markets. I'm wanting to avoid using anything artificial. I want
to keep the ingredients as simple and as natural as possible.
The problem is that commercailly available Pectins contain
additivies.


So do some jellies. :-)
Ball brand Fruit Jell powdered pectin (i use it exclusively because
it
is less expensive than Sure?Jell or Certo) lists ingredients as
dextrose, fruit pectin, and citric acid. Dextrose is a sugar. It's
there to prevent the powdered pectin from caking. Citric acid adds
acidity which helps the set and reduces the pH level. What's the
problem, other than availability?

I agree with you totaly, but citric acid sounds chemically - and
so does dextrose. I know what they are and where they come from -
I've no problem coz I understand food, but to the uninitiated they
don't look natural. It's more of a branding thing. It gives people
a warm fuzzy feeling.


Mat

In a word, pishtosh! You're talking about a "branding thing" and
giving
people a warm fuzzy feeling. Kewl. So your labels say, "Ingredients:
Sugar, vinegar, peppers, fruit pectin (mixed with dextrose [a natural
sugar], and citric acid (to brighten the flavor and assist in the
gelling process). BTW, citric acid sounds no more chemical than
ascorbic acid, er-r-r-r vitamin C.


Barb...you're my hero.....


lol....following the thread, and learning, and thinking you (and Edrena)
are
the kewlest - ever !

Kathi


LOL!! Why is that?


this part here

"So your labels say, "Ingredients:
Sugar, vinegar, peppers, fruit pectin (mixed with dextrose [a natural
sugar], and citric acid (to brighten the flavor and assist in the
gelling process). BTW, citric acid sounds no more chemical than
ascorbic acid, er-r-r-r vitamin C."

I found it amusing and so simple and so true. And you both (and others
replying to the thread) and fountains of information. I always know who to
ask when I have a question!

Kathi



--
-Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/amytaylor
4/23/2008 The rains fall on the just and the unjust alike; sometimes
our umbrellas are not wide enough to keep us dry.

In article ,
"Ted Mittelstaedt" wrote:

"TBI" wrote in message
...

"Melba's Jammin'" wrote in message
...

I agree with you totaly, but citric acid sounds chemically - and
so does dextrose. I know what they are and where they come from
- I've no problem coz I understand food, but to the uninitiated
they don't look natural. It's more of a branding thing. It gives
people a warm fuzzy feeling.

Mat

In a word, pishtosh! You're talking about a "branding thing" and
giving people a warm fuzzy feeling. Kewl. So your labels say,
"Ingredients: Sugar, vinegar, peppers, fruit pectin (mixed with
dextrose [a natural sugar], and citric acid (to brighten the
flavor and assist in the gelling process). BTW, citric acid
sounds no more chemical than ascorbic acid, er-r-r-r vitamin C.

I totally agree with you... but folks don't get that - same as they
don't see the 'no added sugar' thing. It's a culture and education
thing I guess.



I hate to burst your bubble but if you slap the term "Natural" on
jelly you are breaking the law.

I'm not sure he's in the USA, Ted. He's using a UK-based mail address.
(snippage)
The other major variable is the ripeness of the fruit. The large
commercial houses make jam in such large batches that they have to
take the fruit in whatever shape they get it.

That'd be frozen, Ted. In the small-batch operation I am casually
familiar with, the fruit is frozen -- the producer produces the products
as needed and fresh fruit of a quality that will produce the same
results using the same recipe isn't reliably available when it's needed
for production. Producers find suppliers who meet their needs and their
budgets. When the Gedney folks were first fine-tuning my peach
raspberry jam recipe for commercial production and distribution they
were using peaches that were unidentifiable after cooking -- I think it
may have been a 1/4" dice. Not satisfactory. So they changed their
supply order to 1/2" dice. Who knew? If that's how a small batch
(maybe 400 jars?) operation does it, I cannot believe that Kraft and
Smucker's are using fresh fruit for their HUGE batches of soft spreads.
I doubt that anyone even thinks about whether or not the fruit is made
from fresh or frozen.

There's a local operation "up north" that makes spreads from Minnesota's
wild fruits. They make what they can when they can get the stuff fresh
-- and if it's a bad year for chokecherries, they don't make as much
chokecherry jelly as in a better year. But they sell in a very small
market, I believe.


Fruit that is on the green side of ripeness makes one kind of taste
and fruit that is well advanced in ripeness makes an entirely
different taste.

And consistency.


If your goal is to be successful in selling small batches you will
need to focus on a particular flavor that is different than the large
jam makers.

And taste the same way and have the same consistency each time. The FDA
in the USA has very specific standards for what can be called jam,
jelly, or preserves -- brix level, pH, etc. There are no such standards
for "all-fruit" or "spreadable fruit" products. One reason those
all-fruit products aren't huge sellers is because they often don't look
especially appetizing. Sugar helps preserve the color. The red fruits
get to looking brown after a while on the supermarket shelf. The
apricot stuff may not look appealing to start with if the aps are
unsulfured. :-)

An interesting thread.
--
-Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/amytaylor
4/23/2008 The rains fall on the just and the unjust alike; sometimes
our umbrellas are not wide enough to keep us dry.

"Kathi Jones" wrote in message
news

"Melba's Jammin'" wrote in message
...

I found it amusing and so simple and so true. And you both (and others
replying to the thread) and fountains of information. I always know who
to ask when I have a question!

Kathi

Y'all are jist too nice, gal. Find yourselves up (4,000') thisaway, do drop
in. We'll think about making cactus fruits jelly. No coffee yet to remember
name.
Edrena

"The Joneses" wrote in message
...
"Kathi Jones" wrote in message
news

"Melba's Jammin'" wrote in message
...

I found it amusing and so simple and so true. And you both (and others
replying to the thread) and fountains of information. I always know who
to ask when I have a question!

Kathi

Y'all are jist too nice, gal. Find yourselves up (4,000') thisaway, do
drop in. We'll think about making cactus fruits jelly. No coffee yet to
remember name.
Edrena



thanks for the invite! I'll hold you to it!

Kathi

I have a red pepper jelly recipe (based on apple jelly) that contains
no additives. If you're interested I'll dig it out and post it.
CJ
On Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:13:41 +0100, "TBI" wrote:

Hi Folks,

I'm looking at making red pepper jelly for sale to local markets. I'm wanting to avoid using anything artificial. I want to keep the ingredients as simple and as natural as possible. The problem is that commercailly available Pectins contain additivies.

Does anyone have any suggestions or tips. I've thought of making my own pectin, so I'm looking for tips on this as well.

Many thanks for your thoughts,

Mat

"Melba's Jammin'" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Ted Mittelstaedt" wrote:

"TBI" wrote in message
...

"Melba's Jammin'" wrote in message
...

I agree with you totaly, but citric acid sounds chemically - and
so does dextrose. I know what they are and where they come from
- I've no problem coz I understand food, but to the uninitiated
they don't look natural. It's more of a branding thing. It gives
people a warm fuzzy feeling.

Mat

In a word, pishtosh! You're talking about a "branding thing" and
giving people a warm fuzzy feeling. Kewl. So your labels say,
"Ingredients: Sugar, vinegar, peppers, fruit pectin (mixed with
dextrose [a natural sugar], and citric acid (to brighten the
flavor and assist in the gelling process). BTW, citric acid
sounds no more chemical than ascorbic acid, er-r-r-r vitamin C.

I totally agree with you... but folks don't get that - same as they
don't see the 'no added sugar' thing. It's a culture and education
thing I guess.



I hate to burst your bubble but if you slap the term "Natural" on
jelly you are breaking the law.

I'm not sure he's in the USA, Ted. He's using a UK-based mail address.
(snippage)

That I overlooked.

The other major variable is the ripeness of the fruit. The large
commercial houses make jam in such large batches that they have to
take the fruit in whatever shape they get it.

That'd be frozen, Ted. In the small-batch operation I am casually
familiar with, the fruit is frozen -- the producer produces the products
as needed and fresh fruit of a quality that will produce the same
results using the same recipe isn't reliably available when it's needed
for production. Producers find suppliers who meet their needs and their
budgets. When the Gedney folks were first fine-tuning my peach
raspberry jam recipe for commercial production and distribution they
were using peaches that were unidentifiable after cooking -- I think it
may have been a 1/4" dice. Not satisfactory. So they changed their
supply order to 1/2" dice. Who knew? If that's how a small batch
(maybe 400 jars?) operation does it, I cannot believe that Kraft and
Smucker's are using fresh fruit for their HUGE batches of soft spreads.
I doubt that anyone even thinks about whether or not the fruit is made
from fresh or frozen.


Well, you see this is why the food scientists at those places get paid
the big bucks.

There isn't a raw fruit/vegetable supplier in the world who can deliver
a consistent product year after year. Crops just don't grow that way.
That is why people make such a big deal about ranking the "year"
that a wine is bottled - the wine producers have figured out how to
take normal product variation and turn it into a selling point - but the
same variation exists in all food products. It is just that people have
been led (or misled) by the food producers to believe that the taste
of something like grape juice is going to be exactly the same every
year but wine from the same locality will vary every year.

At those large producers you have a food scientist that is picking
apart the raw material to see what has varied - they likely can tell
you exactly how much sugar is present in each batch that comes in -
and so they do what they can to adjust the recipies used to get as
close to a consistent product as they can - but there's always variation.

As for use of frozen fruit, my only comment to that would be to
look at it from a price perspective. It costs more to store a warehouse
full of frozen fruit than a warehouse full of canned jam. That is after
all why canning was invented. I'm not surprised by stories of small
batches using frozen fruit - not that it really makes much of a difference
to the final taste - since the economics are completely different. You
have limited retail outlets that dispose of a slow-moving product in a
limited
area (do people buy as much jam over the summer as over the
winter? I could think of many reasons why they might not) and a
pretty fixed, high, price. By contrast with the large producers they have
built up nationwide brands that the grocers have no choice but to
stock (can you imagine a grocery store surviving that refused to
stock Skippy peanut butter, or Coca Cola, I can't) and they adjust
the prices with coupon promotions. The logical thing for a large
producer is to make as much product as possible when the raw
material is in season and most cheaply available, then warehouse it,
and adjust the drawdown rate of the inventory over the year in the
warehouse by adjusting prices. You also have economies of scale
that come into play, since you just build one factory that can pump
out a thousand tons of the stuff in a week, and this month it does all
the strawberry production, next month it does all the peach production,
etc. etc.

Certainly, the meat canning industry works this way (think, canned
tuna) since there's only a limited window that the harvest is available.

There was a really interesting article in the Wall Street Journal
earlier this week that discussed the rise of the new Nationalism.
Seems that for many countries the free trade thing hasn't been
all it was cracked up to be, one of the most sore points
has been over the issue of food production. There is a rapidly
growing number of governments that are scared to death that
food will be used as a weapon, and in every country there is
a growing interest to discourage food imports and make doubly
damn sure the country can feed itself, and not be dependent on
food imports.

I suspect in another 20 years the days of shipping anything other
than luxury foods thousands of miles from other countries, (so we
can have fresh banannas in the winter) will be gone. Well, jam is
probably a luxury item I would guess, maybe it won't be affected.

There's a local operation "up north" that makes spreads from Minnesota's
wild fruits. They make what they can when they can get the stuff fresh
-- and if it's a bad year for chokecherries, they don't make as much
chokecherry jelly as in a better year. But they sell in a very small
market, I believe.


Fruit that is on the green side of ripeness makes one kind of taste
and fruit that is well advanced in ripeness makes an entirely
different taste.

And consistency.


If your goal is to be successful in selling small batches you will
need to focus on a particular flavor that is different than the large
jam makers.

And taste the same way and have the same consistency each time.

Correct, I had intended that to be implied, however.

The FDA
in the USA has very specific standards for what can be called jam,
jelly, or preserves -- brix level, pH, etc. There are no such standards
for "all-fruit" or "spreadable fruit" products. One reason those
all-fruit products aren't huge sellers is because they often don't look
especially appetizing. Sugar helps preserve the color.

The other reason is simply that, lacking the large amount of sugar,
they don't taste as good to most people. This is one area where
more than a few food manufacturers have fallen for the lip service
people give to "natural healthy" foods (think about what happened
to Gardenburger) and ignored what they actually spend their money
on - the garbage.

The red fruits
get to looking brown after a while on the supermarket shelf. The
apricot stuff may not look appealing to start with if the aps are
unsulfured. :-)


You want to talk unappealing - look at some of the most popular
childrens candies - vomit, woms-n-mud, snot, you name it. All
almost 100% sugar, all very popular. It seems to be pretty easy
to program the general populace into eating something, just load
it down with sugar AKA HFCS.

Ted

Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
There isn't a raw fruit/vegetable supplier in the world who can deliver
a consistent product year after year. Crops just don't grow that way.
That is why people make such a big deal about ranking the "year"
that a wine is bottled - the wine producers have figured out how to
take normal product variation and turn it into a selling point - but the
same variation exists in all food products. It is just that people have
been led (or misled) by the food producers to believe that the taste
of something like grape juice is going to be exactly the same every
year but wine from the same locality will vary every year.

Generally it is the same. It's the same because the grape juice, or
wine is made from a blend of juices mixed to have a particular taste.

The thing that makes the difference so noticable, or not is the variety
of grapes that they can choose from. A company like Gallo buys an enourmous
amount of grapes, probably from all over the world. A small vineyard in
France has to use only what they grow so their wine is affected more.

That's why unsweetened applessauce or unsalted butter is more expensive too,
a higher quality product is only produced by higher quality ingredients
not by mixing cheap and expensive ones and adding things to make it taste
"right".

A wine without a vintage (year) may be combinations of several years
to get a consistent product.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM

Ted,

Many thanks for your detailed response. You've pointed out some very
interesting and useful things. Food for thought!!

I very much agree with you on the Taste thing. Flavour is important. The
fact that we are small allows us to be a little more experimental.

As far as the natural thing is concerned. We're not trying to mislead the
public. We're trying to go for the wholefood thing. I know that's a bit
70's, but people are moving more towards it again in the UK. People want to
know where their food comes from and that it's not been messed around with.

We don't need to add anything that the public percieve as 'nasties', so
we're trying to avoid it. Admittedly, this route could be naive, and may not
be adding that much value to our product (or any at all and may just be
costing us more!!! :-) ).

Mat


"Ted Mittelstaedt" wrote in message
...

"TBI" wrote in message
...

"Melba's Jammin'" wrote in message
...

I agree with you totaly, but citric acid sounds chemically - and so
does
dextrose. I know what they are and where they come from - I've no
problem
coz I understand food, but to the uninitiated they don't look natural.
It's
more of a branding thing. It gives people a warm fuzzy feeling.

Mat

In a word, pishtosh! You're talking about a "branding thing" and
giving
people a warm fuzzy feeling. Kewl. So your labels say, "Ingredients:
Sugar, vinegar, peppers, fruit pectin (mixed with dextrose [a natural
sugar], and citric acid (to brighten the flavor and assist in the
gelling process). BTW, citric acid sounds no more chemical than
ascorbic acid, er-r-r-r vitamin C.

I totally agree with you... but folks don't get that - same as they don't
see the 'no added sugar' thing. It's a culture and education thing I
guess.


I hate to burst your bubble but if you slap the term "Natural" on jelly
you are breaking the law. There is no such thing as "Natural" jelly.

The definition for Natural is he

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets...erms/index.asp

"...A product containing no artificial ingredient or added color AND IS
ONLY
minimally
processed..."

Making peppers into jelly would NOT qualify as "minimally processed"
because
it fundamentally does alter the raw product.

Now, let me give you a bit of advice on this jelly thing.

The SINGLE biggest difference between small-batch jellies and the big
commercial jellies and jams is the use of HFCS. (High Fructose Corn
Syrup),
AND the selection of raw fruit used to make the jam or jelly.

There is absolutely no way in hell to disguise the taste of HFCS. The
big commercial food industry has spent 40 years gradually weaning the
buying public off Cane Sugar and onto HFCS because Cane Sugar is
more expensive. But there's a solid minority of people who are fighting
this and can still taste the difference - that is why Coca Cola is able to
sell Passover Coke, and why Haggen-Daz is able to sell ice cream that
is 3 times more expensive than the cheap stuff.

Furthermore, there is ALSO a NOTICEABLE difference in taste between
Beet Sugar and Cane Sugar. In fact, I deliberately use beet sugar for
Blackberry jam and Cane sugar for Rasberry jam because the Beet
sugar flavor is heavier and overrides the Rasberry flavorants in the
fruit, whereas the Cane sugar flavor is much lighter.

The other major variable is the ripeness of the fruit. The large
commercial
houses make jam in such large batches that they have to take the fruit in
whatever shape they get it. Fruit that is on the green side of ripeness
makes one kind of taste and fruit that is well advanced in ripeness makes
an entirely different taste.

If your goal is to be successful in selling small batches you will need to
focus on a particular flavor that is different than the large jam makers.

Besides making jam myself I have bought at least 1 jar of most of the
local small-batch productions in my area over the years. There are very
definite
taste differences between producers. In a way, making jam at that level
is much like making beer - you can adjust the type and quantity of
sugar to affect flavor, you can adjust the ripeness of the fruit your
putting
in to affect flavor and so on. You will find that if you are able to
figure
out
a flavor that is unique to you and reproduce it with some regularity, that
doing that will be FAR more important than whether your labelling is
able to mislead the public that your product is "natural" because people
will
try your product, and the ones that find that they like it will go out of
their
way to buy it again. THAT is the hook that will get you your repeat
customers and get your sales up, it is the TASTE.

Your hung up on the ingredient list, but only a few really
off-the-deep-end
people actually buy all their food based solely on the ingredient list.
Most
buy their food based on if it tastes good or not. (of course, loudly
complaining
all the while to anyone who listens that they care about the ingredients)
And you must understand that
the big food producers have very severe constraints on them in that they
must use ingredients that are cheap, and available in bulk, whenever
possible
and that is fundamentally in opposition to the delicate bouquet of flavors
that is achievable with small batches where your free to use the higher
quality raw ingredients.

Ted

For those of you that would like to become a Pectin Deep Geek,

http://www.theingredients.co.uk/PDFs...n%20pectin.pdf
"TBI" wrote in message ...
Hi Folks,

I'm looking at making red pepper jelly for sale to local markets. I'm wanting to avoid using anything artificial. I want to keep the ingredients as simple and as natural as possible. The problem is that commercailly available Pectins contain additivies.

Does anyone have any suggestions or tips. I've thought of making my own pectin, so I'm looking for tips on this as well.

Many thanks for your thoughts,

Mat

"TBI" wrote in message
...
Ted,

Many thanks for your detailed response. You've pointed out some very
interesting and useful things. Food for thought!!

I very much agree with you on the Taste thing. Flavour is important. The
fact that we are small allows us to be a little more experimental.

As far as the natural thing is concerned. We're not trying to mislead the
public. We're trying to go for the wholefood thing. I know that's a bit
70's, but people are moving more towards it again in the UK. People want
to
know where their food comes from and that it's not been messed around
with.

We don't need to add anything that the public percieve as 'nasties', so
we're trying to avoid it. Admittedly, this route could be naive, and may
not
be adding that much value to our product (or any at all and may just be
costing us more!!! :-) ).


Considering Jam is basically an adult version of candy, I find the marketing
thrust rather amusing. If the customers were truly concerned with their
health they would eat dry whole wheat toast with perhaps a side of sliced
berries.

I suppose putting the term "natural" on candy relieves the guilt trip.
Although
their waistline doesen't see any difference. ;-)

Ted

"TBI" wrote in message
...
For those of you that would like to become a Pectin Deep Geek,
http://www.theingredients.co.uk/PDFs...n%20pectin.pdf

Thanks - my geekness was truly satisfied today.
Edrena

"The Joneses" wrote in message
...

"TBI" wrote in message
...
For those of you that would like to become a Pectin Deep Geek,
http://www.theingredients.co.uk/PDFs...n%20pectin.pdf

Thanks - my geekness was truly satisfied today.
Edrena



It's the first time I've seen gummi worms offered up on a sterling
silver platter. Beverly Hillbillies, here we come!

Ted