Sitting on the couch with the kids watching Back to the Future makes me think about the future, the present, and the past, and when it comes to AUPA we’re constantly thinking of all three. New flavors, larger quantities, and sources straight from farmers we call friends make up some of my dreams of the future. The past is a checklist of tasks, hurdles many small businesses have to jump to move forward in what often feels like a race. But in the words of Alan Watts, “the past and future are real illusions that exist in the present which is what there is and all there is.”
So where are we at present? As one of our first pioneering allies in this endeavor, an endeavor to create long lasting real food that you can trust, we want to give you a status update.
We rented and moved into our commercial kitchen out of our home kitchen at the beginning of the year and have spent the time to clean it up and figure out our flow. We’ve invested in equipment and tested out various methods to get all the ingredients and bars exactly the way we want with numerous test batches.
We’ve jumped through all the city, county, and state hoops and as you may guess the bureaucracy of the federal government is slow and archaic but we’re on the path to fulfilling our USDA inspection currently. Once we get the approval from them we can start cranking out some bars. Of course we need to be realistic here. We’re two people who also split the job of raising two miniature humans, a dog, and flocks of chicken and quail. A work life balance is something we strive for but don’t always hit, either the living room is in disarray or our inbox is left unread, we are imperfect after all.
Besides the status of our new kitchen, inspection, and highly anticipated batches of bars soon to be handmade and hand wrapped, we’ve got a few more exciting tidbits rolling in.
Our shirts have arrived, 3 simple T’s we designed ourselves.
I Eat Vegans, Chad and the Vegan, and a little less cutting, Live Untamed.
Our hats have shown up too. Pretty exciting times for a small business.
Our interview with the Boulder County Farmer’s Market staff just went down and our samples are being reviewed by their judges to see if we earn a guest spot at their market this season. It would be a huge boost in getting AUPA in front of new eyes and samples to the health conscious community of Boulder County.
Oh and get this awesome news we received today: The test batch samples we sent in for lab analysis prove that our processes leave our bars free and clear from all the contaminates meat based businesses have to be aware of. And our water activity tests came back so low that we believe shelf life of our bars is impeccable if stored properly. Tell your prepper friends!
With all this good news, Rob and I keep reminding each other that we need to keep moving forward. Have we made a bunch of money? No. Have we put thousands of dollars and hours in to make AUPA into something? Yes.
After starting innumerable businesses both on our own and together, we really do believe that finding something you love, believe in, and can stick with will help you keep getting back up and trying trying again. And it’s really just part of who we are to question everything. To question the system. To question society. To question what true health is. And to seek the answers, even if it means testing it out ourselves.
For the present time we’ve got big dreams for the future of AUPA and we can’t wait for you to realize them with us. Check out the website and try out some bars.
Thanks for being Visionaries & Truth seekers with us.
-Jay Jay
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