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| C/O Carronni Hand Crafted Creations |
By Jennifer Primrose | March 29, 2017
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In this edition of Five Questions With ... we reached out to the mother and daughter team of Carronni's Hand Crafted Creations out of Marion, North Carolina. The two specialize in hand-crafted pita crackers and cheese wafers baked in small batches. If you are a frequent visitor of North Carolina wineries from the Piedmont to the Mountains, you might have had their crackers to cleanse your palate between wines, or even bought a box to enjoy with some cheeses while you drank a nice bottle of wine. We wanted to find out a little more about this duo, and below are excerpts from the interview with Cari.
When did you come up with the idea to create Carronni's Hand Crafted Creations? It's been around six years now that we have been creating our local products. Mom retired from her job of being a social worker and I wanted to leave my job in restaurant management. We both love interacting with people and wanted to become our own boss. So we decided to go vineyard hopping in western North Carolina and Carronni's was born!
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Michelle has composed and designed two cookbooks. Which cookbooks were these? Can you tell us a little about how that came about? Our recipes have been featured twice in Taste of Home Cookbooks and [in] magazines. Mom is a culinary author and has composed two corporate cookbooks and is currently working on a new cookbook creation called "Cooking with Wine" that will be for future sale in the vineyards.
We see that you use all natural ingredients and no GMOs in your products. How important was it to the two of you to use natural ingredients? Do you get these ingredients locally? If so, where? We create our pita crackers and cheese wafers using natural and local ingredients – [it] means everything to us. We will never skimp or cut any corners on the quality and portions of our products. We love local. It's on our packaging!
We've seen your products in many wineries in western North Carolina. Do you self distribute? The heart of our business is the wineries. We currently self distribute to all of our clients. We think of it as an added personal touch that makes our business grow and keeps us strong and motivated every day. We love catching up with them and they want to know what is new with us! Our clients are our extended family! Bigger is not always better. We strive to have a loyal client base.
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| Carronni's products is sold at many North Carolina wineries. |
Selling your products primarily in wineries, you must both be fans of wine. What is your favorite type of wine? How many of these wineries have you personally been to here in NC? Do you have a favorite? Yes! We love our wine and we are always trying to find new ways to cook with it by infusing it into our recipes. We have been to countless vineyards, large and small. I prefer reds and mom prefers whites. They all share a certain purpose for us. Each vineyard we do business with has their own personality and specialty. We don't pick favorites. We love them all!
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What's something new for 2017 we can expect to see from Carronni's Hand Crafted Creations? We are working on a dark chocolate cracker. We are also infusing mustards with white wine, bourbon and moonshine. Look out distilleries, here we come!
Keep up to date with Carronni's by visiting their web page at www.carronniscreations.com.
If you or someone you know would like to be featured in a monthly Five Questions With, please send an email to trianglearoundtown@gmail.com.