This gig came about because one of our Framingham farmers market customers had their own event, and wanted us to pop there. After you’ve watched humanity walk past your tent, you find certain people that have a fun, sort of spark in their presence. You look forward to talking to there people and hope they come by. Jennifer Toth is one of those people. The first time I saw her, she was wearing a medieval wench costume for some event. I would tease her when she would come by wearing regular street clothes and I would go “that’s a lousy costume”. She’s the person in the video who was running this event.

We’ve had a pretty good start of the year with these past two events at the Framingham common. We’ve been popping flat out the entire time. Typically these early events are kind of sketchy, since we’re not really into the prime popping season, which is the first week of August. We also had an offer to pop at a Brazilian festival in Brockton later this year. We’ve learned that food festivals aren’t really that perfect of a match, since kettle corn isn’t lunch. Typically the hot dog truck kicks our ass during lunch time.

Well, we’ve been going to the Springfield Farmers market for 7 years. Our first day popping anywhere was in Springfield on June 14, 2006. If you read that blog entry, you’ll notice we were worried that we would be able to sell anything! For the longest time we were next to a church on a very busy street. It was a great spot that had a ton of traffic, since then we’ve moved inside a forested park next to a hockey rink. The crowds haven’t been the same and on a rainy day like today, we really take a hit. It’s nice that we had some regulars show up and were excited that we were popping again.

Springfield is pretty far from my new Buzzards Bay house. It’s a 2 and a half hour drive so I’m not sure how long I can show up on a weekly basis. The good news is Steve is getting the money together for his own kettle. He’ll be running “Velma’s West” and I’ll be doing  “Velma’s South”. He lives just two streets away from the market and he certainly doesn’t want to lose the income. I’ve got a video editing job for a big insurance company coming up in the middle of May. They’ll be sending me to Maui for 2 weeks on their nickel, so I won’t be able to move to the new digs until the beginning of June. I may post some weird videos from Maui on this blog just for the heck of it.

Off we go – the start of the 2012 season! The big news is I bought a house in the Buzzards Bay area, right next to Cape Cod. (I like the fact that I have a BUZZARD in the name!) The appeal is I’m 1,000 feet from the ocean and a mile long beach. Since I don’t have kids and all the baggage, I wanted to move to where I would like to live, and not have my job dictate where I end up. I’m still in Massachusetts, but I’m going to start looking for new popping locations, closer to my home turf. I feel pretty confident that I can find some spots to make kettle corn on the Cape, the place is a mad house during the summer. I’ll be posting updates on how my search goes for all you people who are here to learn about the kettle corn business. I’ll also be pursing kettle corn much more harder this year since my other forms of income have started to dry up.

I’m still within striking distance to Framingham, so I’ll be popping there over the summer. The first event of the season was at the Framingham common – the Earth Day festival on April 28, 2012. We were invited back from last year and this years event was nuts. The weather was perfect for April and customers were ready to go when we first fired up the kettle. We got hammered with customers the entire 4 hours we were there. This crowd was even more “earthy-crunchy” than a typical craft fair. The whole point of the festival was to celebrate being green, recycling and basically being a modern hippie. They even gave us crap about selling the kettle corn in a plastic bag.

Since I’ll be establishing new stomping grounds, I needed to find someone who was closer to my new location who could do this on a full time basis. My buddy Dan Bridges fit the bill perfectly. He’s a real hot shot sales type of guy who used to be the #1 guy at Sears when he sold refrigerators. I’ve known him for a very long time. He helped me with my indie movie that I shot that I create about 10 years ago. He seemed kind of skeptical when I said kettle corn was like selling drugs. People go mental over the stuff, it’s become known as “kettle crack”. After getting hammered for 4 intense hours, he’s now a believer. Our long range plans are to find a central popping location and push it further than just the tent. Let’s see how that goes.

Filmed at the Sudbury Wayside Inn Revolutionary War re-enactment.

These kids really know how to plug it.

We’ll even show you our Kettle Corn recipe. Feel free to burn a couple of your own pots and pans at home while trying to recreate it without a popcorn popper. It’s not easy!

Check out our Kettle Corn Blog. See how our intrepid kettle corn poppers delve into the pop corn concession business. Experience the exploits of 2 guys, a girl in a tent. Of course the stuff is wicked delicious, but will anyone else think so to? Find out as it happens!

Want to start your own kettle corn business? How does being your own boss in an all cash business grab ya? We’ve written a 60 page ebook which goes into detail on what you’ll need and where you’ll find it!

Looking for a popper in your area? Skiddaddle on over to our Kettle Corn Directory to find someone who pops local to you. Are you a kettle corn vendor? G’wan over there and add your link. It’s free!

Kettle corn (to use the hackneyed expression) is popcorn that’s “slightly sweet, slightly salty”. It’s NOT caramel corn that’s just been diluted. Where your tastebuds can “max out” while eating something like Crackerjacks or cheese popcorn, kettle corn has a more subtle taste that keeps you coming back for more. Wikipedia has some good info on kettle corn’s origins.

And what about the microwave popcorn version of it? Oh please.. Once you’ve had some from a popcorn kettle, you’ll never go back.

“MA! I need some Velma’s! Quick, ‘bang a u-ee” af-tah this next ‘packy’ and pull inta they-ah!”

Popping live and fresh! Go here:

Tuesdays: Forest Park, Springfield, MA – 12:30-6:00pm

Next to the Cyr Hockey Rink – Free admintance to the park!

Thursdays: Framingham Farmers Market – 12:30-5:30pm

At the Framingham Village Green/Edgell Road

So who makes Velma’s Kettle Corn? Let’s see what you guys look like!

Updated by Eric Bickernicks on 8/6/2011

Local news station covers the opening day of Springfield, MA

Wendy comes up with a few additions to Steve’s kettle corn disclaimer.

All the videos on YouTube: Velma’s Kettle Corn Channel

An original kettle corn song by belted out by 3 girls from Framingham.

All the videos on YouTube: Velma’s Kettle Corn Channel