THE COOKERY NOOKERY WILL BE A FULFILLMENT OF TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF PLANNING
THE COOKERY RESOURCE COLLECTION BEING FINALIZED
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO READ THIS BLOG REGULARLY, YOU MAY APPRECIATE THAT, LIKE MANY ANTIQUE DEALERS (AND YOU MAY BELONG TO THAT ILK YOURSELF), I AM NOT DISCIPLINED WHEN IT COMES TO WHAT I HUNT AND GATHER. AS A GENERALIST DEALER SINCE 1977, TO THE PRESENT, I HAVE OPERATED ON THE SIMPLE PLAN, THAT I PURCHASE WHAT CATCHES MY ATTENTION IN THE ANTIQUE AND COLLECTIBLE DOMAIN; FOR THE PRICE I CAN AFFORD.
AS FOR WHAT IS IN-BOUNDS, AS FAR AS WHAT COLLECTABLES ARE MOST KEENLY "SOUGHT AFTER," IT IS A MONSTROUSLY HUGE ZONE, AND WHEN YOU'RE RUNNING A SMALL SHOP, WITH A LARGE AUDIENCE, IT'S BLOODY DIFFICULT TO PLEASE EVERYONE. FOR ECONOMIC REASONS, IT'S ALWAYS GOOD TO PLEASE MOST OF YOUR AUDIENCE. THE REASON I'VE BEEN A GENERALIST FOR SO LONG, IS THAT I LIVE IN AN AREA THAT HAS A HUGE TOURIST ECONOMY. WE HAVE A CRAZY PERIOD OF TIME, FROM THE FIRST OF JULY UNTIL LABOUR DAY, EVERY YEAR, THAT DEMANDS WE MAKE THE MOST OUT OF THE SHORT ECONOMIC BOOM. IF WE WERE SPECIALIZED TO JUST OLD BOOKS, OR QUILTS, ART, OR PRESSED GLASS, WE WOULD BE OUT OF BUSINESS BY THE START OF SEPTEMBER. THERE HAVE BEEN THOSE WHO HAVE TRIED TO SPECIALIZE, BUT WHEN THEY GOT INTO TROUBLE, THEY DID WHAT WE ALL HAVE HAD TO RESOLVE, TO KEEP THE CASH REGISTERS RINGING. MAKE SURE THAT ALONG WITH YOUR SPECIALTY INVENTORY, YOU HAVE A GOOD SMATTERING OF GENERAL ANTIQUES AND COLLECTABLES, SO THAT IF THE HOUSE-SPECIALS DON'T SELL, THE PINE CUPBOARDS, OLD CHAIRS, HARVEST TABLES, BUTTONS, BOWS, AND KITCHEN MEMORABILIA WILL……ENOUGH FOR YOU TO BE ABLE TO GET GROCERIES AND PAY THE RENT.
SELLING YOUR SPECIALTY ITEMS WILL OCCUR ANYWAY, AND THEY ARE GREAT TO HAVE AS BUSINESS PILLARS, BUT IN A SEASONAL ECONOMY LIKE OURS, YOU CAN'T AFFORD MISSED DAYS DURING THE TWO BUSIEST MONTHS. TO SOME ANTIQUE DEALERS I'VE KNOWN, THEY HATE THE IDEA OF HAVING TO RESORT TO THE COMMONALITIES OF THE ANTIQUE TRADE, AND PREFERRED TO CONTINUE INVESTING THEIR MONEY, WHERE THEY WERE MOST COMFORTABLE. THEY HAD A FIRM BELIEF, THAT IF CUSTOMERS WERE TO PASS THE WORD AROUND, THAT THEY HAD FOUND A MUSKOKA BUSINESS, WITH A HUGE INVENTORY OF DEPRESSION GLASS, FOR EXAMPLE, EVERYONE WHO COLLECTS DEPRESSION GLASS, WOULD COME BY THE BUS-LOAD TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS SPECIALTY OFFERING. A FEW OF THESE FOLKS HAVE COME BACK TO TALK TO ME, ABOUT THE FAILINGS OF THAT PARTICULAR IDEA. NOT THAT IT'S A BAD IDEA, REALLY, JUST ONE THAT PRESENTS CHALLENGES IN A TOURIST BASED ECONOMY. IT MIGHT WORK BETTER ON A CITY LANDSCAPE, WHERE THE YEAR-ROUND CLIENTELE IS MORE SUBSTANTIAL, AND COLLECTORS MORE NUMEROUS.
AS I'VE WRITTEN ABOUT PREVIOUSLY, WHEN ANTIQUE DEALERS SET UP SHOP IN MUSKOKA, THEY ARE MOST OFTEN AWARE, THAT THE SUMMER SEASON IS GOING TO DECIDE THEIR FUTURE. AND THEY'RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. I HATE TO ADMIT THIS, BECAUSE I WANT IT TO BE DIFFERENT, BUT WE COULDN'T SURVIVE OURSELVES, WITHOUT OUR OUT-OF-TOWN CUSTOMERS. A LOT OF LOCALS FEEL WE ARE A "TOURIST TRAP," FROM THE GET-GO, AND WOULD RATHER SHOP FOR THEIR ANTIQUES ANYWHERE BUT HERE. IT'S A LONG STORY, BUT PART OF THE PROBLEM OF BEING IN A SEASONAL ECONOMY, THAT DOES CATER TO VISITORS. WHICH IS A SEVERAL CENTURY TRADITION, BY THE WAY. WE HAVE ESTIMATED THAT LESS THAN FIVE PERCENT OF OUR RETAIL BUSINESS, COMES FROM OUR HOME TOWN. IT'S KIND OF SAD WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT, BUT THE OUT OF TOWN CONNECTIONS WE HAVE MADE, MORE THAN MAKE UP FOR THIS, AND IT'S ONE OF THE REASONS, THAT WE HAVE OPTED TO TAKE A BIGGER STEP AT DEVELOPING AN OUT-OF-DISTRICT PRESENCE, IN THE COOKERY END OF ANTIQUES AND COLLECTABLES, AND THE FOOD INDUSTRY ITSELF. WHILE I'M CRAPPY AT SPECIALIZING, I'M ALSO A SUCKER FOR A CHALLENGE. WHILE I'M NEVER GOING TO ALLOW OUR ENTERPRISE TO BE DOMINATED BY ONE DISCIPLINE, OR ONE ASPECT OF THE ANTIQUE AND COLLECTABLE FIELD, WE REALIZE THAT, IF WE WANT TO DO THIS FOR THE LONG-TERM, WITHOUT FEARING A SLACKING OFF OF RETAIL SALES, WE HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO GET HOLD OF SOMETHING ELSE, AND DO IT REALLY WELL……SUCH THAT IT WILL SOON HAVE A PROVINCIAL AND NATIONAL IDENTITY. NO SMALL ORDER FOR HUSBAND AND WIFE, EXCEPT FOR THE FACT, WE'VE BEEN DOING THIS HISTORY AND ANTIQUE THING SINCE WE GOT HITCHED. SO TO BELIEVE THAT WE CAN PULL THIS SPECIALTY THING OFF, AND PROFITABLY, REQUIRES THAT WE PUT ALL OUR LIFE, BUSINESS AND COLLECTING EXPERIENCES TOGETHER, AND BRAVELY GO WHERE NO CURRIE HAS GONE BEFORE.
OUR NEWEST ENTERPRISE
I was unable to get on the computer this evening, at my usual time, which has delayed my other online work as well. But it was a worthwhile delay. Suzanne has finally been able to register her new business venture in "old stuff," which she has called "Suzanne Currie's Cookery Nookery," the result of about 27 years of collecting and cooking, and being in the antique profession. Our previous business was known as Birch Hollow Antiques, which we maintain as my covering business name; but it reflects my general interests in collecting, that of course, I'll still be able to offer my customers. Suzanne is in a position now, as a retiring teacher, to be finally able to fulfill a nearly three-decade-old ambition, to specialize in cookery heritage, as part of our overall commitment to the antique profession. She will get to be part archivist, part collector, a little bit of a librarian…..which is right up her alley, and public speaker if required.
She has been looking forward to this business expansion for some obvious reasons, which we'll call a passion for cooking, and culinary arts traditions, but pretty much because this is something for her to be boss of……and dictate to me what goes in the shop, and what gets chucked into the discount bin. In our longstanding antique business, it was largely my enterprise that she helped with, and I want to stress this carefully, so there is no confusion (should you be discussing this with here later); she made my business successful because she's a very astute retailer, and good at presentation and sales. But it wasn't hers to nurture. This new venture allows her to develop the interests she has had in cooking, since childhood, into something tangible, other than what we Curries benefit from, at meal time. She likes cooking and we sure as heck love eating. What pleases me the most about her new venture, that has today become fact, is that she will appreciate the ownership of the good work she does, to get it going…..without having to share credit with a glory hound like me, who is always glad handing and looking for a byline. When folks have called us about antiques, they don't ask to speak with her, which, as an equal partner, has always been a little frustrating. The fact is, Suzanne is a much better hunter for china, heritage fabric, old blankets, including Birds (Bracebridge) and Hudson's Bay, glass, and kitchen nostalgia. I fail miserably in these categories. I'm an art, book and primitives enthusiast, and general collectables. I will buy collectable bottle openers, but Suzanne wouldn't waste her hunting time, with such trivial pursuit. Which is good, because then we don't trip over each other at flea markets and yard sales.
Suzanne's favorite television shows, are the TVO (Ontario) Christmas season feature series, from England, such as the re-living of "a Victorian Christmas," and others, where a crew of re-enactors bring back all the traditions of these times, with a special component based on the culinary arts of each period in history……Medieval to Edwardian. We've watched them all, and this has been one of the major influences on her desire to start such an "in-time," contemporary business and service, based on the best of the past. We are both long-serving Muskoka historians, and Suzanne has been my long-suffering research assistant, and co-author on several dozen major research projects, including some of our outreach lectures at museums on the topic of cookery heritage. Suzanne used to do demonstrations on such components of pioneer cookery, as butter making, which at times, would have forty to fifty kids, and parents, eagerly hovering over her. Once, we had lost the services of my mother to babysit, and Suzanne had to take Robert, in a snuggly, while making butter. I was the acting manager, so I had to do my rounds with Andrew in tow. And we've done demonstrations at the Muskoka Lakes Museum in Port Carling as well, and being a teacher, has certainly helped her ability to command an audience. She has a lot of fun at the same time, which is really the whole idea behind this latest venture. It's a business on one hand, but most of us in the antique related trade, never get caught up on just the money showing at the end of the day. Everything we do to improve our business, is an investment in a future valuation. We've both committed to seeing this project through, and we've both taken an oath, that no matter how tough it gets building this collection, we're going to improve constantly. As pretty serious book collectors, having had mentorship from some well appointed bibliophiles imbedded in the discipline, we feel we have served our apprenticeship, and are ready to cut loose.
I'm as proud as Suzanne is tonight, in the realization of this little dream come true. To some readers it will seem a trivial thing, unworthy of so many words to describe its inception. If however, you have similar aspirations in the antique and collectable profession, then you might just look at this as a real learning experience…..because I'm not a "good time was had by all" writer. If we have pitfalls, disasters, shortfalls, shortcomings, and pains in the bum, getting it all together, I won't hide this fact. Suzanne won't deny problems that have arisen, because she feels it's important to be a good mentor and role model, to others interested in something similar in the future. If you can learn by our mistakes, then it means our follies weren't without some benefit. We understand the serious shortfall in mentoring in the antique trade, and as veterans of the profession, we would love to be able to lend some advice on the dos and don't of establishing a business like ours……generalist in inventory, for fifty percent of the business…..specialist for fifty percent of the business. It is our outrigger for shoulder season slowdowns, because the cookery heritage theme, has an international audience, and we collect globally significant cookbooks when available. As I've mentioned previously, our major theme, to commence, will be Canadiana, with a strong regional representation. We will expand over time, to reflect a more global knowledge in cookery traditions. We didn't expect to have this done completely by the first of July this year. We know we are looking at potentially, a five year mission, to get that kind of international repertoire. Please be patient with us, because it's going to be a learning experience to the exponent of ten. As one of the star book collectors out there, boy oh boy, have I got my work cut out for me. I'm good at what I do, with non-fiction, but I've never had to put the blinkers on before, and looked specifically for cookbooks on Suzanne's want list. I'll let you know how I do, and if I suck at it, I'll share my disasters out on the book hunt. Consider it the how-to, and how not to, of establishing a cook book resource collection as a business.
I have now, like joining the French Foreign Legion, imbedded myself into something of my wife's design, falling back on my stubborn, bibliophile determination, to come back with what I was sent to uncover. I'd hate to have to admit to you kind folks, that I've been fired for being an inconsistent book hound……of which I've never failed in over thirty years buying and selling old and antiquarian books. Truth be known, I am a little nervous, because if I fail, she doesn't have another bibliomaniac to call upon, to fill the book shelves. Hey, when I played goal, for a dozen hockey teams, I was most often the only netminder dressed for the game. That was in the good old days, when the goalie was bandaged up, and sent back to the crease after all injuries. So I know what it's like to work without a back-up. The team is counting on me, so I'd better deliver. I'll give you a play by play when we get rolling here….so you can judge for yourself, if Currie is just a mouthpiece, a showoff, a grandstander, a jerk…….or a guy who can deliver on a promise.
Thanks for joining today's blog. I hope you can remember the name "Cookery Nookery," and what it might be able to offer the foodies reading this blog…..come the first of July this year. See you again soon.
Please visit my other blog http://muskokaaswaldenpond.blogspot.ca/
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