It was the hottest day in SoCal for the last couple hundreds of years. I was driving back from my first photoshoot after Sonoma and dreaming of taking my clothes finally off and jump in a cold shower. It's an hour drive from Burbank to Culver City. I don't usually sweat, but if ones in coupe hundred years, I can afford it, I guess.
"Needle got broke, so I finished only three out of 20 packages before dinner at Yasmine's".Kate also cooked buckwheats muffins to bring with us as an association with 3 out of 20 packages of grchk.
Originally we were supposed to pack everything together and finish the website on September 6th ( the day of silicon forest dinner at Yasmina's place. It's September 5th, and I receive a notification about a photoshoot I have tomorrow. Meaning whatever we were planning to do together getting assigned to Kate.
September 6th. The day of the photoshoot job and dinner at Yasmine's. The plan was to bring 20 mini-packages with grchk as souvenirs to friends. Good thing that we live together with Kate at the same place. In our to-do:
- To create the layout for packages. Nutritional facts, weight, logo. We had to research what do you need and must right at the package.Â
- Print them out. We decided to create two stripes next to each other: one with a logo and nutritional facts, second with a poem. (Kate wrote a poem about Sonoma a day before. ) Beige label, black font, and craft paper package. The black font has been successfully exchanged with brown because we run out of black ink in printers. This moment for "everything happens for a reason." Yes, it was a successful def decision.
- Weight 150g of buckwheat per packageÂ
- Sew together labels with packagesÂ
- Â We've managed to finish the website and make printer print together before I left for the shoot. At least something was going wrong at every step of the to-do list: printer didn't want to print, the ink was going low, the needle got broke. Every obstacle brought flattering iteration to the final product. For example, we used the font's brown color instead of black, three packages instead of 20, understating of need in a bigger font, since the last one is difficult to read.
After a really hot, stressful day me, Kate and Antonina (stoped by at our place in Culver for a week . A new member of my tribe) heading to Yasmina's place to reunite for the first time after Sonoma.
"Silicon forest," the same company of people I was in Tahoe with, but a bit more extended. That's where I met Kate.
If she were a vegetable - that would be a cabbage. Standard from the first look, with lots of layers that will never leave you bored. At first, she seems like a calm, serious lady that got her thoughts together. Kate still has the same reputation in my head. She creates a safe and inspiring atmosphere around her. Everything she does is cooking, playing instruments, singing, writing/reading poems, or talking about how she's working on her sex blogger career. You can start feeling layers.
After we moved to Sonoma, she took full responsibility for the kitchen. We had a professional one, so she got a chef's certificate to feed all of us. She declined her parents' offer to run their restaurant business in her hometown in favor of California's art career. It seems like a coincidence, but kitchen aid found her even in Sonoma.Â
So why, buckwheat? Why did we decide to create a product together? How poetry got involved here?
Buckwheat is an ancient superfood that was a base for lots of meals since my childhood. The first thing I was cooking after a long time sponging across the border. Now I live "across the border," and I want to spread the word about this yummy and hyper healthy groat. It was the right thing at the right time. At this moment, I enjoy every single moment of working on this project. Feels like I can finally apply all skills I gained, and it can bring something.
Poetry. I wouldn't say it's my strong side yet. I enjoy listening and supporting, working on not being shy at performing. Thanks to Kate, that provides safe space and patience for helping me with that.
It's October 5th, and we are ready to accept orders at the website and Facebook store, read and share your poems with recipes. And yes, I am incredibly excited to create aesthetically pleasing content for you to enjoy with our baby project "Grchk"
Visit our website grchk.com
And Instagram.com/grchk.buckwheat
xoxo