Sunday, May 19, 2013

EXCITING KANSAS PRODUCT

 
"NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION"
 
     There has been a noticeable kick to my cooking for our guests here at Wildfire Ranch.  And it is a Kansas original and I am crazy about it.  I was stopping at the COOP FEED STORE for coffee and whatever one morning and I saw a little sign in the window.  It reminded me that I had seen this simple plaque all over the country.  It simply says 'DUCKSALT.COM'.  It got my attention and I was finally going to see what all the signs were all about.
     I asked Connie, who manages the store, I have to know what in the world Duck Salt is.  She sold me a bottle and said "go home and try it".  I had never seen it in the grocery stores and she said they sold it in bars and feed stores and anyplace they could get it on the counters.
     Now with my stature and the 32 years I spent in the Garden Plain/Cheney communities I have done a lot of cooking.  I have my favorites but this was something new and I just love it.  So I had to find out all about it.  My reply on facebook only resulted in "it was made in a FEMA trailer, it was probably the only productivity that has come out of a FEMA trailer".
     Ok I was hoping for an interesting story about an idea that took off and the entrepreneurial spirit that has come out of the tornado.  Well I guess the story is there but I have had to do research to find it.
     So the mans name is Matt Dighton.  He is a survivor of the Greensburg tornado and took his passion for food service prior to the tornado and to have something to do at night in FEMA housing DUCK SALT was born.
     I found more of the story from the HUTCH NEWS article of 10-20-2012.  The name is the first thing.  After the tornado it seemed that the handiest thing around was DUCT TAPE (Red Green's favorite).  He had this formula took it to a kitchen in Kansas City for production and needed a short catchy name.  So was born DUCK SALT.
     Even more unusual is his marketing.  The standard method of selling product is to get a wholesale broker and put lots of money into buying space in grocery stores and hope it is one of the few single products that actually sell.  Talk about David and Goliath.
     Instead he utilizes his enthusiasm and hits the road and puts the product into any place that will let him.  Bars, gas stations, feed stores, anywhere he can drive to.  Then the simple signs DUCKSALT.COM.  He is utilizing the outreach center in Greensburg and is marketing as fund raisers to schools.
     His test kitchen is his customers.  There are "no rules" proclaims the website.  Everything from steak to ice cream, I have not tried that one yet but then I cannot have ice cream anymore.  He posts the recipies on his website.
     If you eat with me you will find me slipping it into eggs, hamburger, steak, grilled onions, and just about anything I fix.  Dighton does not expect to become a Carey or Morton but I predict a nice business and future.
     Which reminds me I just run out of my 2nd bottle I am heading to the feed store in the morning and get me more DUCK SALT.

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