Reflections
Impressions of a Poppy Seed Roll
Bubba's Poppy Seed Roll - Good any way you slice it!
I cannot remember a time when I did not like homemade poppy seed rolls. Yet I know others have stories about never liking them or never even trying them. Of course not all poppy seed rolls are the same and I am sure there are as many stories as there are recipes.
This story happened not long after WWII. A short time after my uncle Johnny married his new wife, my mother (who came to be called “Bubba” through her grandchildren) sent a gift home with her brother – one of his favorite things: a poppy seed roll. When Johnny’s wife and sister discovered the roll they had no idea what it was. Before long they decided it was a joke being played on them and disposed of the roll.
When Uncle Johnny got around to asking the sisters the whereabouts of the poppy seed roll they lied, telling him how much they had liked the gift and that they had eaten it all. Uncle Johnny was beside himself with disappointment and frustration. He demanded they bake him poppy seed rolls just like his sister’s. Rather than accommodate him they confessed that they thought someone used coffee grounds, or worse, and tried to poison them, so they had washed it down the sewer. After much ado about taste and poison, eventually there was a nervous confession to my mom about the incident. Everyone was quickly put at ease when she broke out in uproarious laughter!
In 1983, Mom passed away. For years after I started the “Bubba Roll” business, my aunt and her sister were my best customers… but I do not remember them ever buying poppy seed rolls – just nut, apricot, or prune rolls – mostly walnut.
How about you? Do you have any family episodes relating to new or first impressions of a poppy seed roll?
Welcome to a new era for nutrolls at Bubba’s HomeBaked.
The forthcoming relaunch of our e-commerce website (the new site is nearly ready!) and the start of this diablogue (blog + dialogue = diablogue) mark not only a big step forward for us with technology, but something of a new era for Bubba’s HomeBaked (BHB). You see, we have embarked on the process of transitioning to the second generation of family ownership. (Exciting times these are – we’re all biting our nails around here!) After starting this business just shy of 25 years ago, Dad is starting to think about slowing down a bit. As it happens, I’m ready to step up. So who am I? I’m John Jr. – aka Bubba Jr.
Among other things, I’ll be managing the website and blog – probably doing the majority of authoring here. We’ll see, though, how much I can get the rest of the family to contribute. I look forward to your comments and generally interacting with you in this space. I expect “you” will be our customers, friends, peers, possibly a few competitors (anonymously, I’d assume), as well as some random, unexpected delights, but hopefully no trolls. Ideally we’ll all benefit from it – but I have been told that the sheer act of writing will help me to develop in many ways.
I expect to post about a wide variety of topics. While all of them will have some relevance to the business, since ours is a family-business, they likely won’t be impersonal and dry. I foresee writing about our products (old, new, and imagined), sure, but also about the challenges we face in running our little company and in the transition to the second generation of family ownership. I hope that we create a bit of a hub for almost anything related to the Eastern-European dessert we call nutrolls (also called potica, povitica, and many other names – but that’s another post!) and the families who enjoy them. I also hope that we draw other folks who participate in family-businesses.
Here’s looking toward a lively, fulfilling diablogue.