Rizzology
Welcome to "Rizzology" - The Podcast That Unveils Authentic Stories.
Step into a world where authenticity reigns supreme. In the "Rizzology" podcast, your host Nick Rizzo sits down with an eclectic mix of individuals, each with a unique journey to share. This show is a captivating tapestry of life's remarkable stories, perseverance, and new learning experiences, all interwoven with fun and laughter.
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Rizzology
#102 | David Feuerman | K9 Bros |
Discover the fascinating journey of scaling a food business. We'll explore the personal challenges of delegation, the heartwarming support of local farmer's markets, and the significance of single-ingredient dog treats for pet health. With influences ranging from food science at Cornell to diverse interests in architecture and aerospace.
We also take a closer look at the controversial chemistry behind Olestra, a fat substitute developed by Procter & Gamble, and its mixed legacy in the world of fried foods. Our discussion spans the nutrition bar industry, where experiences at Nature's Bounty and Sweet Productions provide insight into the challenges of job transitions and the fulfillment found in food science. By contrasting this with the corporate finance world, we emphasize the passion that drives our endeavors in the culinary space.
From the benefits of regenerative farming and nutrient-packed organ meats to the operational intricacies of a hydronically heated dehydrator, this episode is packed with knowledge and personal stories. Learn about water filtration systems, the Maillard reaction, and the captivating process of making black garlic. We'll also touch on building a brand, the value of farmer's markets, and the emotional connections formed during the pandemic. So join us for an episode that's as informative as it is heartwarming, and leave with a deeper understanding of the food industry and the communities it supports.
https://pulsar-foods.com/
https://www.instagram.com/k9bros?igsh=cTl6dmJtb3o0aG5o
It was like a mini, like there was a. I don't know if you know, great Neck South had actually a whole film recording television studio and a lot of schools have that now, but they've had it many years ago and it was. They put a big bucks into it and they actually had like a. Somehow you could occasionally watch it on public access. You could actually watch the stuff that you guys were doing. Yeah, I didn't participate in that. That was more affiliated with somebody who's in the middle school, but it's a really nice studio. I don't know if they must still have it and it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:It was very unique and the teacher's name was Mr Gluck. I think he retired, but it was a big deal. He was enamored with, I think, supergirl. The actress who played Supergirl many years ago. She went to South, I guess, or North one of them and I think the studio shared was shared by great neck North too, but it was a. It was a pretty big, a big deal, and a couple there was like a. A lot of people end up going into the business as a result of that experience. So it's a pretty interesting program and if you're ever looking for an intern, there's like a gajillion kids who you can probably get from there.
Speaker 3:I definitely. So I definitely want to find an intern, because it just helps to scale the company yeah I'm trying to. Just that's the point that I'm at now. The point I'm at now is just scaling the company up where I can, as opposed to just being the the person that works in the company, which that's the hard part yeah, I, I'm the same way I was about to say, because you must feel that on a lot of, on a lot of different levels.
Speaker 1:I know I'm losing opportunities by not, uh, by not, you know, trying to bifurcate myself in a way to get other people to do what I'm doing more Like. But the problem is, you're always I always kind of rationalize doing things manually myself, cause I'm like, well, I learned something new while I was doing this and I wouldn't have learned this had I had somebody else doing it. So I'm like no, it was good that I was doing this, you know doing a test batch or um. So there's like, there's times where you're like, oh, I had to make all these changes, or I learned a new thing about how to make this process quicker. So you're like when do I get myself out of the process?
Speaker 3:And when you know, at the farmer's market, I absolutely loved seeing you guys just do your thing and hang out. And you were, you were. I mean, you roped me in, I mean you come on, you want to come take a look at this? Come on, come over here. And he was just. He starts the pitch off and it's, it's perfect though it's and it's. It's not even a pitch for sales, it's a pitch because he loves you and loves what you're doing and he's proud of you for real. So it's you could tell and you can see it, because otherwise he wouldn't be here. Let's be honest, like if he, if he didn't, if he didn't have that vision and he didn't believe in you and he didn't love the everything that you're doing, he wouldn't be here yeah, yeah and that's why I listened.
Speaker 3:Truthfully, I thought I was just gonna sit down with dave, but I'm happy to sit down with you too, because you're part of the team.
Speaker 2:Let's be honest thank you so much yeah, no, my pleasure.
Speaker 3:So you know I. We got to meet a year ago or so at the at the farmer's market are we recording, by the way? Oh, we're recording. Oh, we're recording. Yeah, oh, we're recording. Okay, just checking. Yeah, no, no, we're recording. Uh, that's kind of how I do it, I just I go right by the way we're recording, or oh yeah, oh sometimes they'll be 45 minutes in.
Speaker 3:No one will even know one even realized they'll be. Like, do we start? I'm like, oh, yeah, we've been doing this for 40 minutes. They're like what? Like yeah, yeah, we've just been hanging out. Um so we met a year ago at the farmer's market. You got me very interested, especially when you said dog treats, because I got my man, kenji, right here and he's chilling. He's hanging out right now. He's just, he's just, he's kicking him, he just likes hanging out that's it and uh, that's something that's big for me is the single ingredient.
Speaker 3:Everything I mean. I try to do it with myself, and especially the dog, because we only have them for so many years on this planet, so you might as well give them the best that you can, because they're part of the family, let's be honest. So there is a lot more to you, though, than just creating single ingredient amazing dog treats. So I know you're a cornell graduate with a background in food science focus in food science food science and my major is food science, with a kind of food engineering.
Speaker 1:uh, focus, sub focus, but yeah, Okay, yeah, and that's awesome.
Speaker 3:I mean, did you always have the passion for it? Did you always think that you wanted to be involved in that?
Speaker 1:Uh, I've always had a lot of different. I've had a lot of different interests. I like architecture, I liked, I love airplanes, aerospace. But I had, you know, nice Jewish parents, somewhat overprotective, but-.
Speaker 3:I said no, no, no. The Italians and the Jewish parents. The Italian parents, Jewish parents, all the same, my mom's overprotective to the nines.
Speaker 1:So I mean, like, as you said, you were a little cautious about setting up the studio. I was it's. So I mean, like, as you said, you were a little, uh, cautious about setting up the studio. I was, uh, you know, I always liked tinkering. I'd like model airplanes and model. I did model rocketry as a kid and in school and so that got me interested in that stuff. But with food, um, I I always liked just reading cereal boxes, reading a label of anything, and just being curious about what it was. Uh, it wasn't until I did track. So I was captain of my high school track team my senior year and it was.
Speaker 1:I loved running and I was like kind of into sports nutrition. So I thought, well, you know, maybe there's like a competitive edge here. I always felt like, you know, there definitely was something going on biologically, but it was. These are the early days. I'm 46, turning 46. And early days the power bar was a nutrition bar that it came out. It was the first nutrition bar, I think, and it was like, basically it might have a tiny bit of protein, soy protein, and it was maltodextrin, corn syrup, uh, you know, extruded, uh, very thick. You know, that thing was like a rock if you let it sit long enough you're cracking a molar on that thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was just it was horrible and you're like, but I gotta eat it before the race and um and so, uh it, it was hard. It's really a crap piece of crap.
Speaker 1:I mean they probably improved the formula but really like, maybe, maybe, I would hope a little bit just to keep me from turning into that block and it was so, uh, I I was always I was interested in nutrition bars specifically, and then I had learned about in high school some other food science-y things. Olestra, which maybe you've heard of, it was and this is before it was the days of fat substitutes. It was fat was what was unhealthy.
Speaker 3:It was getting demonized like the margarine and all that stuff. Yes, you don't eat any of that.
Speaker 1:And partly so. Like trans fats were horrible, like your body can't metabolize them properly, but the fats were a big deal. So Olestra for people who don't know was a very unusual molecule and I liked chemistry. I wasn't the best student but Great Neck, south great high school, as was North, and very competitive. So I wasn't like the best student but I was a good student and it was.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's just incredible how many kids went on to great schools. But so it was very, in a way, grayneck was a great school because you went off to Cornell and like there were more smart kids. But there were tremendously smart kids also at South for a public school. So you never felt like, whereas other people go to Cornell from growing up, from schools where they were like the valedictorian and they were like tremendously depressed because they felt like they were the smartest, they would go to Cornell and they were like but I was at Great Lakes South and I knew I wasn't the smartest and so it wasn't that intimidating to go there because I was already surrounded by a lot of smart people in high school. So anyway to go there because I was already surrounded by a lot of smart people in high school. So anyway, but long story, I know I got the best track and uh, elestra, elestra. That was uh. And energy drinks very help talk quickly, uh yo, you're, let me.
Speaker 3:Let me just break this down. You are so good, don't even worry. We, we get into like so many side combos, we do the podcast, we get all over the place I may confuse people.
Speaker 1:No, you're good, try to keep it on topic. You are good. Cool molecule, uh, even though you shouldn't really eat it, um so so what is it used for, if you shouldn't eat it?
Speaker 1:uh. It's used for as a fat substitute. So in place of any type of uh fat you might find in, especially like fried food. It was most the biggest usage was by friedel, biggest potato chip manufacturer in America. It came out. They were like this was the holy grail product that Procter Gamble actually their laboratory, chemical laboratory, food scientist laboratory came up with this molecule. It was a sugar molecule. It's kind of crazy, a sugar molecule but instead of a sugar molecule is surrounded by OH groups, hydroxide, hydroxyl groups around it and they they're actually chemical bonding points of a molecule. Oh groups can actually, because an oxygen molecule has free electrons and you can, if you with some chemistry you can, bond another molecule to those free electrons. Those electrons can become bonding pairs and bond another molecule. And so what they did was they took a fat molecule. They took a fat molecule and attached a sugar molecule, kind of.
Speaker 3:To one another. Yeah, in a way or they used them to bridge each other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so specifically a fat molecule is kind of unusual. The chemical name is a triglyceride. Yes, so yeah.
Speaker 3:You get those levels checked with the blood work.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, yeah. So triglyceride, yes, uh, so, yeah, so you get those levels checked with the blood work. Oh, okay, yeah. So that's the terminology. Check your triglyceride sounds really fancy than saying check your fats, because fat would mean like check your body fat, yeah. Check your triglycerides is a little different, even though triglycerides, fat, uh, triglyceride is three fatty acids and a glycerol molecule. Glycerol is same as glycerin, same molecule. Glycerin is a three carbon backbone molecule and it has hydroxides as bonding sites, so it bonds to a fatty acid. Fatty acids are the long chain molecules they're. When I get into the chemistry too much, it's hard without a diagram. But basically, three fatty acids, glycerol. They took a fatty acid, one of the three, and stuck a bunch of them around the sugar molecule and it made this huge, looked like an oil, maybe to physically it had an oil-like properties. But your body enzymes which have to break down these molecules, doesn't know what it is. So you have no enzyme to actually break down a Olestra molecule.
Speaker 1:So but it's being used in things that we're consuming, because physically it has yeah, so in other words, it just goes right through you Okay, so kind of fascinating. And then you start to realize the ramifications. So what could happen when you eat that? Well, one was the term that a nonprofit organization called the Center for Science in the Public Interest they got FDA to require. It was like a deal like you can pass it legally, let people eat it, it'll be approved by the FDA, but you have to put a warning label that says it will cause anal leakage. Wow, there you go, yeah to the point, and which was I guess, true, guess.
Speaker 3:So was that in like the fine print on every?
Speaker 1:yeah, it was like on the back, jesus, I think on the front oh, it had to be right on the front.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right in front, but you know it was like font four uh I don't remember how big, yeah, you know it was, it wasn't font four but it was.
Speaker 1:It was big enough that you definitely under 10. It wasn't tobacco font long, yeah, it was in between, but they, they. So Frito-Lay went to production, made it and I think just enough like comedians made fun of it even in that era. And it's just, people eventually were like this is not worth it. I don't know exactly, was it the business case or was it. But then there was another nutritional risk in which the vitamins that are fat-soluble fat-soluble vitamins A, vitamins a, e, d and k are the most common ones uh important vitamins. They would uh leach out of your body, especially if you not directly through your bloodstream. It would if you ate the chips with a meal, which I don't really know if people were doing.
Speaker 3:But if they use the um olestra with making a real food like I don't know, like it has to be fibrous because I know, I know pairing sometimes maybe fiber with certain objects kind of pushes them out even better, without having those side effects maybe I mean fiber is a healthy slows your digestion but your body can still get the vitamins and minerals.
Speaker 1:The oils would kind of uh solubilize the any fat soluble nutrients. So you're it would end up because, instead of being broken down, uh, it would just solubilize these micronutrients and so people would not benefit by any of the micronutrients. So it's hard to call olestra healthy yeah if uh. So the only use for olestra was potato chips and it was used, you said, for the fryer yeah, for the, for the frying purposes, right in the fryer.
Speaker 1:So you couldn't use alestra to in healthier foods? Uh, because you, you wouldn't have any vitamins, uh, at least any fat soluble vitamins, but um, so it really was like a junk, like to make junk food healthier.
Speaker 3:Um, well, they're constantly trying to make junk food healthier, kind of constantly trying to cut corners and use different things, and it's tough. Man. Listen, I'm a big fitness guy and I love the different supplements that come out of the fitness industry. But you start reading some of the ingredients and you just go. You know, I'm getting into this to try to be healthy and I'm doing this to be healthy and it just doesn't seem like it's that healthy. You know some of the items and you start to question things like I don't know if you know Jocko, do you know Jocko, the Navy SEAL?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 3:That's okay. Jocko, motivational guy, he's an ex-Navy SEAL, he's got a fitness company. He does a lot of stuff in the jiu-jitsu world. He's awesome, okay. But he also has line uses monk fruit sweetener okay, as opposed to the constant sucralose, okay. And I know there's a constant debate between people that are science, science backed and they say that it's it's negligible amounts in the, in the drinks or in the supplements and products it's like, but at the same time, if there are alternatives that we could be using well, have you ever tried stevia?
Speaker 1:what's your?
Speaker 3:I've tried stevia. Yeah, I think it's good.
Speaker 1:I think stevia leaf is good stuff. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3:You heard Monkfruit's a little bit more bitter. I think that's the negative.
Speaker 1:I've been having trouble trying. I kind of was tinkering. You can find it in the supermarket, but it seems to have erythritol with it. Yes, you ever notice that and that can have some negative side effects, I think, for your liver or something else. But yeah, you got maybe kidneys. I. I try, I, I. But I do use stevia in small quantities. I found it's pretty nice, like for a little little bit. If you need a tiny bit of sweetness added, naturally, uh, if you do too much of it's very bitter, yeah. So, yeah, it's uh, but but pure form. A lot of stuff in the store, though, like you think you're buying, uh, monk fruit, you're actually getting erythritol.
Speaker 3:Um, and so how do you, how do you fact check it?
Speaker 1:how do you make sure you got to look on the label?
Speaker 3:that? Will they always list that? Or are they going to do the sneaky stuff like with the fragrance, with the perfumes and stuff by calling it a flavor uh yeah, natural flavor I think erythritol is not a flavor, so I don't know if they could do that. Um yeah, that's not because it's unfortunate, though, because you don't know what to believe, and you don't know what to actually think about.
Speaker 1:Well, when I worked making nutrition bars, so I didn't mention that. So I worked first at Nature's Bounty for three and a half years a little more than that and then two and a half years at Sweet Productions, a company that was bought by Nestle it was actually bought by Nature's Bounty and then by Nestle. After well, nature's Bounty was bought by Nestle and so they kind of like swallowed up twice. I think nature's bounty was bought by nestle and so they kind of like swallowed up twice, I think anyway. So, um, I was, I was already gone, but we made the uh, um, a lot of different tons of nutrition bars, but the zone bar was the big one. Yeah, it was kind of a cool experience because so the guy I worked under uh was incredible. Uh, I'll say his name was joe piso. He was incredible, he self-taught, he was the first person to use a protein crisp in a nutrition bar.
Speaker 3:The apple crisp bars that are from. Oh my God, zone, was it Zone Bar? Yes, so Zone was his bar.
Speaker 1:Barry Sears was the creator of the Zone Diet and he hired like many people in marketing had hired this company I was working at. I got there towards the tail end of them making the zone bar. Abbott Laboratories bought the zone bar and brought it in-house and built their own factory in California. But it was a cool experience and he had an incredible palate. That was Joe. Right, that was Joe. He was great.
Speaker 1:He was such a nice guy and he was so nice he didn't want to lay people off when they were losing the zone bar. So he was such a nice guy and he was so nice. He didn't want to lay people off when they were losing the zone bar. So he kept all the mechanics and engineers working and a lot of the workforce and they eventually had to sell the company and they had promised me a raise. I took the job and took a slight pay cut from Nature's Bounty, but I felt like I was worth it In the end. They were like we'd like to, uh, um, not, they wanted me to keep working for free until they. That's like usually a bad sign when the company is not doing well.
Speaker 3:Let me tell you. I said I just had my own stints with a couple of companies that you know. They, they want you to almost do like all the work for free and oh yeah, try it out. You see everything that I do, you see everything that I've done. I don't know. You're talking to me for a reason. So obviously you like the product that's produced by me. Why is there no compensation involved? So I'm sorry, I like you guys, I like the mission, I like what you're doing, but at the same time it's like, well, right now, especially back then, it's a little different. But groceries are $200 a week, man.
Speaker 1:I got to get paid. That's just what it is. I mean if they're saying oh, we're going to get paid and we'll pay you for the back pay or something, and that situation sounds like there's just no, no back pay.
Speaker 3:No back pay, it's a free trial.
Speaker 1:So it was time, that was time. So I ended up leaving. It's kind of rambling, but I ended up leaving that nutrition bar manufacturer and I was going to business school part-time at Brute College getting an MBA in finance and I was. So I was doing part-time working and then a classmate of mine had introduced me to a job in finance and it was like more pay, way more pay. And so I took the job and I knew I was like I was like working in New York City, working at Rockefeller Center, it was exciting and it, but I'd never worked in an office before. It was exciting, but I'd never worked in an office before. It was a different life. I just was like I guess I'll do it. But I knew the work was not for me. I was like, well, maybe I'll get towards something that's interesting, and I had an eye on which departments in banking were maybe interesting. But eventually I got kind of close to it and I realized none of it was interesting and the pay wasn't worth it. Even though it, though it was, it was, it was fairly generous.
Speaker 1:Uh, when I became, I was a contractor, became an employee. And when I became an employee, then after all the taxes and everything. You're like, ah, you know, this is. And then I, the hours were getting worse and worse and uh, so I was like you know what? I, I, I really missed food science. So I ended up, um, I was looking to do maybe some sort of healthy snack food and someone in the East Village. I was living in the East Village and on my block there was this beautiful hair salon. All these hot girls were in there and I'm walking by and I, I don't. I needed a reason to go in there. So when I got my sister a gift certificate for her birthday to get her hair done, and clutch move, clutch move and so I met yes yes, some segue and I
Speaker 1:love it. So, uh, I met this guy who, uh, he, he always had dogs, loved his dogs, and uh, he really had been trying to make a nutrition. He learned I made nutrition bars and he's like, how do you, I want to make a nutrition bar for my dog? And I'm like, and so we worked on it, I made a, I made a nutrition bar with him on the side, but it didn't to me it never seemed like. I think people have come out with a nutrition bar, but it's sort of like it's too much of a fad thing. I mean, if you could eat it together. And so actually I just came out with a product where I'm filling my apples, so I do dehydration. I can get to that, but I do dehydration. And I was like, well, maybe you know you're out for a walk, you want to. You know, if I'm eating something and my dog wants to eat something with me, why can't we share it together? So I have a product Food is food.
Speaker 1:Yeah, food is food, but not always, and they have different nutritional requirements. Research-wise, dogs are 70% carnivores. We are not. I don't even know what exactly. If I've ever heard exactly Vegetarians, vegans, will say we're not carnivores. Obviously there's no conventional standard at this point how much meat people should eat, but there's definitely defined amounts of nutrients. I'm not a nutritionist but I know I've taken quite a bit of you know nutrition, but you can get people every nutritionist will have. There's some extremely knowledgeable nutritionists.
Speaker 1:I won't, I won't opine too much into nutrition but, um, as far as food processing, uh, yeah, so I, I, I initially because dogs are 7%, 7%, carnivores, jerky just seemed like the most sensible thing. So, uh, he and I got a bunch of dehydrators in my East village apartment, stacked them up and, uh, my apartment became the Guinea pig desk desk ground, which was an. I had a falling out with this guy and I don't like talking about him, but he's part of the history in a way, so I have to mention it. But yeah, so I had my apartment, it stunk of dried meat Went to the Hunts Point meat market with backpacks they had no car even at the time and we're just getting liver and hearts and dehydrating them because they are really the most nutritious meats, like we eat, people eat, if you're a meat eater, like just the muscle meat and the muscle meat is high in protein and you know, some marbling may have fats but doesn't have all the nutrients like the liver.
Speaker 1:It's extremely high in vitamin A, B vitamins and that's really like if you're just nutrient-wise, and they always kind of say when a wolf takes down its prey, it will go for the liver first and rip that prey open and go for the liver. So the liver is like really nutritious and I've smelled a lot of liver. I still can't eat the liver because it's so funky.
Speaker 3:I was about to ask you yeah, I've never done liver, I couldn't. I've never eaten it.
Speaker 1:Can't get over it. No, I can't I don't know try. I didn't try that hard like I heard the proper way. I'm like I didn't really try that hard. I had tons of it. I had tons of it, but I'm like still, I like I, I've tried a little bit.
Speaker 3:I'm like nah, oh, so did you try it prepared or raw?
Speaker 1:uh, threw it on the skillet, no, on the. Okay, I don't know some people with onion liver the whole thing, threw it on the skillet with the onions and that's like the proper way to do it. And I mean, I don't know, I think you have to eat it as a kid. And if you did Work that up in your stomach, even chopped liver, like, oh it's me, I'm like oh man. So yeah, it's okay to not like it, it's just.
Speaker 1:I've bra so that's yeah, liver, yeah, yeah. But I mean, it's how much liver, is it?
Speaker 3:actually in the end it's very creamier. Right it up, you know they like put all the foam and everything in it, like okay, but is it like 10 liver now?
Speaker 1:yes, exactly. So I, I don't know. I mean, I I like, uh, anyway, I'm not a chef either, but I do. I knew a good amount of yeah, I made nice burgers and and my dad's very appreciative of my mom's Shout out to my mom Great, she cooks all the time but, yeah, different, she has her way of cooking and maybe she she doesn't like to saute too much. I love to saute foods, she's more of a big I want to answer the conversation. Please do, it's your mic.
Speaker 3:Get up on that mic.
Speaker 2:But then we gotta get back to the east village. Okay, cool, yeah, so stick with that. So, as far as getting david on the on the uh getting to be a food scientist, it was my wife and my wife is very interested in science and how things work and uh, oh, no, no, you're good, you're good, I'm just watching the levels you're good, you're good.
Speaker 3:I'm just watching the levels, you're good.
Speaker 2:So in fact, and she knew he was destined for a very good college and she did some. You know she did the research. She noticed Cornell had a food science program and David always liked to look at the ingredients of cereal and my wife always encouraged him. He's always how things worked and the ingredients. That Jerry Seinfeld movie was stupid but funny. I enjoyed it. Cereal my wife always encouraged me how things worked and the ingredients.
Speaker 1:That Jerry Seinfeld movie was stupid but funny. I enjoyed it. Which one, he made a new one called Unfrosted.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's right, that was one of his jokes. That's where it came from. I think it was one of his jokes in his set about Pop-Tarts. I think, and then he had the comedians in Cars and Coffee or whatever.
Speaker 1:That was the other comedian starring in it had a huge bit about Pop-Tarts, I think.
Speaker 2:Did you like the movie? Did you see it? I have not seen it. Hot Pockets, hot Pockets, hot Pockets. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, it's a very unusual movie.
Speaker 1:I haven't seen it yet.
Speaker 2:It's silly.
Speaker 1:It's irreverent, a lot like there's a miss, there's a mystery. I can tell he didn't fully do all you know. They didn't delve too much into how cereal is made. They never really show actually that was made by extrusion well, as I was gonna show no extruder. That would have been genuine if they actually delved into how it was made. It was not, it was more of like it was.
Speaker 3:It was silly so I was gonna ask you and I didn't want to cut you off, dad, I didn't want um, what was on the topic of cereal? Actually, what would you think like with the ultra process and the rates of ultra process foods and mortality, which is like the studies that are coming out now? So you have things like cereals and it doesn't. It's not necessarily even the sugars or any of that. It's just how highly processed the actual food is. Yeah, here's two cents. I mean, listen, it's open.
Speaker 1:Well, personally, the only cereal I I'm the the good. The so-calledcalled good cereals still have a ton of sugar in them. I think cereal is more as far as ultra-processed. What is that term? Is that like a? It's a new term.
Speaker 3:I guess it would like describe a food that has a laundry list of ingredients, but it's a round circle or it's like a little thing, meaning that oh, oh, we're jamming all of that into something that doesn't even look like the actual ingredients that are going into it well, I say because you know, listen, you know this stuff way better than I do.
Speaker 1:You're truthfully told, I think yeah, I think people are very concerned. What does this mean? And it's a so sort of a buzzy term right now. Uh, cereal can be made. I mean it could be very bland without anything added to it and I personally I rely. I just take, like really generic store brand Cheerios, okay, with no sugar. If I look for no sugar, I believe you go to Walmart they got no sugar added Cheerios, their version and you put bananas in there or you can put walnuts.
Speaker 2:You can put pecans or maple syrup or something.
Speaker 1:You're adding sugar um with maple syrup. Excuse me um, but I'd rather.
Speaker 3:I'm saying like that's the sugar I'd rather have. Oh, if you're gonna sugar, yeah, I do a lot of raw, unfiltered honey okay, oh, it's an.
Speaker 1:If you yeah, I mean all these things uh, you can add to the and then you know what's going in there. So I honestly don't think there's anything wrong with, uh, these companies that are taking just pure oat flour and they're they're mixing it with some water and, uh, they're pressing it through. So then, extruder, so you have this dough, it's get up on that mic.
Speaker 3:You have this. You can bring it to you, bring it up into you, if you want, sure, okay uh, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, uh, yeah, extrusion, I think in a way is an amazing process. I think it's a great machine because it's a way of making food economically large quantities, because, honestly, food is a volume business. You have to make a lot of it to make it affordable economy of scale. There's a lot of time it takes to set up in a large industrial environment, cleaning the machine, getting it fully ready for the food to be cooked, and so extrusion is nothing wrong with extrusion. So a lot of cereals. It's really the choice of ingredients and sugar being a bad one.
Speaker 3:So what's the process of extrusion?
Speaker 1:So yeah, so the first, the food is hydrated. So let's say it's oat flour, so milled oats. So oats are rolled. They're a grain that you have the seed portion of the oat and it's typically rolled. I don't know if you have the seed portion of the oat and it's typically rolled. I don't know if they start with rolled oats. It may not even be necessary. It could be the unrolled oats, but usually oats are rolled. I think during the rolling process there's like hot rollers that dry the oat as it's rolled and when it comes out it's pressed and condensed. You see rolled oats, oats perfectly, really healthy food, one of the healthiest grains you can have. And there's like different versions of oats, like slight variations. It's kind of complicated but basically You'll cut quick.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah Like type of.
Speaker 1:It's all just like how fine it's milled and stuff like that. But then when they have these oats they're chopped up really fine to a flour powder and then added with water and maybe some other like. So what are the other ingredients? There may be vitamins and minerals added maybe, which you can debate whether you need that or not. But whatever the purpose is, some of it, like the FDA, may even require to they call it fortification for like children to get make sure that they're getting their vitamins and minerals in their diet. So you get that. And then anyways point is you have your oats as a dough. It goes into this machine. It's a huge machine, very long, it's a barrel like a gun, but it's very big and it has a screw and it's a very precision screw where the gap between the screw and the wall, inner wall of the barrel. It may be a single screw, it may be a double screw. Those are the most really.
Speaker 3:So when you say that, you mean like a corkscrew, almost yeah, okay. And that's how it fine-tunes everything going through.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so there's like a. The screw will have a transferring phase, then like a mixing phase, and then it may even. So the screw is designed with different diameters and eventually it reaches a point where it generates a lot of pressure and the pressure generates heat and the barrel itself may be heated and that's sort of similar in a way to even. It's not a good analogy, but people in the plastics world, they actually have a similar thing. It's actually a similar type of machine which may be kind of gross to know, but they don't interchange. Like a plastics extruder they're putting plastics.
Speaker 3:In a food extruder they're putting food I mean I wouldn't put it past anybody at the micro plastics that you hear about and all this stuff. I mean it's you never know gary.
Speaker 1:But I don't think you. You couldn't use a food extruder to make plastics, nor vice.
Speaker 3:No, I'm not I'm not insinuating that. I'm just saying you wouldn't be shocked if you did find out 10 years ago that some random person is doing it.
Speaker 1:I don't want to be racist or anything, but maybe there's some cut corners and actually, anyway, we are going down that tangent. But there was like a horrible in 2010 or so. There was something called a melamine controversy, and in China they were putting melamine in protein powders such as high-gluten wheat flour, which has a lot of protein, or milk powder, and so this was and what is that? So melamine is a even. I think maybe for countertops, it's an additive to bond the wood particles. I'm pretty sure that's the main. It's like urea, formaldehyde resin, and I think melamine may be another component of it, or maybe it's the actual board melamine board. Somehow they're all related. What is the point of? It's high in nitrogen. So nitrogen, when companies do quality control and they buy nitrogen foods such as like even soy protein, or you buy milk powder, they may be checking for protein content and the test for protein content is nitrogen, a nitrogen test called the Keldahl test, and so in the laboratory you detect the amount of nitrogen that comes off.
Speaker 3:So they're spiking it. Yeah, so they're making it seem like it's a higher level than it is Correct and it actually is, and they're getting, I'm sure, a larger profit because of it. It's, I'm sure, a larger profit because of it.
Speaker 1:Correct, or yes, I mean, it ultimately boils down to that, and so they did this with, and it ended up in infant formula. Oh man, so not only your dogs, but even human babies. So it was really so. That was just completely unethical and shocking and pathetic.
Speaker 3:That's something that I actually spoke to a neighbor about recently. We were talking about dog foods and they were asking me how I feed kenji raw and all this stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I just said, listen, look at all, the all the bullshit that we see in people, food and humans yeah, yeah all the corners that are cut, yeah, all the regulations and the red tape that they pretend is there, but they just form different words to have it sound like it's something else, but it's actually the same thing that they don't want you to know. That's in there, yeah, so that's for us. Now imagine what they're doing with dogs, oh, yeah, yeah, pets and animals as a whole. I mean, if we really are going to sit here and think that these animals, lobbyists and bill passers and all these different regulations that we, we hope would be put in good jest to keep our animals and our best friends safe, they're not. They're.
Speaker 3:They're unfortunately cutting the corners for the end all be all, which is the profit margins. And how can we put this product out there as cheap as humanly possible, make the most money? Yeah, and you know, hey, it is what it is. I mean, it's a. It's a tough pill to swallow because you think that these people that own these companies are dog people or pet. You know I keep going back to dog, but I we animals in general. You know, that's kind of what you have to sum it up as I think there's, there's always.
Speaker 1:The industry wants less regulation, but they're uh and and I don't think no, if the consumer wants it or not, they want to make sure that what they're buying is a real product. Yeah, when it says chicken, I want to make sure it's chicken.
Speaker 3:I want to make sure that it's not dead chickens and carcasses and whatnot. When you have the meal and all these different terms that people look at and they go, oh, that looks like it's healthy, oh, it's got beef meal, or it's got this and that. And then you have individuals like yourself or or third-party agencies that go and they do the digging and they do the processing and they actually check what is in these ingredients. And then you go, oh, that's like decomposed animals that they're eating. That's not awesome, awful. And then you wonder why the dogs are having cancer and all these other issues. And you know they're. They're gaining weight and all this stuff. It's like, well, because they're eating crap yeah, it's like you're eating the crap.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. It's remarkable that the level of I don't know if it's greed or it does boil down, it's a large chunk of the cake.
Speaker 3:I would say yeah, yeah, because at the end of the day, one of the biggest mistakes that we make as human beings and my mom taught me this at a very young age biggest mistakes that we make as human beings and my mom taught me this at a very young age and it's something that's resonated very heavily with me over the years we make the mistake that others have the same mind that we do. Yeah, and sometimes that's for good and for bad. So, like when I look at a company that is saying, oh, it's all 100 natural chicken. I expect it to be, because that's what I would do. I would make sure that's 100 natural chicken, that they were, that they, they were pasture raised. But how many eggs do we have? You go? How many buzz terms do we need for eggs?
Speaker 3:I thought buying eggs just meant the chickens lived, they had a happy little life. We got the eggs and that was it. Well, no, well, do you want it cage free? Do you want it pasture raised? You want it organic pasture raised? What about regular? It's like why do we need this much? You know monotony and craziness throughout all these these different terminologies. Just I want eggs. Why can't my chickens just be happy and just do eggs? And I know it comes down in some terms to producing on mass scale and having to have a lot of abundance to produce to all of these different clients across the nation, across the different states yeah but I mean, you tell me the chickens need to live in these, in these huge like sweatshops.
Speaker 3:That's what they, that's what basically like. And you watch that and you go, oh, come on, yeah, like, how is that going to be healthy when we consume that?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, it's, it's messed up, it's there's, there's the, there's that, there's that, there's within that, that's all agriculture. Also there's like how is agriculture done?
Speaker 1:yeah, I mean I just I, I went advanced through dogs to people, to everything but my, my specialization though I don't want to speak for agriculture in general um and. But then there's also, like the food industry is extremely efficient, uh to and um overall and the for better or for worse, but the byproduct of all this meat we eat and that's why that's a big proponent of why they're saying we need to be more excuse me, more vegetarian or all these what do people use After you slaughter an animal for consumption? There's a lot of other stuff and that's it's very inefficient and I think that it was always sent towards the pet food industry for many years and that's where the, so the term meal for your viewers who don't know if you see on a pet food industry for many years, and that's where the so the term meal for your viewers who don't know if you see on a pet food, the term beef meal or lamb meal or chicken meal. It's a rendered protein, so it's not edible for, not considered edible for human consumption. It's anything that's rendered, because rendering is where you try to get the protein, residual protein left.
Speaker 1:So at the slaughterhouse, one of these really tough jobs that mainly immigrants do, which credit to, whatever your opinion is on immigration, but these are tough jobs where you're, the assembly line-like environments where they're chopping up the animal, the carcass up the animal, the carcass, and the leftover meat gets grinded up, and so there's something called mechanically deboned, which you may see. That's for one way of removing the meat. So what happens is a similar type of extruder machine, but it's pressing the meat, grinding it to a pulp, and then this and that goes, so hot dog meat is mechanically deboned, just so you know Whether or not. And there may be also, I think, hearts in there, which is actually not bad for you. Hearts are really so, yeah, but what quality of hearts?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, so, yeah, so I, I buy, I buy meat from uh force of nature.
Speaker 1:Okay, company in texas they do all regenerative farming. Oh, one of the over generative.
Speaker 3:Regenerative, regenerative, yeah, regenerative okay so everything is like on their lands all pasture raised, everything, and they use every part of the animal for everything, wow, uh. But one of the grounds, one of the grinds of meat that they have, is their, um, uh, what are they called? Ancestry blend, and it's the ground beef, okay, but it also has the heart and the liver ground up into it, nice. So you don't taste it, wow at all. It just tastes like ground beef. That's great. So it's like you're getting the benefits from the heart and liver and you just feel like you're eating ground beef yeah, that's so, I think it's only I think there's 10, uh, heart and liver in there, okay, but stuff I mean, at least you know it's coming from their farm.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're very open on their social media.
Speaker 1:You're already eating liver and heart. Yeah, a little bit here and there.
Speaker 3:So, without pivoting too much, because I want to stay on this, I thought I had hemochromatosis for a while because my liver I remember you mentioning my ferritin levels were actually what was high. But I wound up realizing it was probably more inflammation or over the years of absorption. Okay, and I donated a couple of times and my levels went down substantially, thankfully. Oh, and then I decided let me just get the genetic test done. So at least I know I'm not just guessing. Yeah, at least I'm not like, oh, but just because my ferritin was high, I have it. It's like no, let me just do the due diligence and get the actual genetic test done.
Speaker 3:Okay, so when I got the genetic test done, everything came back negative. So I was like okay, so at least I don't have that. Because I don't drink, I stopped drinking last year. Good, I don't drink. And the big thing for me was, if you have hemochromatosis, there's a lot of people that go undiagnosed and die of cirrhosis of the liver. Wow, because it's so taxing, the iron starts to, starts to store in your brain and liver. So for me, I just wanted to make sure that we were good.
Speaker 3:So I was eating that blend all the time and I was like, let me just pause that for a second, I don't want too much iron did you ever find out the how are you getting so much iron in your diet?
Speaker 1:or you know?
Speaker 3:what I don't know. I, just years ago I was eating a lot of red meat. Could have been just years of eating a lot of red meat, absorption-wise. For a long time I was drinking a lot of energy drinks and they have this thing's giving me kind of a headache actually.
Speaker 1:Listen, no offense taken, man, listen- it could just be I'm dehydrated, though.
Speaker 3:It could be. I mean, listen, it's a lot of caffeine. It's 300 milligrams for a can. Oh, 300 milligrams for a can for this one. Yeah, I'll slow down for sure but. I what I find that, what I find amazing about these is that they have all the vitamins that they say in those, but the b12 is something that all these energy drinks, you know, they they put a ton of, like you're 250 percent of your daily allotment yeah, like well, it's very easy to.
Speaker 1:Uh, I don't know if you know that the quantity we're talking about is in the micrograms. Uh, the chemical name of b12, I like it rings off the tongue for me, but cyanic obalamin obalamin.
Speaker 3:Yeah, uh, what's his name? Was talking a lot about that. Uh, the doctor um the dana white okay, okay gary brekka. Gary brekka was talking a lot about that and he was saying that that's actually. There was actually a couple of different versions of it that are not good for the human body versus being good for it Because it comes from cyanide. Is that what it is?
Speaker 1:I don't know how it's made, honestly, but yeah, it is in the name Cyanico, so it has a cyanide molecule, I guess, on it, and we all know cyanide's not good for you.
Speaker 3:I try to keep my cyanide to a minimum. I really do. That's a good idea.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I mean but having when I worked in vitamins in my early 20s it was just eye-opening to actually see vitamins. That's something many people I don't think. I mean you can get like a vitamin pill but I was seeing like huge quantities. Or even just work on it in the laboratory. I'd make mixes, just because my main job at Nature's Bounty was tablets, compressed powders into a pill and make it very uniform and make sure it would, and then a capsule. It's just basically it seems simple enough but getting a good blend and making sure it'd fill into the capsule Eventually. That's why I wanted to leave because it was kind of dull but I was good at it and made the machines just run quickly. We made Walmart vitamins, we made for everybody. But looking at vitamins and so now I just like riboflavins, really bright orange, niacin's, white so it's just it burned into your memory yeah, and and b12 is super purple.
Speaker 1:Oh really, yeah, it's incredibly purple and uh it's now how do they take?
Speaker 3:how do they take that?
Speaker 1:and then they put it into a drink uh synthesize it so b12 is uh water soluble, okay, uh. So yeah, you just put it right in. You need a high. We called it overage. It's the excess amount you'd put in to compensate so you'd meet the nutritional claim so properly. And pills are regulated by different laws, so the food labeling is a little different, where you may not put as much overage excess in to make the nutritional claim. This is a nutrition fact. So actually, if you ever notice, it says nutrition facts versus supplement facts. So I think it's like the quantity. I won't. I'm not gonna give away proprietary trade secrets on the internet but there's like quantities of-.
Speaker 3:I'm not here digging for that, don't worry. I'm not here digging for buzz clips, I promise.
Speaker 1:But the quantities, uh, they put extra in of all of these and of these vitamins, uh, to make sure that they have enough that it would last up to the shelf life declared on the label.
Speaker 3:So that's how it works, but, uh, the b12 I I found, but that's the reason why I brought it up was because I was drinking like two of those a day for a long period of time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that would mess you up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, not only on that side, but I thought, maybe because the b12 helps with iron absorption, that plus the increase in red meat I don't know if maybe that just increased my absorption rate and storage rate at one point, but the fact that the levels were coming down by themselves, and then plus the donation, I just I'm glad I got it in check I would think also, you know like over time you get not addicted to the, but you get your body becomes desensitized to.
Speaker 1:You need more B12 and in your diet. So I wouldn't even say that I was addicted.
Speaker 3:I wasn't just the B12. I was addicted to the, to the caffeine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that definitely yeah.
Speaker 3:That was. That was what it was really for. It was like for the, the energy kicks. I mean I want to go back to to the dehydrator and everything for you, but, like cool, just I want to see your reaction. So back when I was prepping for bodybuilding, I would actually take three to four scoops of pre-workout, and it was two, 50 milligrams per scoop. So I was taking almost a gram of just straight caffeine just to work out on top of black coffee here. And there I'm.
Speaker 3:I'm shocked I didn't drop yeah, yeah, I'd have to leave the gym sometimes because you're having like a panic attack.
Speaker 1:You're like whoa, yeah, yeah, yeah, so caffeine, uh it's a, it's a real addiction. I mean I don't know. I mean it's a drug, yeah, it's a different type of drug.
Speaker 3:Whether you know you want to say that it's taboo or not. I think there's a lot of people that are in favor of something that does have some health benefits. There are, without question, some focus and some actual health benefits to you, but that comes in moderation. It doesn't come at drinking a gram a day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's anyway Fish is healthy If you eat, you know if you eat a gram, if you eat pounds of fish every single day, you know you're probably especially if it's tuna you're going to get mercury poisoning.
Speaker 1:You need a natural source of caffeine, like coffee. At least you're getting polyphenols, other antioxidants, or fiber, but which the polyphenols actually help with iron absorption, they decrease it. Oh interesting, yeah, oh so you, yeah, drink your coffee a little bit. Good way to get off of it coffee, and tea, interesting but anyway, back to you.
Speaker 3:Yes, so de-village.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we'll um so we started my dehydrating got into some stores and it was at some point he and I were like let's. He convinced me in a way to pull the trigger, take a big chance and rented a factory space just a raw space in Patterson, new Jersey. Patterson interesting history for people who don't know.
Speaker 3:I think I'm kind of into the history of things a little drink of water he's like oh 300 milligrams.
Speaker 1:I'm good. So, uh it, we rent the space. It was an amazing experience. So we talked about working on the um construction and setting up the the your, your studio, and I, I, uh, I learned I love working my hands, but I didn't realize how much I like to tinker on things and learn new things, and so I embarked on building this factory and it was a huge endeavor.
Speaker 1:So, from around April 2014, I turned on my dehydrator September 2015. So every day I was working on pretty much every day I mean I don't exaggerate guarantee, but it was almost every day uh, working on this space, uh, converting it. And so I I had great uh, uh appreciation for what Noah had done, uh, with his, uh, with his uh, fitness, uh, gym, uh, because I, uh he went through a hell of a lot of stuff. But, uh, my space is 5,000 square feet and it required so much cleaning and to get it what it was prior. It was, you know, it just sort of neglected.
Speaker 1:And then painting and then actually building structure workrooms within the factory. So it was carpentry, framing, insulation, electric, tons of electrical, which I love to do, plumbing, which also I enjoy, and there's some HVAC, which is the hardest trade. I did a walk-in freezer. Let's see, just so much. And then the dehydrator, which was sort of like. Actually I did the freezer after the dehydrator, but the dehydrator was like my segue. The dehydrator is what's called hydronically heated. It's a water, heated hydronics, so hot water is actually pumped from a boiler and we can show pictures of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I took down the timestamp. Okay, cool. So if you want to send me them digitally, I'll put them over the top.
Speaker 1:Okay, sweet yeah. So the hot water passes through a heat exchanger you might find for an air conditioner or for your heating of your furnace. However, it's a specially designed heat exchanger. I don't know, maybe the diameter of the pipe is optimized or something, but anyway. So the hot water will pass on its heat very efficiently. So you're not like dehydrators, run at a temperature um range. Like the lowest you might dehydrate is 110, maybe a little higher, to full, full blast, like you're really trying to get the inner part, like I think I max out the dehydrator 162 fahrenheit.
Speaker 3:Okay, so that's really not that hot um and it's just, it's the the duration of it being at that yeah, it's time it is.
Speaker 1:Uh, we're not like you're, I'm running it. The fastest I finished a batch of dehydrating was like six little over six hours, so that's minimum six hours, um, and that if I'm running, and that's maybe not a lot of food in the dehydrator, but the more you put in there, the more like moisture has to get uh pulled out. Uh, this energy, it has to evaporate the water, um, so there's a lot of interesting physics and you know chemistry and whatever you want to say, uh, evaporate all that thermodynamics, uh. So yeah, there's, um, there's anyway. So how the dehydrator works, basically, you're you, I'm trying to visualize. Actually, I have the book right here. I can look at it and give me a little bit of uh so I can properly explain it, um.
Speaker 1:So the interior is this is a great example. So it's a huge fan, the five and a quarter foot fan. Uh, the room is 17 feet uh long, 14 feet wide, aluminum sheathing around it, so panels, uh, it's insulated, that dry air comes out through the top and uh, it's heated on the exterior. So here's the, the boiler, and so the, the, the water is recirculated, so it's actually very efficient. It's gas fired and one of my dreams is to, um, put uh, uh solar panels on the roof of the building and completely make it like carbon zero. Uh, but it's that's. I already have it set up like this, but perhaps one day.
Speaker 1:Or dehydrated that lead certification, yeah, but you may, you know anything? I mean what? What are buzzwords, don't it would be, that would be a cool buzzword to have. Um, so, yeah, so that dehydration, uh, basically that temperature, that's the operating temperature. And then you have I have a whole bunch of sensors I kind of added to it so I can really control my process. So you really got to understand better how it works and the way I do that is. You have, like, humidity and temperature of inlet air, exhaust air throughout the room. I've built up the temperature sensors more. I have ventilation, heat recovery, so it operates.
Speaker 1:I mean, at one point I calculated based on cost of gas. To run a batch was $5. In terms of just cost, it's like that's very efficient. I don't know if my I think my my gas bill is not very high, so I I think I'm pretty accurate in that calculation Anyway. So, yeah, so it's. I feel good, at least that I know I'm not like contributing a huge carbon footprint, even though it'd be nice to have it completely solar. But yeah, so it's You're well, on your way.
Speaker 1:It's a goal. It'd be a fun challenge. Yeah, I like to build a battery. My hobby on the side is building hobby drones.
Speaker 3:Oh sick.
Speaker 1:And I build the electrical battery packs for them. So I solder them together.
Speaker 3:Yeah, see, yeah, yeah, I'm enjoying this bigger a bigger scale.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just a huger battery pack anyway. So it's fun. Uh, anytime you dehydrate, something new is like an exciting time, um, but how do you know how long to go for? Uh, you know? Now I have a starting point, but basically I know time wise, there's time and temperature, but time, um, you start, you don't want to over dry, really, because you end up with a product that's like usually just really brittle. A dog may like the brittle texture, or the person might like a really brittle texture, but if the temperature is too high you could get chemical changes where it is starting to caramelize, where an apple might turn brown, or a tomato I think I had the tomatoes one time a little too high and some of them turned dark brown.
Speaker 3:And when you say too high, you're talking temperature or duration, or both. Yeah, both.
Speaker 1:so like, while if the temperature's really so, I actually have. I noticed that some commercial dehydrators that are like these, like all stainless steel, uh, not big but all stainless steel, they were five, ten grand. They had a two-stage setting. I'm like, oh, that's a brilliant idea. So I they had a two-stage setting. I'm like, oh, that's a brilliant idea. So I added a two-stage feature to my dehydrator where it can run at, let's say, 135, fahrenheit, 130.
Speaker 1:But because the water is evaporating from the food, it's staying cool and you have this surface cooling. So the food itself might not be very hot, but the water vapor keeps coming off. So and then, once that dehydration, it's no longer cool. It's like as you sweat, you know you're cool, your skin's cool and like dry environments, you don't feel as hot, whereas in the humid environment you feel uncomfortable because the sweat or whatever the water on your is not evaporating. So then you stage two, whenever that time might be, you then drop the temperature and you gently and you preserve the nutrients better, you preserve the flavors better and the texture. So, yeah, it's pretty cool. So that's it is all. Science is all intertwined, related to other things. But yeah, so that applies, and so I got better at that. About a year ago, I think I added that functionality to it, so that's cool.
Speaker 1:And I, so I geek out on adding these things to uh the detail, because it's it's actually making your workflow more, just like it's. Just it's just make it more efficient, more efficient, yeah, more efficient.
Speaker 3:Um, it's not even from an energy perspective.
Speaker 1:It's from a time, actual product yeah, yeah time, yeah, but it's from a product perspective too, because I'm sure the product is coming out better, more nutritionally stable and I can be more conservative in a way, because I can now dry much lower, because I'm like well, I can, I can get that moisture out and then I could. If I were to dry the whole time at one temperature, really low, it would never dry, whereas now, uh, I can be really aggressive in the beginning and it doesn't matter because it's just evaporating off, and then be very conservative at the end and be very gentle on the food. So, yeah, so I've noticed that the food is much more flavor and therefore probably nutritionally. To send that to a laboratory to have everything analyzed would be ridiculously expensive, but I'm assuming that the nutritionally it's better as well.
Speaker 3:So yeah, and so now the process of doing all this. What has been some of the more challenging foods to dehydrate, or has everything been just pretty much easy across the board?
Speaker 1:uh, you know, I mean like food, like my treats, like the sweet potato treats, uh, to make like certain foods are just really hard to make palatable for people. Uh, salmon is very difficult too, because salmon's so oily. Uh, so, to make this, the jerky treats for Canine Bros, salmon, the omega-3s are the most healthy aspect of the salmon and it just the oil soaks out everywhere. Oh really, so I've finally, I think, turned the corner, and my next batch I'm going to do of meats, I'm going to scale up the salmon. But yeah, I'm speaking so much off the top of my head, I enjoy doing that, but anyway, I'm speaking so much off the top of my head, I enjoy doing that. But anyway.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it was. Why don't you give Nick a?
Speaker 1:taste. Oh yeah, I mean you, could you want to see, you want to do some tasting here?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll do some tasting, I think. What did I try from you guys? Well, I did try the black garlic. Okay, yeah, I did try the black garlic. Okay, yeah, I did try the black garlic when I was with you guys that time.
Speaker 1:Here's a bag of dried pear. I appreciate you. I appreciate you. Yeah, so the pear is oh yeah, let's see, Do I have? Oh, this is new. What's that? This is my dehydrated tomatoes.
Speaker 3:Oh, my man just conveniently woke up when there's, uh, when there's, does he eat fruit? He won't no, he's mad stubborn with food. Yeah, it's awesome, and see, I've dehydrated myself at home ah nice, what did you? I have I have an instapot, so it's not as cool as yours instapot is a it's not, it's a dehydrator though they have one. They have an attachment that's a dehydrator. Oh cool, oh. So it's the air fryer attachment to the to the top. Oh cool, cool. These aren't for you, these are pears my dad, my dad's.
Speaker 1:So he says this is my his favorite new product, that's your favorite yeah, so that, uh, I actually had people. Uh, I made first a vegetable jerky, uh, so people were asking me to make beef jerky. After seeing all the meats I was dehydrating, um, and so dried tomatoes, I thought, oh, you know what could be? Uh, how good can they be? Uh, so, actually, yeah, so I, I managed to. Uh, he's adorable.
Speaker 1:Uh, so yeah, I, um, I, uh, I. My vegetable jerky is a is a separate product, but these, the tomatoes were so good, I decided spice is really good. Do, but these the tomatoes were so good, the spice is really good that you have on.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I worked really hard on getting that spice blend corrected. It was.
Speaker 3:Is it too spicy for you? No, that one has a bit amount of black pepper. I'm the guy that puts habaneros on the eggs. Oh nice, yeah, Sriracha habaneros are good Nice.
Speaker 1:No, this is in tomatoes, but it's a very good antioxidant, so I wanted to like put some marketing selling points on the front. But lycopene is yeah, it's very good for you and it's all tomato, yeah, sure. Yeah, I'm going to put them right there now, and then the, so everything is like a little treat, like dehydrating pears. I had to watch the temperature, um, but uh, yeah, I've been uh, getting, getting better at all of them and just staring at your dad Bro, you can't have tomatoes, you can't have tomatoes.
Speaker 3:Man, yeah, he loves it, so I. I was very happy to see you in Dick's sporting goods. That was awesome, yeah, and awesome, yeah and uh, kenji loves the treats.
Speaker 2:Oh, what's this? Thank you, that's funny.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a nice trick yeah, I don't want to teach him how to say I didn't want to speak, because we always say you know in in language. So I figured I saw a guy on uh the internet that if he made the bark noise then his dog would bark. So I said, all right, let me try it. So I just kind of went come on, hey, oh, he's looking at you see, he's like, he's like yo screw this guy. He goes, he's not, he isn't, he's not in control. Oh good boy that is great.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I figured that was the best way to to train him how to bark that's it.
Speaker 2:I've never seen that before.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah I thought it was cool. When I saw it I I said you know what, let me try it. But yeah, he loves the treats and, like I said, the biggest thing for me is just knowing that what I'm giving him is actually real food. Yes, that's the biggest thing for me. So I spend a lot of money every single month on the raw food. I spend a lot of money on the vitamins and fish oil and whatnot, and giving him salmon like real raw salmon, patties and all this different stuff. So it's like, why, all of a sudden, am I going to skimp on on the treats and making sure that he has something that's actually good for him? And you know it's.
Speaker 3:It's tough, you see. You know, you see a bag of like real food that's $10, which I think is well worth it. That's not. But then you see, a lot of people will see a bag of for like dogs $4 biscuits and they're just like, oh well, I'll just get those. And it's like, oh man, you don't know what's in that though. $4 today, but thousands at the vet later. That's what they don't make the correlation in their minds. And don't you hit my stand, I'm over here, I'm over here. So that's unfortunately the Aw. So that that's unfortunately the the, because it's on wheels, so he'll move it. I'll be repositioned. Yeah, he'll move it, but, um, you know, that's unfortunately like one of the thought processes that doesn't occur in people's minds right out the gate. Yes, you know, it's like even when we're grocery shopping for ourselves like, yeah, same thing.
Speaker 3:yeah, like, oh, I'll just buy the a bunch of chips for snacks instead of maybe some fruit yep and and having something that okay it's, it's a little less convenient to eat than chips like, yeah, okay, somebody doesn't want to take the apple around or it goes bad and whatnot, but at the same time it's like, well, you're, you're getting the nutrients, you're, you're gonna feel better. Your body's gonna thank you in the long run yeah that chips. You don't know what that's doing to your insides over time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think well for my business, I hope to. Right now I'm selling out everything I make pretty quickly, so that's why I kind of can have the price a little higher because it's so much work for just me. But I'm hoping to eventually get the volume where I can have consistent orders. Right now I'm kind of making it. I need a full time. It has to be a full time job because just getting a worker needs their consistency. Like everybody, they need to know they're going to get paid and they're going to be able to show up on a regular basis and that's just 101 at being an employer.
Speaker 1:So I have, like I get purchase orders but it's not like a huge pipeline. So I'm still kind of doing product development for my people food line and my pet food line is a very competitive business. So I get orders and then it's quiet. So I've been kind of muddling through and doing batches, everything myself, which as an entrepreneur it's something you have to be prepared for Tough, but anyway. So that's the point. So I definitely want my price to be lower, lower, and I feel like I can be more aggressive on that. Uh, once I I have more volume. I think it's a catch-22 of like getting more business but at some point you lower your prices and, uh, the sales can. Uh, you have to be, you have to do it are you?
Speaker 3:are you involved with the canine shop at all? Do you know them? Uh, it's rings a bell canine shop. Uh, they have all they're the I mean my opinion they're one of the best, yeah, dog food shops on the island, especially they have locations in north port. Uh, I think they're in oceanside, or lynn brook. No, it's lynn brook, massapequa, okay, and bohemia. Oh nice. Yeah, I didn't know if you knew them or not. I would love to put you in contact with them oh cool, yeah, yeah they've been on the podcast as well.
Speaker 3:I would love to make that connection, because they do all natural dog treats and I'm sure they would love to do something that's local. Yeah, because they love working with new people. He just has a way he just winds up gravitating right towards the wheels, rub against. Oh my god, he just gets closer and closer. But, um, yeah, I think, I think that would be a great link up between you two. So after the show I'll definitely reach out to them and and have them yeah, like contact you, my uh, the challenge.
Speaker 1:Like individual stores are for my size probably are good but in a way are not good because it can be very challenging. Uh, uh, the order size, your time invested and then trying to get paid also is like almost every store business you there at some point you have to chase them down to get your check and uh, fortunately this sounds like every industry. It's crazy, every industry. Um, and so if you have to do it for an individual store, it's so time consuming and a headache and uh, so you'd rather at least be for a company with like four locations or something like that yeah, um no, they did.
Speaker 3:They're, they're doing, they've been doing a great job. Uh, rob and anya, they're, they're awesome. Just same thing, same type of situation that we were in. You know, you just want to create something that's better for our best friends. That's really what it wound up being they make products too no, they, just they.
Speaker 3:They go to all the trade shows and they, they find out who's making the most natural and new stuff for the dogs. They sell the antlers and they sell the. Kenji loves the mussels. I give him real mussels, frozen mussels, nice. I give him duck feet, chicken feet. He won't eat the dehydrated versions, he'll eat the real raw versions, wow, nice. So he'll eat those. And then I get the actual company. There's a piece of black pepper. And then I get the actual company. There's a piece of black pepper. The company that makes canine cravings, which is the roll of raw food that I feed him. Okay, they import it in all the canine shops.
Speaker 3:So, that's a company in Maryland. Oh wow, and it's like the chicken meat, the bone, the tissue, the organs all in the roll. Okay, so I give him. He gets 15 ounces in the morning and 15 ounces at night. Nice.
Speaker 2:My man eats.
Speaker 3:My man eats.
Speaker 1:Do, you do?
Speaker 3:vegetables as well, or any type of vegetables.
Speaker 3:So there are veggies in the roll. Okay, how much? I think it says a percentage on it, okay, but I mean, if it's not meat, he's not eating. He's eating the meat. Yeah, he will not take fruit. He will not take fruit. He will not take anything. No, blueberries, he won't take anything. Wow, he will only take chicken, or You're just shut up. He'll only take certain things and it's like that's his thing.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, you know, you learn, he was super stubborn with the food. When I first got him he drove me nuts. He just he did not want to eat anything that wasn't bones. He wanted the turkey necks and the duck heads and the. He wanted to eat all that. And then when it came down down to like eating the actual meat organs and all that stuff, he'd snub it. He needed a little bit of it.
Speaker 3:Then he gave me problems, then the epilepsy started and then, uh, I think the seizures had a lot to do with his blood sugar. To be quite honest with you, I really do, because the more unstable his eating schedule was, the more I saw unbalanced reactions on that side from him. And then we put him on medicine. It got better for a little while. Then he would start having one a month again and then we put him on the new medicine, uh, this past october, and it takes like six weeks to load into the system. And then november technically was his last seizure, so that's his last one that he's had. But that medicine has made him more hungry. So he eats on a very good schedule now 8 am he gets his, gets his food, 8 pm he gets his food. And he's good. That's good. Yeah, he's not. You know. He'll of course, snack he's a dog Like. He loves snacks but generally I mean that's his mealtimes and he's ready to go and he cleans the plate. For seven months now.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, you get, you'll get engaged at activity level. Yeah, how much energy he needs to make it through the day. And yeah, you got to keep an eye on his health all the time.
Speaker 2:You're a great dad, oh thank you, thank you. And someday you'll be, hopefully, a dad of a child.
Speaker 3:I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:And I want to add one more thing. You know I used to work in the welfare department.
Speaker 3:My first job out of the Army. There we go.
Speaker 2:You guys told me I was reaching for the board so a lot of the mothers were poor people poor black, poor Hispanic people, poor white people. I was in my 20s and everybody. Why are they having more kids? Why are they having kids? It's a common question. And I was in my 20s and everybody. Why are they having more kids? Why are they having kids? Wow, it's a common question. And then I learned why. Why they want to have kids. You know why, hit me. They want to love something. They want to love somebody. Yeah, it's so important to love somebody. Yeah, a person or an animal. Without it, you might as well be dead. Yeah, you can't love anybody. What's left of your life.
Speaker 3:It's tough, you know it's tough because there's a lot of and obviously kids are a whole different ballgame, but pets as well, I mean. The responsibility is huge, yes, and a lot of people don't understand that when they sign up for this commitment, this lifelong commitment you know my opinion.
Speaker 2:And you're going towards the beginning.
Speaker 3:In my opinion, it's like this is a lifelong commitment and you have to be ready for the ups and the downs. It's like a marriage, right, like you have to be ready for the ups and the downs. Not every day is going to be an amazing day. Unfortunately, it's a roller coaster, so you have to take what you take it as the as the rolls and the rides come, so you get a puppy. You think that it's going to be this. Oh, my god, it's a puppy, it's the cutest thing in the world. And then, two years in, he starts having seizures and you're like, oh, wow, and the life expectancy of an akita is 12 to 15 years, so, and they'll live full lives with epilepsy Totally fine.
Speaker 3:But you have to keep that under control. You know there's certain things you have to know Medicine every 12 hours, like there's a lot of things that go into it. And unfortunately, you know, sometimes you can feel the burden of having such a lockdown schedule where it's like, oh, you got to go. I can't go to dinner at eight o'clock because he needs his seizure pills, so it's like I could be there by 8.30. I could be there by 9, or I can do it before and then have to go home afterwards. But I have to be like somewhat around the house at this time, or vacations. He won't let anybody besides my mom administer the pills or me. So it's like now you can't go on vacation unless mom can watch him.
Speaker 3:So it's, you know, people don't think about those things in the long run, but you think about those things and if that's the hardest part that you have to deal with in return of having a best friend, having this amazing buddy like that'll protect me to the death, I mean it's unreal. When you look at some of these situations, it's like why would I, why could I not give him everything I could? And it's not a burden when it comes down to it, it's like it's just an obstacle that we have to do because he doesn't know anything. You know, let's just talk about it like with epilepsy. He doesn't know, anything's wrong with him.
Speaker 2:He has no idea he doesn't even know what happens.
Speaker 3:He, he doesn't even realize. He just feels a little weird after, for however long. So it's like that's my responsibility. I said when I picked him up in Minnesota that's my guy, that's my guy for life, and I had the opportunity to bring him back to yeah, I had the opportunity. She had said listen, I understand, this is huge. This is like this a lot if you never need, because your lifestyle of traveling and this and that, and I was like I couldn't even. I couldn't even fathom it. It's like you know, it's in the back of your mind when it's fresh, you're just like but he's like, I couldn't even think about it. That's my man. I wouldn't be able to. Every day that he would, he's not with me. I would be thinking about is he good, like, like, is everything okay? What do you know? I picked him up when he was 18 weeks old, 16 weeks old, and he was 20 pounds, yeah, and he looked at me and he was just like this little ball of fur just sitting there and I went, uh, all right, that's my guy, right there, like I just I know, and I'll show you the picture. It was crazy.
Speaker 3:And then we drove. We drove 23 and a half hours back. One trip. We didn't stop at all because covid just started, so we had no idea what was going on yet. So we drove right back. My mom's like do you want to stop for hotels? I go, I have no idea what's going on, let's just get home. Let's just get home. And we drove minnesota right back to new york. It was a crazy ride, but he was the best little guy. He just he just slept in the. He just slept in the crate, he was hanging out.
Speaker 3:So you got to remind yourself of these things, and I can definitely understand when people just want to be loved. Listen, I've been single since, on a relationship side, I've been single since 2019. I've been single since 2019. I've dated here and there. Okay, nothing that's blown me off my feet, where I'm like this is amazing, this is the one. And unfortunately, as humans, we want that connection. You do, because the more that we're in isolation, the more it sucks. Let's be honest, you want to have a person, so having a puppy. That's why I'm sure a lot of people have kids outside of marriage too, and there's nothing wrong with that. Like, do whatever is your situation. Like, do your thing. I think everybody has situations that get thrown at them all day, every day, week, month, whatever that they have to overcome and deal with, whatever the situation is so like. If that's what your situation has turned into, then you have to own it.
Speaker 2:I went to the gay pride. Right here, right by the farmer's market, yeah, it was a tremendous sign of joy from the participants. Yeah, they were really happy. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm big on. If something makes you happy, do it. Like, just do it. Just do what makes you happy. Life's too short, you know. And guess what? The people that don't want to see you happy or the people like whatever it is, the people that have any problems with it. They're never going to change. So there's no use in trying to get your energy and screwing up your inner peace with trying to make people think or feel differently. It just is what it is. Somebody hates a certain person, or somebody hates a drink, or they hate an animal. They're always going to hate an animal or they're always going to hate this thing. So it's like just focus on you, be happy, be present, do your thing with the people that are similar to you. You know what I'm saying? Like that's my biggest thing Tribalism.
Speaker 3:I read the book Tribes. It was awesome and it talks about how the lack of tribalism in modern day society has actually caused more problems than it did back then, where there were people that were in cities of wartime during World War II, world War I, where, even though there was constant shellings and bombings and all this stuff, because everyone was banded together for a common cause, common good of like protecting one another. After the war ended, people actually had worse problems depression-wise, anxiety-wise after the fact, because they weren't in that tied, close-knit realm again. You know, without ranting too much, I told you before we cut the mics on, I played Magic the Gathering last night with my buddies. I'm tired of playing digital games. I really am.
Speaker 3:I'm tired of, like FaceTiming and the disconnection of everybody. We're the most connected, disconnected society that's ever existed in the world. So it's like to be able to like obviously we had our phones, but to be able to have five people sit here, have music on, kicking back you build a deck that is for some reason resonating with you and the way that you want to play the game, and everyone just has fun in the moment, presently, together, as opposed to like staring at these screens where, if you took these screens away, we look like morons. It's the weirdest thing in the world. You take these screens away. It's like walking around on the sidewalk like this. Yeah, it's just crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I said a lot well, I, to add to that, I would say in terms of social, to tie it back to food a little bit, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:In a way so one of the objectives of a product developer. I always see myself as a food scientist. You can do a lot of different things within food science but you can be a I thought product developer was the coolest kind of job because you're making a new product developer was the coolest kind of job because you're making a new product. Maybe marketing would come to you or you are the marketing person but you have certain attributes the product has to have and then you have to design it and select ingredients and everything that goes into it. But the process or whatever temperature, cooking and everything, but as chef, maybe they prepare food. There's a huge social aspect of food and a food scientist more you know they can. A lot of food is convenience food and that I think. How can convenience food? Does it contribute to a healthier socialization of people or does it take away? And maybe more so take away, because I mean, I'm sure it's really just people need convenience, but you know there's fast food but ultimately a lot of people are eating alone, you know.
Speaker 3:Or I eat my car. I mean I'll grab a Chipotle bowl and I'll just eat it in my car yeah, quick shovel it down because I got podcasts or a shoot to go to. Or I just eat it in my car, quick shovel it down, because I got podcasts or a shoot to go to. Or I'm running home to him if he's not with me. Most of the time he's with me but I have to run home to him. Or I'm getting a jujitsu or I'm going to the. It's like I'm just constantly going somewhere and because I'm alone most of the time, because I'm doing everything, by myself.
Speaker 1:It's a very isolated, solo type mission. And so if food be in a way, if you, if technology and science hadn't solved food to be more convenient, if it was difficult, you'd have to go and cook it and therefore you'd probably, if you're cooking food, typically you have to social, you know, do it in a social setting with your family or friends, and so in some ways, you know that's one of these books I read was by Freud, wasization and its Discontents. It's a very hard the translation I couldn't find a good English translation, but it was.
Speaker 1:One thing that struck me was Freud observed how technology isolated people from their families more and that, like the advent of the telephone actually, or advanced transportation, separated people geographically more. And so now you know like you're less close to your family as a result. So in a way technology, I mean you could say, oh, zoom calls kind of compensate, but how often do we do that? Whereas if you're actually in the same house but do people really want to live in the same house as their parents? Arguable, and maybe it's we like our independence initially, and then you know it's good to be with the family. So, yeah, it's just, technology has nothing's perfect. Things have their downsides.
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course I saw on TikTok there was a family compound, they call it. So they buy a huge plot of land that everyone the cousins, the aunt, everyone's got their own house and then there's a garden in the middle and a communal space for everyone to eat and hang out and do all the activities and whatnot fire pits and this and that, and so you know, self-sustaining to a certain extent, and maybe they have chickens.
Speaker 1:It wasn't Waco Texas.
Speaker 3:It was not. No, no, no.
Speaker 1:Bad joke, it was not, but yeah, I think that's pretty cool, that's a really everything. But then the grass is always greener. Oh, of course there's always. There's a reason why civilization kind of gravitated this way, in a way.
Speaker 3:Well, whether it be right or wrong, things typically wind up course correcting themselves in time. So I hate to say the history repeats itself, but I've seen that there's a huge trend in people kind of going backwards in certain areas, whereas they don't want this high-paced, rushed lifestyle anymore.
Speaker 1:They're actually I wouldn't say backwards, I'd say returning.
Speaker 3:Returning. I like that. No, no, yeah, because regression. You'd think that it was like in a bad way, but yeah, returning back to more of a slower-paced, enjoying your days being more.
Speaker 1:I think that's why people want to work from home too is because they can. They have more free time and more less pressure and less the commuting and everything, and it's great if you can make it work in your life and if the same job gets done, yeah, you're at the same efficiency.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and yeah, I see, I see no problem in it. But if you have people that are screwing off, and it's a problem. Yeah, of course it's a tough balancing act. But on the topic of food being, because of the convenience factor, more so, have you ever seen the Blue Zone documentaries at all on Netflix?
Speaker 1:I've heard of that. That's where people live in, like a the centennials the more people that live over 100.
Speaker 3:It's a very interesting. There's one on netflix, super interesting. There's a. There's a general theme, though, and it is community and it is people coming together and not only is it not engorging yourself on tons of refined foods and whatnot, but it's and eating more whole, natural foods, legumes and stuff like that, um, oily fishes, like really hearty stuff. But you notice that in all these places like sardinia, italy and okinawa, japan, and uh, there's a place, there's a spot in california I forget the spot, the one blue zone in california. I forget the name of it, it's like a, it's, it's an odd name, but regardless. And then there's another in greece as well, but you see these people coming together for meals and making whole foods, real foods, and they're not. They're not really playing into the convenience factor, so that definitely, without question, plays a huge pack.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, when I go to the supermarket and I eat the whole thing looking at other people's carts and what they're getting, and it well, there's like there are the people who like are like stocking up on bottled water. Uh see, those people like the whole car is like bottled man. I guess they and I get it. I have a water filter. I installed that because I like to do plumbing and if you don't have one, then that's the only other route. Tap water, I mean. I think tap water in New York City is actually remarkably very good.
Speaker 2:But outside of New York City I've never had, I've never been to another city where I thought the tap water was good, so we're kind of.
Speaker 3:But long island tap water, uh, it really has a real funky. When I was a child I drank out the hose, that, but that's that ended there. Yeah, no, I I filter all my water. I filter all my water. I use a zero water filter. Just because I I've rent and I don't have, I really want to do an osmosis, a double osmosis water filtration system, but reverse osmosis, not double.
Speaker 3:Yeah, reverse, reverse osmosis sometimes it's double filtered, but reverse osmosis, yeah, um, but the issue with it is that they have countertop ones. They're not that great. You really want the under the sink one and I just I'm not going to install that in a rental apartment.
Speaker 1:I still have an uh in my apartment in the city I. I have occasionally nightmares that the thing's gonna leak when I'm not there in the whole place yeah, it's gonna be done yeah and my mom.
Speaker 1:I I installed one for my mom and like twice the filter leaked and she was so and I had to like sneak in when, uh, she like I'd come at night for the farmer's market and I actually installed the water filter when she wasn't looking a new one and she's like, wait, this is on. And I was like, yep, it's been on for three weeks and it didn't leak, like she wouldn't let me do it. Uh, if she had known, uh, you know, because she was worried about the, she has a nightmare that she'll go on that trip and all the water. The place will be flooded. But they're really nice to have. But, yeah, people, so they're in this, in have people buying water. Then there are people who just buy like sugary, like everything, junk food, no produce, no vegetables, no fresh fruit, and so, yeah, there's. That's why at least my products I could feel as a processed food. It falls in. It still technically is processed, but it's.
Speaker 3:It's processed by dehydration.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like every. So. I actually wrote when I was working many years ago for a company. There's one of the trade magazines in the food industry. It's called Processed Foods and I wrote a letter to them saying you need to change the name of your magazine because there needs to be a better name. There's Food Technology Magazine and it's put out by the Institute of Food Technologists, ift, and Processed foods is another one, and I never heard back. But I was like I was already hearing this is like in 2002. People saying processed foods it's really a bad term. There needs to be another term for it. But yeah, there's good processed and bad processed.
Speaker 3:You want a tomato? I love a tomato. Oh, he's a big guy. Yeah, he wants a tomato.
Speaker 1:Yeah, get that tomato. Yeah, he wants the tomato. Yeah, get that tomato.
Speaker 3:What else do I have here, do you?
Speaker 1:see my guy jump up again when I open it up to get a pear, bro, you better relax. Well, he can have the pear. Do you like pears? He won't eat pears and dogs have pears. Yes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, see, nothing, that's not meat. He won't eat it.
Speaker 1:That's right, and so I focus on. Apples, too, are great. Um, that's just cinnamon on there. Um, dogs can't have cinnamon. I have a plain one, though he won't eat it, um no it's okay, he's all right, but yeah the um I'll give him, I'll give him.
Speaker 3:I'll give him a duck head tonight. He'll be all right nice, see, I told you a duck head. Yeah, he eats A duck head. Yeah, he eats a whole duck head.
Speaker 1:We'll give him a chicken here.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:All right, come here, come over here, lay down.
Speaker 3:Lay down, you got my man. Anytime he hears a bag now in here he's like oh, what are we doing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a real thing. It's a real thing. I've heard from many customers that the sound of the crinkle of the bag, the dog will get going. Yeah, but I've been learning about. I started with apples because they're just ubiquitous from my suppliers. They have all these different apple varieties and I've already heard about dehydrating apples. Originally I was doing them as a.
Speaker 1:It's very hard to get the texture crispy when you dehydrate. The moisture has to be so dry. I can, um, you have to keep running the dehydrator, um, gently, this low temperature, and it'll immediately, like, even if you open the bag, it'll start to get kind of flexible. And so I. Now I'm just like it's going to be flexible. I could either load it with desiccants and you're just kind of fighting with it. Texture isn't even that much arguably better. So.
Speaker 1:But then I started to put walnuts into the recipe along with the. Sometimes I put cranberries oh, we got to put it up here, I think. And various nuts are really healthy for you. Especially walnuts are high in omega-3. Not everybody knows that Pecans are really delicious. They don't have omega-3 like walnuts, but they're delicious. I always liked them. And almonds. I started putting onto some of these recipes Apricot, like little bits of apricots onto there. So so, yeah, so it's kind of under control. So I, yeah, I've been really excited to have a diverse product line, something that you know, that that and it's a good flexible tech. For some reason, it's like. You know, a nutrition bar is usually as a chew to it, not a, not a crisp. There are some, but more often it has a chew and it's a. It's a texture that mentally, whatever it is it's, we're associated with being the proper texture. So so I've been building towards building up that product line and I had a challenge with black garlic, so I don't think I didn't even mention black garlic.
Speaker 3:I was about to ask you. Yeah, you don't have any with you, do you? I have a little bit, oh, do you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I only have this Tupperware container. I sold all the black garlic I'd made. Good man, I have a fresh batch going now. It lasts. So it was invented. So people don't know. Black garlic is caramelized garlic. It's from China and we could use this little plate here and so you can see, after heating it continuously for about three weeks, yeah, you can kind of like cut it with a knife and butter, yeah, so I would. I often describe it as like avocado, like texture. This one came out a little more firm. Um, no, I had when you guys gave it to me last year.
Speaker 3:Oh great, yeah, yeah so you can definitely help yourself.
Speaker 1:I have it every day with my eggs. But it's famous for the show. Bob's Burger did a whole episode about it.
Speaker 3:Oh, did they?
Speaker 1:really that was like really the only social not social media, but television or anything, movie. I mean. I think a lot of chef shows have done it, celebrity chefs have used it, but overall it's and you'll find it in restaurants, but usually very sparingly because it is a very expensive product to make because of the amount of time and energy it goes into making it. So it has to be heated continuously. You can do it in three weeks, but if you rush it that quickly it will dry out. So what it is? It's called the Maillard reaction, m-a-i-l-l-a-r-d.
Speaker 1:It's a caramelization reaction, the most common caramelization reaction of cooking. It's where proteins break down to amino acids, carbohydrates break down to sugars and the amino acids and the sugars combine and what's happening is actually on the molecular level. An OH and an H are coming off of the two molecules and it becomes H2O and the two molecules bond together and then they start to react further and they're called like amadori rearrangement. There's all these very complicated molecules but to kick it off it's a sugar and an amino acid in the food combining sorry, okay, it's okay.
Speaker 3:You're like for a guy now. You're, now, you're now known as his, his snack dealer.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry a treat dealer, actually it was our.
Speaker 2:Come here, yes hey, yes, hey you Go, we're in this pack now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's it. He's like oh wait, you got the goods over there.
Speaker 1:So I love introducing people to the Maillard reaction. They maybe have heard of it, but then when you saute food, it's kind of eye-opening because I love the One aspect of one of them is water, and water. So whenever you have a chemical reaction you need to get that product out. So what happens is it evaporates when you're sauteing. But if you boil food, it's just eye-opening. When you boil food, you never get caramelization because you're submerging the food in water. You don't really notice. When you're cooking you're like oh yeah, there's steam coming up, but actually there is some of that chemical reaction occurring and the water is vaporizing from the chemical reaction of the Maillard reaction. And so when you boil food, you'll never get caramelization because you're submerging the food in that water and inhibiting it. So it's kind of cool. But when you boiling is a whole other cool food science thing called gelatinization. That's the term they use and that's when, especially starches, they say gelatinization of starches. Uh, within a seed, a flower, a flower is just a milled up seed and and this ties into um, people who say they're gluten intolerant uh, I believe part of it is this um, not fully hydrated starches that you're you're eating. Um, it's actually at the microscopic level, a granule, a bound, bound up starch molecule, carbohydrate, and when you boil food you're unwinding the granule and it becomes all swollen and spongy and that's because the water is permeated and unwound the molecule and then when you eat it, your body's enzymes can get into the carbohydrate and break it apart into sugars and digest it. So, basically, when you're this is not, I've never heard anyone study this Sort of my like theory is that breads, when bread is made, you are taking this flour which is it's still that granule that's undigestible really, or difficult to digest, and then you're mixing water with it, make it to a dough, but it still hasn't been heated to unravel it.
Speaker 1:It's just sort of gummy. And then you're mixing water with it, make it to a dough, but it still hasn't been heated to unravel it, it's just sort of gummy. And then you're putting in an oven and you're, uh, or you're maybe let the yeast rise, but still maybe the yeast works on. Um, usually they like, they add sugars sometimes to kickstart the yeast. Um, really well, fermented breads, you know they really they may have some, uh, sugars broken Like sourdough, yeah, like, but even then I think there's you're not, I don't think you're really getting a good breakdown of the starches. And then you bake the bread and you crystallize it and you get really hard again and so when you eat bread you're eating like unbroken down granule, like the granules are still there of the starch, and then now you've really hardened it up even more. So I think that a lot of it is just bread is a different depending, like a real hard bread.
Speaker 3:You're saying that that's more so where the gluten intolerance would come from.
Speaker 1:Possibly.
Speaker 3:On the digestive side of things. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's really not the gluten, it's the starch itself is as a bread form, whereas I think if you try eating like rice, rice has been in a rice cooker, really gummy and soft. If people say they have issues with rice, I'm kind of curious. Like I don't personally. It would be an interesting experiment, like if you're out there you have, you think you have maybe gluten intolerance or sensitivity to bread. If it doesn't, I think and I'm I think rice still has gluten, if I'm not mistaken. So there's like high gluten rice, glutinous rice you heard the term. But basically, if you can tolerate rice and chances are it's like wheat's, okay. So if you the thing is, we tend not to eat wheat like rice, like you usually don't see.
Speaker 1:Wheat berry is actually just wheat as a grain, and you can get like bulgur wheat and boil it and eat it like rice, but it's just not as a grain. And you can get like bulgur wheat and boil it and eat it like rice, but it's just not as common in Western diet we eat a lot of bread. So it's sort of an interesting experiment, food experiment at home. You can always try that and see. Maybe you can eat wheat and wheat's a good grain. It's healthy as well. So just something to consider. But yeah, I don't know, like softer, how do you compensate? Like like there might be. You might find there's a bread brand that you can digest, but like dave's killer bread dave's killer bread.
Speaker 3:I actually I have a better time there.
Speaker 1:You go and I think it's sprouted, which I think the end.
Speaker 3:It's not and it's not enriched and not enriched so they don't add it. They don't add the extra iron in good.
Speaker 1:Okay, there you go. That's good too. That helps you. So. But the, the sprouting. I was intrigued, but I thought there'd be cool stuff. Maybe I can do something with sprouting of in my products grains and stuff but mainly so one of the my website is Pulsar Foods, pulsar-foods, and I named it after the Pulse, which is a. It's kind of it's not. This isn't quite related to wheat gluten, but it's just sort of.
Speaker 1:One of my other favorite foods that I want to work more with is the pulse. It's related to a bean, a legume. It is a low-fat, it's like the most efficient protein source grain. I don't know if it really qualifies as a grain because it's not like a. It sort of gets to be a gray area like is a tomato, a fruit or a vegetable sort of like that. It's technically a fruit. We classify fruit or a vegetable sort of like that. Yeah, it's technically a fruit. We classify as a vegetable, uh, but the pulse is like.
Speaker 1:So the the most common example of a pulse is a chickpea, garbanzo bean. Um, it is uh, you know, it's very low fat and it's very high protein for for raw, raw food, whereas, uh, so the distinction is a soybean is a legume and that's high fat. So normally, uh, you, you find a lot of defatted, uh soy flour because there's soybean oil. Uh, um, those are really high fat legumes, uh, they are. That's what makes a legume a legume is it has naturally a lot of oils, whereas pulses are like the most efficient thing, and even then to defat it, to make it edible and um, so that's why I'm I kind of like, in my future I hope to make, if I were to ever like extrude a product and make a pulse product, and that's why, you see, I think like chickpea chips, but they tend to still be kind of fried.
Speaker 1:So it's a, but I think it's a. There's more like an. There's an opportunity for it. There's an opportunity. I think in Africa they actually eat a lot of pulses 's a very efficient grain. So, for like, for uh nutrition, for for feeding the masses, it's one of the best grains, uh, out there, one of the best foods out there. So, yeah, pretty uh anyway. So, background, uh, as a you know things and things I'm interested in as far as food science would might be on the horizon, uh, but yeah, so yeah, but black garlic is, is delicious I was gonna ask you what's the health benefits of the back of the great garlic yeah, great question.
Speaker 1:I actually include bring with me my black garlic book here. This is my, my. This book has been, uh, been through a lot of demonstrations of people but, um, I have here, so this is like a summary. I always do, uh, for folks at the farmer's market and I always say are black garlic benefits even more than raw garlic? Uh, question, question. That's a question, um, so these are the summary benefits.
Speaker 1:Loaded antioxidants, helps fight cancer growth, boosts heart health, preserves cognitive function, stabilizes blood sugar kick, kicks up immunity. All these have like a lot of research behind it, but the it boils down to and garlic already being really healthy for you. There's an antioxidant in garlic that makes one of the things that really makes it so healthy. It's been isolated. The most healthy part of garlic is this molecule, sulfur allele l-cysteine, sulfur allele cysteine sac, and I found a study from taiwan it's on my website, uh, and they analyze different methods of making black garlic, but overall, on average, this antioxidant from going from raw garlic to black garlic goes up by 444%. So about a 5.4 time increase on average. And how?
Speaker 3:long does it take to make the black garlic?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it takes minimum three weeks. Me, my process is two to two and a half months. Oh wow, yeah, so it's a long time.
Speaker 3:So the bowl by just eight is two and a half.
Speaker 1:It's needed for two and a half months to get it to get to that texture, because I prefer it really spreadable.
Speaker 3:So that level, no that you could definitely spread if you wanted to. I've gotten a little spreadable.
Speaker 1:It may have been open, so it got a little dried out during the day, but overall, you pop it open, you could spread it. Usually it's avocado texture that's my goal and that's super hard, but it has the most flavor, uh, when it really is um, very soft and uh you can get, whereas if you have it as a firm texture, it's like it just there's less, uh, less enjoyment out of it. But, um, yeah, it takes a long time nutritionally, though. They give it to on people with untreatable cancer people with untreatable cancer in Taiwan Um, so it's, it's just an incredible sponge for free radicals, free radicals which can damage your DNA, and that's what contributes to cancer especially.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, there's been a lot of, but they actually had nutritional benefits for heart disease and cholesterol. So this one was black garlic improves heart function in patients with coronary heart disease by improving circulating antioxidant levels, and they had they compared this one, had they put it. They actually studied it within a test tube. They put the black garlic and white garlic and compared the two, and this was the ability to absorb free radicals and it went up by over three times the amount of ability to clear free radicals from the test tube.
Speaker 3:So it was really a very powerful antioxidant radicals from the from the test tube, so it was really a very powerful antioxidant. Isn't that awesome how they give food in other countries for for certain medical treatments.
Speaker 1:They actually recommend that you eat certain foods that are going to actually help that well, uh, to add to that, I don't know exactly what medically like and I don't want to advocate like steve jobs famously like didn't pursue chemotherapy, I think, and he died died because they said it was like a treatable form of cancer and he didn't go in for it. So these are untreatable forms. So I don't want to advocate like not seeing a doctor if you can or having your treatment done if you can. But I know from working at Nature's Bounty supplements are much more heavily regulated and the potency is extremely guaranteed Not that they're not guaranteed, but there's much more Like. Nature's Bounty was a great company for its laboratory, but there are a lot of unreputable companies not guaranteeing the claims and potency In Europe. They have their own regulatory bodies and they treat supplements more like a drug. I think they're much more expensive though this is always a downside to this stuff but I think the quality is very high there and I don't know how much they use those supplements. I mean, I haven't been through Europe enough to know exactly how much they're using them and doctors are recommending them. But America has those so-called holistic, quote-unquote doctors and I think they're using supplements more.
Speaker 1:But I think it takes a long time, like, once the damage is done to your body, it's hard to you know, you gotta you really change your whole diet, and I think it's it's not just like take a pill, uh, although you know certain things can really help, um, but you really it's. Yeah, you gotta really eat whole foods and everything. So, no, not just the store, but just really they. Really it's a good name of a store, but it's true Whole foods are super important in all these processes. Before Amazon bought them. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Before Amazon bought them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I don't want to slam them. I would love if they carried my products and maybe one day I, I there's no, no reason, no reason why not? But yeah, that ties into the whole thing of organic. I've had people at Farmer's Market asking me about organic. I think pesticides are the biggest thing that people are worried about and I don't have a firm answer. I contacted the grower of my apples and they gave me an answer. It was like we use pesticides within it was almost like within legal limits and I was like, hmm, but it was. They said they sent to an external testing lab all their apples and they said that they're always to check that the pesticides are not getting into the apples and they said that their results were always good. I don't know what exactly that meant, so there is some concern there.
Speaker 1:But organic I think that there's two aspects to organic. I don't know what exactly that meant, so there is some concern there. But organic I think that there's two aspects to organic. There's the pesticides and then there's the fertilizer, and then you fertilizer.
Speaker 1:To me, I don't think you like the, the, maybe they, maybe they do, maybe some that the fertilizer used for conventional produce is these, is they need foods, produce plants need a nitrogen source, and I'm not an agronomist, but they need a nitrogen source and they basically we lived very as subsistence people civilization did at the turn of the 1900s or 1800s.
Speaker 1:People were farmers and it was actually the advent of I don't know if people know urea is actually used, so that urine that is organic and then urea is the high nitrogen version of it's the same molecule, it's just isolated and there was some Nobel Prize level chemists who came up with the process for synthesizing urea and that was became the so, rather than having to use animal waste as a result. And so and there's, look, there's compost, there's food scraps, things like that you can use, but on a large scale feeding the world. I still I'm not convinced that it can be done practically economically. So that's there's. Unfortunately, there's like there should be a third category of like low pesticide or approved like healthy. There's no transparency in pesticides and I think that's the problem is, I think they're like, I think synthetic fertilizers are kind of necessary to feed people, but I think that the pesticide thing is sort of like an unanswered question.
Speaker 3:So yeah, I mean, you had brought up oats before as being one of the you know best nutritionally for breakfast and whatnot, and for years I did that with the bodybuilding world. But one of the issues, though, is the high glyphosate numbers that's on oats. So, unless you're getting an oat brand which there is one, I think it's like a it's, it's the company called sprouted or something like that they do no glyphosate, no, nothing. Yeah, all tested oats and that's what I'll-.
Speaker 1:Is it certified organic or-?
Speaker 3:I believe it is. I could be wrong.
Speaker 1:I mean, maybe, though, certain things you grow can grow, maybe they don't, I don't know.
Speaker 3:I don't know. Listen, it's a part that we're not both neither of us are involved in. Yes, so it's. You know, we don't understand that part.
Speaker 1:Another person, a fourth, person.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I need a fourth person and eventually I'll get somebody on that. Yeah, it was about that actually. I met.
Speaker 1:You meet amazing people, the farmer's market, and I think yesterday I met uh and someone who studied agronomy at cornell who, uh, and he I don't know exactly, I was like, so I was like I got his contact info from his mother and uh, yeah, it was pretty, you know, you never know you're gonna you meet interesting folks.
Speaker 3:That I've met you guys on my farmer's market.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh, more people my whole life doing the farmer's market, so it's a wonderful thing about it and uh, yeah, it's been been really interesting. But, yeah, it's uh, there's a I, I, it's just. I could go on about all just name dropping people. Yeah, uh, which you may some people may may or not be impressed by, but it's kind of cool, uh. So, yeah, we had it's been a really great experience and I have my dad along for the ride. It's been a lot of fun what have you guys done?
Speaker 3:like, in the off season of the farm, do you go somewhere else and do it?
Speaker 1:I keep doing it. I do it once. Was it once every two weeks? Once a month?
Speaker 1:uh, this year I did once a month at the huntington indoor market I didn't even know they had an indoor market yeah, uh, it was at the cinema arts center and then they just moved it this past year to a uh arts, another arts center. It's not quite as close to town but it's a nice location and I was doing Dick's Sporting Goods Public Lands on the Sundays or Saturdays and so I'd come from Jersey and do two in this area and so that kept me going. I mean I need to transition my business now more towards doing grocery store demos, so that's the next goal. But I'd like to find that right fit. But Dick's Sporting Goods has great upside potential. Yeah, they sell all my products. They sell my trees.
Speaker 3:Right by the Yeti. It's incredible. Right by the Yetis. It was so cool.
Speaker 1:It took time, but they were pretty much always so friendly and I think we had really great days there and we always have great interactions with customers and people are always really nice and friendly and they're always I hear the somewhat annoying thing you should go on Shark Tank, I mean, have you ever heard something like that? But it's I actually my former business partner. He wanted to do Shark Tank and I said, said fine, so one day I took a day off and we went to New York City ABC Studios and we actually made it past the first round. Oh wow, which only I was. They said 4% of people make it past the first round. It's a pretty cool thing.
Speaker 1:But I was building the dehydrator and he worked on the video and I don't know what happened with it. I never I didn't participate. What happened with it? I never I didn't participate. I'm like I'm building dehydrated man I'm not helping you this video. I left it up to him and he did it and he we never heard back after that. I'm fine with it, but um, I because I knew we were, so we weren't even with a distributor, I think. Um, so I wasn't into very many pet stores. So like, even if you made it onto the show, they'd be like what are your sales? And it would be uh, not a um be like. Know, I've seen people get on the show.
Speaker 3:It'd be not something that they want to hear right out of the gate. They want to hear these astronomical numbers.
Speaker 1:They may say, come back. Yeah, they want to hear these astronomical numbers. And what's the point of all the effort?
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, I need capital to get to the next level Right. So, that's really what I'm here for.
Speaker 1:Right, right. So I didn once the dehydrator was going and we're getting some business. It there wasn't a shark tank. Yes, it has its advantages but and I'm sure they, the sales channels they open you up with, is really what's worth it and and the exposure you get. I even talked to people. I went to a trade show there's a couple of huge trade shows for for the pet food industry and I met people who had booths, uh, who had been on shark tank, and they said, yeah, you get a bump in sales every time the shows, the reruns, are on the air. Um, but uh, they said, overall they were kind of like wishy-washy about how they maybe they were more optimistic about where their business would go.
Speaker 3:Um, I think I think there's more opportunity for you on the side of like pushing on social interesting tiktok channels through instagram channels.
Speaker 1:That's a whole other skill yeah, I think that's.
Speaker 3:I mean that's what I deal with with companies. I mean that's, that's the best way to go about it with direct to consumer. You're talking about your products, you're the. You're the guy like you know everything yeah, you know you don't need a spokesperson to do that.
Speaker 3:You can create short form content clips, whatnot, and, and, and show people and listen to people. Love, just on the dog side, people love their dogs and then, once they found out that you make regular food for everybody because snacks for the pet and for you, yeah, then it could. It just opens up the entire ability to just have. Oh, I could order the treats for the dog and I could order a couple snacks for the family, right? So I think that there's definitely some vertical um opportunities on that for you yeah, we could talk about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we could talk about that. I can and I can and I can lend you some expertise and tell you what I think would be good for you. Yeah, tip top and just see where it goes. It's just consistency. That's what it is. Yes, you know you're going to spend your time going on Shark Tank. Still, retain the entire evaluation of your company, like the value of your company.
Speaker 1:And I love, it's fun for me. Like you said, you're meticulous, like it is, it's a time consuming thing, but there's a payoff to it and but you do have to. You know you're making, you're doing video production, you're making a mini movie in a way, a short film. Uh, so it is. Uh, it takes a lot of uh thought, but once you get it going, you know there's the people's expectations. Sometimes people are just walking with the phone, talking and like if you get that big at it, there's just content, put it out there. But it happens, man but there's plenty of.
Speaker 3:There's plenty of clients that I've worked with where we didn't have to set up my ten thousand dollar camera. We've done it with a phone, not necessarily because it was just a more efficient way of doing it, it was just quicker yeah, it was like.
Speaker 3:It was like we're just, we need to get this, this information out there right now, and it's easier to do this right this way. It doesn't have to be the cinematic adventure that we're going to make it, yeah, like it could just be. Hey guys, what's going on? We're over here today, blah, blah, this and that done. You know it doesn't certain. It calls. There's different, there's different equipment for everything. That's why I have different soft boxes for my lights and different lenses for all of my cameras and different microphones. Like everything, everything requires a different tool sometimes, and you can utilize all of them without just saying I only use it this way or I only do this way.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point I, I, uh, add to that. I, well, my thought process is my email newsletter was actually a big encouragement for my dad, and we collect people's email addresses at the farmer's market. Uh, and I, I, I entice them because I want to educate people and share my knowledge and get them, um, you know, with knowledge you can be healthier and uh, so, try to some, you know, tie it all in, but also, what is the food and how is food made? And you just dig all more into it and uh, so, so, anyway, so, it's obviously a passion of yours and you have fun doing it.
Speaker 3:It's exciting.
Speaker 1:It's exciting to get when people like you see the light turn on you know the light bulb and proverbial one, and then the uh, but but having um, just uh, just the. I want to be able to turn the email more into video, and so that's so. I did, yeah, so I'm always. I did something recently for a New York State ad competition. I did a nice little video, a short video, but it was cool. But it's like, yeah, it's that balance. Once you, if you keep doing it, you get slightly more efficient at it, and then you can uh, but, but it is uh, it's, it's, it's your time, all the time, and you're like what's a priority right now? And um, or you know so, and then what, what is there's? You know, it's just, it's everything you gotta do. You gotta keep pushing everything forward a little bit here and there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so just continually like a plow, yeah, continually. All areas you can do yeah, your arms out. Sometimes you gotta go really slow sometimes you gotta come back get a little bit. So it happens in progression. Yes, dude, listen man, I appreciate you for coming through and hanging out and treating up my dog and treating up me I wasn't sure.
Speaker 1:I'll come back with some chicken for you oh, it's all good. I wasn't sure what was your favorite.
Speaker 2:Leave't sure I have some I'll come back with some chicken for you. Oh, it's all good. I wasn't sure what was, uh, your favorite leave the uh, leave the tomatoes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, have some tomatoes. I appreciate you, dude, I appreciate you um where can?
Speaker 3:so let me, let me, just let me get this for you where can people find your product? Uh?
Speaker 1:right now my website for sure. Canine bros uh is in a quite a few stores, uh, I have a store locator. You can go on Amazon too. You can go on my website for Canine Bros, for my people, food and my treats it's all on my web. Everything is also on my website. So I have a nice Shopify website. You can get everything there. Which is, if you go to caninebroscom or gourmet-magiccom or pulsar-foodscom, I just have it forward to the same website and then you can kind of just pick your product from there. Perfect, yeah, perfect.
Speaker 3:Well, listen, dave. I appreciate you, pop, I appreciate you coming through and hanging out with us. Thank you For everybody listening. I hope you guys learned a lot, because there was a lot to learn. I mean, seriously, there was a lot to learn Foods. I hope so. Get some of these awesome treats, snacks for you, your pup. I mean, listen, single ingredient, everything. I mean that's the way that you hope to eat and be and give that to your dog as well, cause they'll thank you with the extra. Hey, look he's. He thinks I'm about to give him something from the table. He's jumping all over the place. My man is acting like he hasn't eaten in days. That is so awesome.
Speaker 1:And if you're ever, I'll just say if you're in the area of Glen Cove or Huntington, you can always stop by the farmer's market and say hello. My schedule is on my website too. I have a link for my schedule, but yeah.
Speaker 3:And Dick's Sporting Goods.
Speaker 1:And Dick's Sporting Goods too. Yes, absolutely, check it out Right by the.
Speaker 3:Yetis and the one in 110. So if you're a New Yorker some people are not from New York, but Long Island 10, right in Melville, right there, right by the Yetis, because I'm always looking at the different color Yetis and I look behind me and he's looking at the treats and I go all right, let's go it's an awesome store like I love.
Speaker 1:I've always my favorite stores have always been sporting good stores and you know these outfitters like REI, but uh, it's I think in sport Dix is kind of better because it has like everything and it's like it's like an REI plus a Models in one, so it's such a fun store to go to. In general it's huge bicycling and just like skiing, snowboarding, the fishing and everything it makes you want to do things.
Speaker 3:I walk in there and I'm like damn, I got to start doing this Exactly so.
Speaker 1:That's how I feel. So anyway, yeah, check it out.
Speaker 3:Everybody like, share, subscribe. Share the show, please, because it helps to continue growing it and allowing me to sit down with amazing human beings like the gentleman sitting across the table from me today. But, on this note, I appreciate all y'all for hanging out with us, but for now, peace.