‘Eat Fresh’ Animalgardenshop.com Calendar Out
One dollar from every calendar sale is donated to The Hunger and Health Coalition in Boone.
Business partners Frederica Georgia and Scott Burns work on a Christmas tree food sculpture for their 2011 calendar, while mascot Zango watches. Photo by Corinne Saunders
In the land of “Furrlossophies” and “Locolly Grown” vegetables, when you take a cucumber and add rosemary, dill, raspberries, cranberries and slices of lime, the result is a Christmas tree.
Longtime friends Frederica Georgia, also known as Furr, and Scott Burns, whose pseudonym is Loco, joined forces in April to create www.animalgardenshop.com, and their 2010 calendar titled “Eat Fresh” is currently available at local stores, offices and restaurants.
Several years ago, Georgia compiled photographs of her animals and created spiral-bound weekly date books for the Watauga Humane Society, she said.
The second year of that fundraiser, she asked people to submit their favorite pet photos, and the book featured half those and half photos she took.
“I had so much fun captioning them,” Georgia said, and added that she “thought some of the pictures would make great T-shirts.”
This idea of fun animal pictures—Furrlossophies—remained on the back burner for a while, she said.
Involved with CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) one summer with Maverick Farms, Georgia noted that the vegetables “had so much personality.”
She started photographing them, and from the combination of these two themes, animals and unique vegetables, “Scott and I went into this partnership,” she said.
Georgia brought the creative side to the table and Burns provided the entrepreneurial angle, although there is overlap, she added.
Burns, who developed a product for the auto industry, said he is familiar with the whole entrepreneurial process, “everything from the napkin sketch to putting the product on shelves.”
Originally they planned on creating mostly T-shirts, but quickly broadened their scope to include tote bags and then, a calendar.
All the produce utilized in the “food sculptures” comes from local farmers’ markets, gardens or Earth Fare, Georgia said.
“The best thing is we get to eat our models,” she quipped.
The animalgardenshop.com mascot is a handmade monkey named Zango, who writes the online blog from his perspective, Georgia said.
“We’re having a lot of fun with it,” she said of the business; and indeed, the website states, “We believe good humor and good nourishment from the earth are essential elements for a good life.”
“We spent a lot of time developing the idea for this,” Burns said. “You get new ideas everywhere you go.”
This Christmas tree food sculpture will make its debut a year from this holiday season, but other handcrafted food sculptures can decorate your wall with the purchase of the 2010 “Eat Fresh” calendar, available now. Photo by Frederica Georgia
“We want to offer something that’s different,” he continued. “That’s where we stand out from all other calendars.”
The calendar features 12 imaginative food sculptures and sells for $15.
One dollar from every calendar sale is donated to The Hunger and Health Coalition in Boone.
“The veggies have evolved the most,” Burns said of the calendar, explaining that making the tractor, which appears on the July page, and other 3D sculptures has been an exciting part of the process.
Georgia said that she thinks now is great timing for the calendar, as people become increasingly aware of the benefits of eating healthfully.
Also, she added, “There is a really wonderful awareness here of supporting local farmers.”
Future Plans
Animalgardenshop.com has completed several commissions to date, including T-shirts made to celebrate a chili cook-off in Terralingua, Texas.
Georgia said that one of her friends took animalgardenshop.com products there, and people ended up placing an order for T-shirts featuring peppers because “the chili cook-off is big” in that town.
The company could do custom vegetable sculptures for any corporation or individuals, Burns said.
“In terms of Furrlossophies, we could do individual pet shoots and turn them into T-shirts,” Georgia added.
The biggest challenge the duo has encountered so far is finding a way to make the photos look good on T-shirts, and they plan to use a heat transfer press to experiment with creating the shirts themselves over the winter.
For more information, click to www.animalgardenshop.com.
Community Interest
News & Notes
Events
Arts & Entertainment
BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT
