Robert Shaffer
MONTROSE -- Laurie Hanson and her daughter, Whitney, will have to wait
more than two months for their favorite kettle-cooked popcorn.
The wildly popular, sugarcoated popcorn has brought long lines to the
Montrose Farmers Market & Family Festival. The Hansons themselves have
waited as long as 45 minutes for their popcorn fix.
But the company that has inspired the Elvis-like devotion to the
lightly caramelized popped kernels won't be at the farmers market until
March. They have not been asked to participate in the winter season,
which takes place in January and February.
"I'm not quite sure of the reason why. My customers were really
upset," said Gayla Mazzuca, who owns the Highland-based Kettle Cooked
Corn with her husband, Dennis. The pair bought the recipe from a man who
retired from popcorn popping in Colorado. "We're not really upset, that
is not the right word," Gayla Mazzuca said. "We're more disappointed."
The popcorn company was included in last year's farmers market in
Montrose, she said. But this year, market organizer David Gayman and
Family Festival Productions are likely selling their own brand of Kettle
Cooked Corn at the winter version of the weekly festival.
Kettle Cooked Corn was given the opportunity to expand but did not.
The market needed another kettle corn cooker to cut down on lines, Gayman
said.
Miss Pinky's Popcorn Booth debuted last year as "spirited competition"
to Kettle Cooked Corn, Gayman said. The smaller winter show does not
allow for multiple food vendors, he said.
"You have a limited amount of food the show can absorb," he said.
Family Festival Productions operates about 150 farmers markets per
year in Northridge, Monrovia and Montrose.
The other popcorn company is important to the success of the spring
show and will be back in March, he said.
"I wouldn't dream of starting a season without them," he said.
Myrna Grijalva, former president of the Montrose Shopping Park
Association, said she's not getting involved in popcorn matters. Gayman
is in charge of the festival, she said.
Mazzuca said not being included in the festival could be a godsend.
The company, which can sell 300 or 400 bags of popcorn at $2 to $6 per
bag per night, is in the process of opening a store in Monrovia.
"But with every good there's a bad," she said.
Hanson, who lives in Sparr Heights, will try the Miss Pinky's popcorn
with the avocados and tangerines she buys at the market when it begins
again next year.
"I think I'll be objective and try it, but everyone says its not as
good," she said.
Gayman, who also operates other food booths at the market, is standing
by his flavor of the popular popcorn.
"We haven't had a complaint yet," he said. "It makes you think you
could put sugar on the yellow pages and sell it."
