Meeting in the Back Alley

I took Little One on a field trip this morning with her preschool class. We visited one of the thousands of snack food factories in our area. (I just Googled to see if I could give you an accurate number so you do not think I am exaggerating, but couldn't find a sure figure. Okay, I am actually exaggerating, but just a little. In my search, I did find the link to the Sweet Treats and Salty Eats Trail, which leads you from one snack food factory to another. I'm thinking of trying this with the kids sometime. With all those free samples, we shouldn't need to eat for the rest of the day.) Today we were touring a "factory" that still hand rolls all of their pretzels. It was started in a garage in 1935 and is still operating in the same building, which stands in the midst of the complicated alley system in town. Before I moved here I had never seen alleys with stop signs, one way arrows, and do not enter signs. It is like a labyrinth of secret roads (some even have names), hiding houses and businesses I had no idea existed. We met up in one of the alleys and actually started our tour there. The owner of the business, before filling us in on the long version of the history of the company (not sure he's given many tours to preschoolers before), just asked us to be ready to scamper to the side and hug tight to the building if a car turned down the alley. When we did head inside, we were greeted by the three people hand rolling the pretzels (on a good day each one twists 3500 pretzels, in addition to pretzel rolls and sticks), the dipper (the person who dips the pretzels in some sort of liquid that makes them turn brown when they bake), the baker, and the cashier. It was really pretty interesting watching them work with the equipment that had been part of the big upgrade in 1965. Little One loves soft pretzels, so this was a pretty good morning, even if we did start out in the back alley.

The "new" rotating oven, circa 1965- Wednesday, March 21.

When the pretzels are done baking, they get to take a ride on the pretzel slide. We got to try a pretzel fresh out of the oven. It was strange- hard on the outside, still warm and chewy on the inside (sort of a mix between a soft pretzel and a hard pretzel). After they bake, the pretzels go to the pretzel sauna where they sit in bins all night at 125 degrees to remove the moisture from the inside and make them into the hard, crunchy treat we all know and love- Wednesday, March 21.

Little One couldn't be happier, pretzel sticks in both hands- Wednesday, March 21.

P.S. This is a picture that Little One took last evening. She said something to me about there being a really nice picture outside as she went out the front door. I assumed she wanted me to follow with my camera, but a few moments later she came inside with the kid camera in hand to show me the picture she had just taken.

By Little One- Tuesday, March 20.