30 May Rebel R&D: Kale Cubes
Almost every week in the Rebel kitchen we get cases of ripe fruit delivered from the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market in Southwest Philly (it turns out that just a few miles from us is the biggest cold storage refrigerator in the country).
Our job is to process the fruit (peel, wash, chop), put it in ziplock bags, and store it in our walk-in freezer. We call the fruit Rebel Icy Colors. We then deliver the fruit to 3 nearby elementary schools. Why do we do this? Kids love smoothies. Frozen fruit from the store is prohibitively expensive for schools, and the school buildings don’t have space for commercial food processing onsite. In the Rebel kitchen, we do. We also have a crew of trained fruit chopping experts. Back in the elementary schools the Icy Colors are used by kids to make smoothies during two different projects- Fruit Stand and Cooking Crew Academy. In Fruit Stand kids make and sell the smoothies to their peers, and in CCA kids make and share samples of smoothies with everyone in the after-school program.
(Fruit Stand entrepreneurs making smoothies)
(Smoothies for sale!)
Last week we learned that kids at CCA at Comegys Elementary school made smoothies with frozen bananas, apple juice, frozen strawberries, and fresh kale leaves. It was awesome to hear that the kids wanted to incorporate green veggies into their smoothies. When we talked to some kids who tasted the smoothie they all liked it, but also commented that the pieces of kale were too big, and got caught in their throat. The kids at Comegys wanted a smoother smoothie.
Given this problem, we thought of two potential solutions. First, we could suggest the program buys more powerful blenders. They currently use a fairly flimsy model. The issue with this solution is that the kids at Comegys might not have fancy blenders at home, and we want all the healthy deliciousness created at school to also make it home. Another issue is that unfortunately cooking supplies tend to disappear from schools. Investing in an expensive blender is risky.
Our second idea was for the Rebel Ventures crew to further support kids in CCA and Fruit Stand by using our professional-grade blender that’s in the Rebel kitchen. The question became how could we get the ground kale to the schools so they could use it in smoothies? Our solution- ice cubes.
On Wednesday last week we bought 4 bunches of organic kale to the Rebel kitchen. Corey was in charge of the project. First he separated the leaves from the stems. We decided to test two versions. One would be kale leaves and a little water, the other kale leaves and a little lime juice. After blending, the kale was scooped into the ice cube trays and leveled by Tre’Cia’s gloved hands.
(Corey grinding and blending)
(Kale cubes wrapped and frozen)
(The kale/lime cubes were brighter green after freezing than the kale/water)
(Kale cubes ready for delivery to Comegys)
Last Friday the kale/lime cubes made their way to CCA at Comegys. We showed the 5th grade smoothie chef (whose initial creativity and leadership to make kale smoothies inspired this whole project) the new ingredient. Two hours later 50 servings of banana kale smoothies were enjoyed by all the kids in the Comegys after-school program.
(First the cubes were chopped)
(Kale cubes and bananas in the blender)
(Blending with purpose)
(SUCCESSFUL SMOOTH SMOOTHIE!)
(Healthy Deliciousness)
Given the success of our pilot test, we will now slowly incorporate the creation of kale cubes into our production schedule. There’s still much for us to do. We need to run a full taste test comparing kale/water and kale/lime cubes. We need to perfect the ratio of kale to liquid, and transfer the recipe into weight measurements. We need to do a nutritional analysis. We need to come up with packaging. We need to determine our cost of production and set a pricing strategy. We need to figure out a name for the product. Something more fun than Rebel Kale Cubes.
This is how we create HEALTHY DELICIOUSNESS at Rebel Ventures. It’s a lot to do, but it will all be done. Booker T. Washington said it best. “Nothing every comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.”
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