Vendor Interview: Whisk and Whirl

Transcript of Vendor Audio Interview November 2023, with Maddison and Jessica Marshall of Whisk and Whirl. Nadia Korths, interviewer.

Jessica: My name is Jessica Marshall (Maddison’s mother). 

Maddison: My name is Maddison Marshall and I'm eight years old. 

J and M: And we are Whisk and Whirl!

Nadia: Hi, this is Nadia Korths, co-founder of the Murray Hill Farmers Market (MHFM). We are here today doing our first interview of the vendors who regularly attend the market. We're interviewing Maddison because at eight she is our youngest business entrepreneur.

Maddison, how did you start this business?

M: Well, since I was about six years old I was  really wanting to run my own business.

N: You were telling us something about Apple cake? How did you get into cooking and baking?  Is it part of your home schooling?

M: Well, the apple cake was my first recipe. I’ve made a lot of recipes, but it was just a really special one because I made the recipe myself.

N: You created your original recipe?  

M: Then the second time I made it by myself.

That was the first thing I ever made anything by myself.

N: What age were you? Was that like a year ago?

M: I was seven.

J: She'd always helped me in the kitchen.

She did a lot of “I know it needs something to make things nice”. So it was like that basic. “I know it needs flour. I know it's sweet enough.”

We had started investigating about what baking soda does and what baking powder does. So she knew how they qork together to make things. Maddie just kind of messed around with the ingredients until she made her cake. 

I would sit there at the computer and type things up as she would change it and we saved and then resave. And we did it!

She did it all by herself!

N: How did you know that it was a success? When people sat down to eat it? What did they say?

M: Well, first when I made it, I served it to my family; my brothers and my mom and dad and me. I liked it for what I did. That it turned out okay. Then I just made it for the rest of my family. That's really how it all started.

N: So how many recipes did you have when you started at the Murray Hill farmer's market?

M: I usually did one of the recipes I found or I looked up recipes or sometimes I changed them. I added a pumpkin snicker to the cookie at this last market that I did. We changed it a little bit because we wanted to add some more stuff. 

J: When we first started we were very overwhelmed. We were making all these hours of prep work and then we finally figured out we can take one cookie base. So we made our own base. We would make that in like two or three or four different cookies. It could be branched off from that one specific base. So it cut down our production time by a couple of hours just because we would double triple the recipe. 

M: I want some of it for chip cookies, some of it for M&M cookies, some of it for our Barnaby cookie. 

Our Barnaby cookie has a special story because it was named after my dog who passed away this last year. In the pound they called him Oreo. So it's a cookie and cream cookie. So oh, so special for us!

N: So you started at the Murray Hill farmer's market fairly early? I don't know if you were at the first one, the Hurricane Ian one? 

How did you hear about it? Did you hear about it from Stacey, the owner? 

J: Yes, we are good friends with them. They're on our block. And Broc, he’s our dentist. 

J: So we didn't want to overwhelm Madison because…

M: Well, I had done a market before.

This place called Myrtle Brewing. Then I went to Fishweir.

J: We were thankful for the pop-up markets because we don't want to overwhelm Madison because she's obviously eight. But it's nice because it's a good balance for us and being in her community.  Where we live was important for us because we wanted to support people in our own community.

And we wanted her to be her own face around the people that are her neighbors. Something that's comfortable for Maddie. 

We don't want to go all the way to the beach or something that would take away from our family time.

So the way that the market was set up. It felt like it became our own little family pretty quickly fairly on. It gave us excitement to do the next thing. 

The bakery itself was something that Maddie and her dad wanted. Remember your father would come with you in the start..

N: You (Jessica) started coming (to the market) later (in the season). 

J: But now we switched it up. 

M: She helps me set it up and my dad takes the rest of the shift.

N: This is like a big partnership you folks are working out.

J: We want Madison to understand business as well. We sit down and explain to her how much we're spending on ingredients.

The ultimate goal of Whisk and Whirl was to be Maddie's little nest egg. If she wants to buy her own bakery as she gets older or use it for culinary school or any type of you know school. We wanted it to be her savings.

N: So are you actually saving some money each time? Because you usually sell out, 

Maddison. You are a successful vendor! You don't have to tell me exact numbers or anything. But you're able to put some aside each week usually?

J: She's got to pay her business taxes.

N: Yes, so congratulations. You are doing what you need to do. You're a great example for other young people who might want to start a business with their parents.

N: So what information would you like to tell other young people who want to start a business of their own?

M: Well, here's what I always say. Don't be afraid to start your dreams because your dreams could become reality. I also say don't let it put you down that grown-ups do it. Kids can do it too. 

N: How do you figure out who does what?

Like what you just talked about right now.  Jessica's gonna help with prep. And your father's going to go with you to the market.

Do you three talk about it? Do you have business meetings every week?

J: Well, we don't really do that. I usually help her bake. She does a lot of baking!

M: I manage the booth a lot at the market and my dad manages the money. Dad's the paperwork guy. He does our cash.

J: Her business LLC we did for Maddison on her eighth birthday. She actually saved money to buy her business license. 

We would have a family get together. Maddie would bring her lemonade stand or make brownies. She would have a tip jar. And birthday presents.  She had a savings account.  

Her dad helped her a lot with the incorporation because it's kind of a desert for the city fees.

And I do a lot of the helping Maddie in the kitchen. Natural mother-daughter relationship.

She's the imaginative person behind let's do this kind of cookie. Let's change it. This way.

N: Maddison, you're the visionary?

J: She's the visionary. She does all the decorating. We call her the Buttercream Queen.

N: Decorating the cookies themselves?

M: Well, we don't usually decorate on the cookies..We usually decorate the cupcakes and cakes. 

N: Oh, okay. That makes sense. 

M: We don't decorate cookies. I don't think sugar cookies with frosting are as good as the cookies that we do.

N: Why do you think that is? 

M: I don't like sugar cookies. They're too sweet, but they have no flavor. Like they're not chocolatey, strawberry. 

N: So you've made ones that have flavor?

M:Yes, I actually developed one of my own for the market. We've got the recipe to make a strawberry cookie. 

N: Oh, a strawberry sugar cookie?

M: No. A strawberry packed cookie. There were freeze-dried strawberries actually inside the cookies. It's best to make sure you like it.

N: Since you've been going to the market have you changed some of your ingredient blends due to customer feedback?

M: Yes.

N: How has that happened? 

M: One of my customers said I should make a Keylime cookie. One day I started to make one.  We found a recipe. We really liked it. 

J: She (the customer) felt so excitet that at her suggestion, Maddie came out with a Keylime cookie. Maddie's got relationships with a lot of her customers.

N: It's so fun to see her with her friends that come (to the market). It's great that when your friends come, you can go visiting and doing because you always have your father or your mother there to cover.

What is it that you particularly like about the Murray Hill Farmers Market?

M: I like that there's a lot of small businesses. I like that some of them are related to food, like me, baking. Some of them are related to dog treats. Some of them are microgreens for people who are vegetarian or just like veggies. I like that there's a little mix. Some of them are mushrooms or seasonings. That's what I really like.

N: Did you have a name for the Murray Hill Farmers Market.  You had some kind of family name.  What was it?

M: No.

N: You did a long time ago. 

J: Yeah, when we first started. She said they're kind of like family.

N: Yeah, you called them your vendor friends, remember? 

M: Yeah.

N: Obviously you're growing and you're changing and your recipes change. Do you try to add a new cookie every week?

M: We really try every week to make a new cookie. Some of them are my seasonal ones, like the strawberry cookie. We don't do (the strawberry cookie) as much anymore. 

J: A lot of times we'll have some cookie dough leftover that is still frozen. We usually use it for another one or two markets.

N: Okay.

J: We have one cookie that we just do not push away. It is a special themed cookie.

M: It's my Harry Potter cookie. We just love that people love it so much. We had to bring it back a lot of times.

A few times I've done a Harry Potter themed market.

N: Nice! So you decorate your booth and table with a little bit of Harry Potter stuff.

M: I love Harry Potter and I have a lot of Harry Potter things. Like the first book that I had or like my sorting hat. That's what I bring.

N: Okay. You do like to dress up too. You look great in your outfits. Your friends too.

Is there any question that I'm forgetting to ask you? Something about your business or the market? Do you have any new recipes that you're thinking about? Can you drop a little teaser for us here?

M: My dad brought up that we should make a peppermint cookie for Christmas time.

I'm thinking about doing a chocolate based cookie with cocoa, not chocolate chips. Then put some peppermint bark inside of it and crushed candy cane. 

N: Oh, that does sound good! 

M:  Also a gingerbread cookie for my little brother. Next year. I had an advent book. In there were these chocolate gingerbread bars. We might make those. 

J: Don't come for just the cookies. Because we make really good cakes and cupcakes.

N: is this is a cake that's a size for one person cake or like a cake sized for family?

M: People can come up and say can I have three pieces of cake and we'll give them the three boxes. But usually it's a cake slice. Three inches wide. 

We do cupcakes. We do cake pops. We've been doing the last two markets our pumpkin sourdough muffins.

N: Those must have gone fast! 

M: Well, they did actually.

J: People love Maddie's creations. You can order from us.  Very frequently they do through Instagram. 

M: I’d love to tell everybody what my Instagram page is. 

N: Oh, please do!

M: Whisk and Whirl Jax!

N: Whisk and Whirl Jax is your Instagram page and through that Instagram page you can order.

M: Or text us. A lot of people order for birthday parties, Easter and other events.

I think we had nine carrot cakes we had to make one time because people loved them so much. So we started slicing up cake and people just come back. People ask, “Are you guys gonna have it this week?” 

“No, but come order from us, though.”

J: We do deliveries all over Jacksonville. 

N: Oh, you're doing deliveries?

J: After we’re done our schoolwork for the day, she gets to jump into the car and we listen to a book on tape. We deliver cakes and it brings us joy.

M:  We did a smash cake for a one-year-old one. We've done a few smash cakes; one was a dinosaur, one was an otter, and one was a golf ball.

J: You can see all of these on Maddie's Instagram because we try to post our specials there. 

N: So that is a really good way for them to get a sense of what they can order and select from you?

J: “Hey, I loved your cookie. Can I order a dozen?” Absolutely.

M: I'd like to share that if you'd like to order, we do a lot of crazy cakes. Once I did a tie-dye cake, once we did a little mermaid cake, once we did a spider-man cake with a web on top. That was amazing.

N: Oh, that must have been beautiful. So good that I can see pictures of these on your Instagram account. 

I want to thank both of you for this interview.

My best wishes for endeavors in the future. It is always wonderful to see your family and you at the market, being part of it. So thanks for the interview.

J: Thank you for having us. 

M: Thank you for having us.

J: We'll be back. We're not going anywhere. 

|| End of interview ||