Dip into Summer !

Roll out those lazy, hazy days of summer, those days of pretzel, soda and . . . DIPS!

That’s right, dips! Summer certainly arrived in style over Memorial Day weekend at Big Bear Lake! Hundreds of visitors flocked to this mountain resort community for the holiday weekend, which marks the official launch of summer in Big Bear. They came from such desert hot spots as Las Vegas, Phoenix and Palm Springs, where temperatures are already in the 90-to-110-degree range, to enjoy our ideal 65-to-70-degree weather in Big Bear.

A big event in Big Bear every summer holiday weekend is the Peddler’s Market at the Elk’s Lodge. We were there with our Big Bear Country Store blue-and-white striped tent, peddling our Watkins wares to everyone who strolled by, enjoying the ideal weather and soft breezes off the lake. The tent is well known to locals who come by to see us every Tuesday morning at the weekly Big Bear Farmer’s Market. Visitors may not recognize the tent, but many of them are attracted to our Watkins banner, having grown up with the label in their parent’s kitchen cupboards or medicine cabinet.

The biggest hit as temperatures rise and everyone is thinking pool and patio parties are the wide variety of Watkins dips we invite everyone to taste when they stop at our booth. By far the most popular is the Blazin’ Cajun. It seems regular customers can’t get enough of the New Orleans taste that certainly lives up to its name.

Yet in vast contrast to this spicy concoction is the Mandarin Orange dip that has a way of cooling down the taste buds. Perfect for summer, many first-time tasters say it reminds them of the 50-50 bars they enjoyed as kids – part vanilla ice cream and part orange sherbet. While most of the dips we recommend be mixed with sour cream, Mandarin Orange tastes great with plain non-fat yogurt and is perfect for fruit salads. Imagine a bowl of orange slices, strawberries and blueberries blended together in the rich, cool Watkins dip mix! Yummy!

About that mixture. After following the label and adding three tablespoons of the Watkins dip powder to an eight-ounce cup of sour cream or yogurt, most customers (ourselves included) found it to be much too strong. Now, all samples are mixed with just one heaping tablespoon of the dip powder; the consensus is that we have found the perfect balance. You will get eight-to-ten one-cup servings of the dip out of every jar, depending on the coarseness of the dip granules. That works out to about a dollar a serving, which is much more economical than those individual packets you find in the store.

So feel free to provide a variety of these delicious dips to your family and friends the next time you invite them over for a dip in the pool or a tasty outdoor summer barbeque. One more thought. Many of the dips, such as the Garlic and Dill, make great rubs for grilled meats and fish!

We welcome you to visit http://www.bigbearcountrystore.com/ to order one or more of the 13 delicious dip varieties. You also will be able to view the entire Watkins catalog, as well the specials being offered this month.

If you are in the area, we hope you can stop by the Big Bear Farmer’s Market on Tuesday between 8:30 am and 1 pm where we have at least four of these dips to sample, plus other products to sample as well. To get there, just follow this MapQuest link that will take you to the corner of Big Bear Boulevard and Division Drive in Big Bear Lake.

In addition to meeting one or both of the Big Bear Country Store managers, you can meet Peggy Sue, the store’s lovable pooch. (She’s much cuter than us!) She also gets very jealous if we give any attention to other four-legged creatures. So before she pouts about featuring another dog on this blog, here’s her picture.

Make Every Day Mother’s Day

She loved the card, and the flowers or the great meal out or the wonderful dinner the whole family prepared for her. But what about the rest of the year?

Yes, it was a great day for mothers yesterday, as millions of families from coast-to-coast honored the queen of their households on her special day. Mom must have been gratified that her contributions were being recognized for one day, yet next week the flowers will have wilted, the fine dinner but a pleasant memory.

Last year, when we first became involved with Watkins, we also found the perfect opportunity to honor our mom all year long. Watkins was a familiar name to mom long before we became managers in this 142-year-old company. Mom was approaching 50 when J.R. Watkins first began to take his newly developed pain liniment door-to-door. To save you the trouble of calculating that in your head, mom is a spry 93 who still drives her own car, buys her own groceries and has become our most vocal advocate of Watkins to all her neighbors and friends in Big Bear, California. For the person who possesses P.O. Box 3 in our town, you can imagine how many friends value her opinion and sage advice. She has the biggest collection of early Watkins spice bottles and tins we have ever seen.

Back to Mother’s Day 2009. Knowing that she had been using Watkins products for more than 75 years, we decided to make her an honorary member of our Big Bear Country Store Wholesale Shopper’s Club. We gave her a $20 Watkins gift certificate (which covers half the annual Watkins Associate/Wholesale Shopping Club membership), and informed her she would receive 25% off all products she wanted to reorder throughout the year.

While mom keeps up on many of today’s new technical advancements, she relies on us to place those reorders for her and her friends. Her favorite Watkins product is the Ultra-rich Hand Cream, which she claims. “I practically bath in it.” Not only does it keep her skin free from dryness and itching (a common issue for those of us who live at 7,000 feet above sea level, no matter one’s age), she continues to get compliments about her appearance. “I’ve lost count of the number of people who tell me I don’t look a day over 75!” she says.

http://www.watkinsonline.com/productdetail.cfm%20Product=10484&gCatalogLocale=USA&ECredit=383372

We have to agree, adding that she is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside! For more information on how you can honor that special lady in your life all year long with a Watkins Wholesale Shopping Club membership, go to the online Big Bear Country Store: http://www.bigbearcountrystore.com/ or call us at 800-881-7372 and we can walk you through the simple process.

Give your Planet an Earth Day Present

Imagine the reduction in toxins if you stopped using harmful chemicals for spring cleaning and switched to Watkins all-natural home care products.

Happy Earth Day 2010! What have you done today to show your home planet you really care? Did you turn off the bathroom faucet when you were brushing your teeth and shaving this morning, rather than wasting all that water? Did you ask for paper rather than plastic when you checked out of your local supermarket? Did you divide your trash for recycling?

That’s all well and good. But this year, how about making a concentrated effort to help save the planet for your children and grandchildren? Now is a perfect time to start right in your own home. Spring has finally arrived in most parts of the country. You are probably about to begin that annual spring cleaning ritual to get your home ready for the new season. When you haul your cleaning supplies out from under your kitchen and bathroom sinks, take a moment to read the labels on the containers. We did just that about a year ago when we wanted to find out what was so powerful in those products that made our whites whiter and bathtubs brighter.

We were shocked! No wonder we had to use rubber gloves to avoid first-degree burns, and would start choking if we forgot to throw open all the windows before using some of these harmful chemicals. That’s why we Big Bear Country Store managers were thrilled when we first learned about the Watkins all-natural home care product line. Our store now prides itself on offering these great products at the Big Bear Farmer’s Market every Tuesday from 8:30 am to 1pm. But if you don’t live within driving distance of Big Bear, you can order these outstanding cleaning products through the following link:

http://www.bigbearcountrystore.com/

What’s so great about Watkins all-natural products? Many all-purpose cleaners contain toxins that can be inhaled. Ammonia-based cleaners can irritate the skin, eyes and respiratory system. Minimize your family’s exposure to these harmful toxins with Watkins. The company’s Natural All Purpose Cleaners feature plant-based formulas that are:

• Ammonia Free

• Animal Ingredient Free

• Benzene Free

• Biodegradable

• Bleach Free

• Boron Free

• Butyl/Ethyl Cellosolve Free

• Diethylene Ether Free

• Dye Free

• Formaldehyde Free

• Isopropanol Free

• Kerosene Free

• Mineral Spirit Free

• Never Tested On Animals

• Non-toxic

• Paraben Free

• Petrochemical Free

• Phosphate Free

• Phosphoric Acid Free

• Phthalate Free

• Propylene Glycol Free

• Sodium Lauryl Sulfate Free

• Sulfuric Acid Free

By going to the Big Bear Country Store website, you can view the growing number of Watkins products that have been endorsed by the Natural Products Association. You will also find a number of helpful tips that will make your spring cleaning a lot easier this year. Here are just a few of them:

• Spray a small amount of J.R. Watkins Natural All Purpose Cleaner on a soft cloth and gently rub cloth over switch plates to remove smudges and fingerprints.

• Never dust using a dry towel, this method will only relocate dirt into the air or onto the floor. For optimal dusting, lightly dampen a micro fiber cloth or paper towel with J.R. Watkins Natural All Purpose Cleaner.

• To naturally clean your microwave place a bowl of water with a few drops of lemon juice in the microwave and run on high for one minute. Next spray J.R. Watkins Natural All Purpose Cleaner on the surface and wipe away crusted food and grease.

• To clean ceiling fans, use a long-handled brush dampened with J.R. Watkins Natural All Purpose Cleaner.

Welcome to the Launch of the Big Bear Country Store Blog

Finally, an up-to-date place for old-fashioned advice for a better way of life

Howdy, folks! It’s time the Big Bear Country Store jump on this blog bandwagon.

Many of you may be familiar with the name Watkins, since this all-American company has been around since 1868. Yet our Big Bear Country Store has grown over the past year primarily through the Big Bear Lake Farmer’s Market, where we sell Watkins wares from April through October each year. When the Big Bear Farmer’s Market closes with the arrival of fall – and snow -- on the mountain, we pack up our spices, food products, body care items, apothecary line and all-natural cleaning products in the back of the Watkins wagon and roll down to Victorville, known as the Southern California high desert area for all you unfamiliar with this here part of the country, where another Farmer’s Market goes on all year long.

But we digress, as usual. Those young kids on skateboards who know more about this new technology stuff tell us that blogs are to impart helpful information that will benefit your readers. That’s what we intend to do here. While we love to chat with those passing by the porch of the country store, many of our friends and neighbors have told us, “You guys have been around so long and give out such sage advice with your Watkins products, you should spread your wisdom across the country!”

Yes, we Big Bear Country Store managers Alan and David have learned quite a bit about life, now that both of us are well into our 50s and 60s. Mercy, don’t get the idea we are a couple of old coots shuffling around the back shelves trying to remember where we stored a certain product. After all, we already have a Web site. How many other country stores do you know that are so advanced?

We actually feel that our country store is like Watkins in many ways – built on the strong foundation of our years of experience, yet constantly evolving to provide the best in all-natural, quality products. Did you know that Watkins was the first American company that offered a money-back guarantee on everything it sells, and was producing “green” products long before the term was ever created? This blog will provide further information about the “new-and-improved” Big Bear Country Store products, recipes, cleaning tips, how to look better, feel better and live life to the fullest. What more could you ask for in a blog? Free products? Oh, we will be doing that, too!

In the meantime, we welcome you to visit www.bigbearcountrystore.com/ to learn more about us, see the entire Watkins catalog, and even place an order online.