Lake Dallas Farmer’s Market & Budding Entrepreneurs
The Trade Days/Farmer’s Market, held Saturdays from April-September in Lake Dallas, is one of the closest and dearest projects in founder Kristy Bleau’s heart.
The Market originally started in the parking lot of the Lake Dallas City Hall. Kristy, however, wanted more of a country atmosphere, so she secured a large grass-covered, tree-shaded field behind the First Baptist Church. For Kristy, one of the most exciting aspects of the Market is the young vendors who come to engage in their first business endeavors, such as Charles Parlett with his display table loaded with jars of his wonderful natural peanut butter in assorted flavors.
Charles’ backstory is the sort of thing that led Bill Gates to his garage and the birth of Apple!
Now 13, Charles was in third grade when COVID hit and began changing many things as we knew them. Some of them changed forever.
Before the school closings began, Charles’ teacher gave the young students an assignment to start their own business. Everyone was buzzing about their plans when the school doors were suddenly closed and locked. The project was, of course, dropped. The exception was Charles, who continued to move forward – classroom or no classroom.
Charles and his mom Melody both consider peanut butter as a nutritional staff of life. In other words, they adore it spread on bread, on crackers, on fruit, or on a spoon dipped straight into the jar. Feeling confident other people share their passion, Charles decided delicious, fresh, made-from-scratch peanut butter produced in a list of classic, as well as newly-created, flavors was his business project.
Being in the kitchen wasn’t an entirely foreign experience for Charles. “He’s always enjoyed being a part of what goes on in the kitchen,” Melody said. “Now that he’s older, he takes responsibility for preparing one family dinner each week. He does quite a lot of Asian cooking, including homemade dumplings.”
Now, don’t sell Charles short. He didn’t just jump up and begin making peanut butter.
“There was a good deal of experimenting at first,” he said. “Not only did I need to develop and perfect a basic PB recipe, but I also needed to figure out how to produce different flavors and then how to get those flavors into the basic recipe without destroying the consistency. At this point, everything is recorded to the last gram.
“All the attention to detail also makes it easier to develop new flavors. That’s especially helpful since I’m working on a Flavor-of-the-Month program. My main sweetener is honey, and the amount used in each flavor is precise. As far as the nuts are concerned, I use fresh peanuts, pistachios, and cashews.
“Flavors have included butterscotch, cinnamon chia spice, chocolate, cinnamon pecan pie, classic honey, marshmallow swirl, roasted pistachio, and vanilla sky cashew. I’m always thinking about something new. I also have a sugar-free variety, and I learned to make jam last year, so things are expanding.”
Charles’ primary point-of-sales is through the Farmer’s Market, although people may also order through NobleNutButters.com. He has established repeat customers and welcomes new faces almost every Saturday. Last year, his second year in face-the-public sales, he sold more than $4,000 in products.
In his mind, Charles has an ever-changing future. Both parents are in IT professions, which is definitely an influence. Right now, though, he’s engaged in developing skill sets. He’s learning technical skills through his website and order-handling. He’s strengthening people/social skills through his customers. He’s learning the importance of media skills. His creative, hands-on skills come through the kitchen and, since the first grade, he’s relied on the Boy Scouts for life skills.
Give him a few years and then begin looking for Charles’ name in Forbes.
You’ll need to wait until 2025 to catch Charles at the Farmer’s Market, but check out his website at NobleNutButters.com
