ARGENTA — As Tracy Ferrill marketed the handmade baskets she was selling, she figured out a way to reach out to a segment of the population that normally doesn’t purchase baskets: men.
As the gift-buying season approached, she’d sponsor “Honey Holidays,” offering food and snacks and a chance to buy a gift for a significant other. The gift would be among choices “the other” had already indicated to Ferrill as favorites. Once purchased, the buyer could pick up the gift when it arrived, already wrapped and ready.
And along with the basket sales and marketing, the food was a hit. In fact, it was often suggested to Ferrill that she should open a restaurant. That, however, did not appeal to her.
And neither did opening a bakery appeal to her, though she has been decorating cakes and making cookies and candies since her grade school years.
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“I prefer to enjoy (baking) at my own leisure,” she said, flipping through a photograph album that chronicles many wedding cakes, including the one for her and her husband, Tom, when they married.
However, continuing to be urged to provide her homemade recipes, she decided to launch Basket Case Catering with a partner, Jill Zelhart. Zelhart is no longer her partner, Ferrill said, but a student in culinary school herself.
Ferrill thought she might as well combine her basket collection — “The last time I counted, there was over 1,000.” — with setting an atmosphere for catering events. Hot food is served in warmers or chafing dishes, she said, but the baskets are the containers for most everything else.
“(The food) is homemade, cooked and served in handmade baskets,” she said.
“There is no canned gravy served out of my kitchen. If it’s roast beef, I cook it. If it’s pork loin, I cook it. The bacon-wrapped smokies, we do all by hand,” she continued.
“We” includes Lana Hupp, along with members of her family: husband, Tom, and children, Tiffany Ferrill, Ross Ferrill and Taylor Ferrill.
While Ferrill may have 10 catering events every month, she also has a noon meal for the seniors of Argenta, Oreana and Cisco, served each Wednesday in the former Early Learning Center/old grade school Ferrill now owns. If there’s a Wednesday catering event with cordon bleu on the menu, the seniors get the same. If there’s no event, a meal such as baked spaghetti or roast beef with all of the side dishes is prepared for them.
“She offers (the Wednesday meal) for a very reasonable price,” said Gerald Like, who has been in Wednesday attendance three or four years. “Generally we give $3 a meal.
“I’m confident that she does not make ends meet on this particular meal. But that’s her contribution to the community.”
“It’s the camaraderie as well as the meal,” Like said. “And the meal is very, very good.”
“We’re thankful to be using this building, too, so it won’t be torn down,” said Dorothy Morsch, another participant.
“Our little town was just going down the drain,” said Elaine White, a Wednesday participant who is glad to see the catering service along with other things that have been added in Argenta. These Wednesday meals replaced ones that used to be delivered three times weekly to the community center, said White, though “Little by little (they) just fizzled out.”
The building also houses a community breakfast, another by donation event, sponsored by the Friends of Argenta the last Saturday of each month. “We’re trying to build closeness, keep the community alive,” Ferrill explained.
And it’s possible the building will be the site for the future Friends of Argenta Clothing Closet. Plans are in the process to accept donations and then open the closet to the community.
amannlein@herald-review.com|421-6976
