JOY biscuits fall seasonal

ok folks here it is, the JOY biscuit for the fall: pumpkin and cranberry! these ones are tasty too! we basically used a very similar recipe to the sweet potato & chamomile and substituted the sweet potato for pumpkin. add some dried cranberries and voila! however, i couldn't find dried cranberries without sugar and oils so we dried our own! this is a very arduous process, say 7+ hours...BUT it's worth it, and i think your 4-legged friend will agree. get some while they last!

JOY biscuits joins the facebook fan page network

well, i finally did it. i launched a facebook fan page for JOY biscuits in late september! it took me a while, but after getting through the contemplative phase, creating a fan page just made sense. it was actually pretty easy to set up! you could say i'm a bit old school (i still carry around a hard copy calendar and write paper letters), but the point is: there is yet another way to connect with JOY biscuits! (sorry fellow tweeters, but i don't see JOY biscuits entering the twitter world for a while...)

so if i had to distinguish the levels of PR between the JOY biscuits blog and the JOY biscuits facebook fan page, i would classify the blog as a more reflective "behind behind the scene" piece. whereas the facebook fan page enables a more day-to-day "behind the scene" JOY biscuits network. i know, i know, these are the functional definitions of blog and fan page, which may seem obvious to some, but to my mind, I needed a way to justify having both. now you see how this is the "behind behind the scene" special ingredient!?!

oh and please feel free to check up on BOTH the blog and the fan page, as i promise you there will always be useful and interesting news to read! if you're not a fan yet, please feel welcome to become one and refer a friend who you know appreciates their dogs as much as you do!

the perfect eco-friendly package

ok, this is definitely post worthy...since the beginning i had this vision of what JOY biscuits packaging would be like and in august it came true! i wanted a container that was craft brown and earth-friendly with a see through lid. the picture was very vivid in my mind, but finding the container was a challenge. finally after crossing paths with a friend of a friend, i discovered a local company that distributes bagasse containers!
bagasse is a sugarcane fiber that is biodegradable and compostable. these containers will break down in 1-3 months in a large scale compost program, and 2-4 months in a home compost bin depending on the temperature. the lids are made out of corn starch and other earth-friendly starches, and are also compostable! we feel these containers depict exactly what JOY biscuits is all about. we are sooo excited to start offering JOY biscuits in this packaging and think that you will like them too!

JOY biscuits helps fund raise for GSGA!

i have some VERY exciting news! JOY biscuits will be at the annual golden state greyhound adoption (GSGA) picnic in early october. we will be selling our tasty treats to help fund raise for this wonderful organization. if you would like to meet a greyhound and learn more about this amazing breed, go to a meet and greet! meet and greets occur all over the bay area and provide the opportunity to ask questions and meet a greyhound (we went to a few before adopting champ!). visit: http://www.goldengreyhounds.com/events/index.htm for more details.

the evolution of JOY biscuits recipes

people frequently ask me where i get my recipes from.
the answer is, i create them!

after months of researching recipes online and baking...and making modifications from batch to batch...the outcome of JOY biscuits recipes have been positively met with enthusiasm and happy dogs! when i initially started baking dog biscuits (before the creation of JOY biscuits) i used wheat flour. then after reading about how wheat is ubiquitous in dog food recipes and that many dogs develop allergies to wheat, i discontinued including wheat flour in my recipes. i found that using alternative flours (like brown rice flour, and rye and barley flours) were more easy on the digestive system and just as nutrient-rich, if not more, as wheat. i should also mention that greyhounds who are newly retired from the track have notably sensitive stomachs and i wanted to create a treat that even the "fresh off the track greyhounds" could enjoy without any GI distress.

if your furry friend was part of the JOY biscuits R&D pack in the early stages, you know that the first round of healthy skin and coat biscuits (peanut butter & flax round A, batches 1-3 and round B, batch 1) did not have sunflower seed meal. after stumbling upon some interesting articles and talking with my vet friend, i learned that omega-6 fatty acids, more specifically linoleic acid (LA) is the fatty acid that aids in a healthy skin and coat. LA optimizes water permeability in the skin, thus being a great treatment for dry, dull, and brittle skin and coats. in fact, there are no scientific studies showing that dogs actually transform omega-3s into linoleic acid (like humans do) to benefit from the anti-inflammatory benefits. therefore JOY biscuits added sunflower seed meal to the healthy skin and coat biscuit line.

sunflower seeds are high in omega-6 acids (more so than flax seed), and are an excellent source of fiber, vitamins, and minerals which are cancer-fighting and promote heart health.

i hope this sheds some light on the evolution of JOY biscuits recipes and thanks for reading!

JOY biscuits at 14,505 feet!

i get a kick out of this - i give the dog's pack leader biscuits and they end up eating them...on top of mt whitney! HA!

ok, so remember how i said my friends really like the sunflower, PB, & flax biscuits? well our friends dave and daniella hiked up mt whitney a few weeks ago and dave suprised daniella with some biscuits i gave him (for willow, daniella's boxer). daniella wrote in her email, "Dave surprised me with these at the summit. AMAZING. I am serious - I want to start buying these for myself (sorry, Willow!)...how?"

the answer to how to buy is either through me, or through that takes the cake on union street in SF, or at the holistic hound in berkeley. more details to follow! btw, that packaging differs from our store packaging. like i said, more details to follow!

elan, how do YOU like dem biscuits?!?

yes, that's right. JOY biscuits are taste tested by dogs and humans! in fact, my dear friend's nephew loved them (the sunflower, PB, & flax ones), and he's a very picky eater! he already had one in his mouth and reached for another one right out of the bag before swallowing! the sunflower, PB, & flax flavor seems to be a favorite of many of my human friends. they taste kinda like trail mix and have a nice crunchy light texture. the JOY biscuits also made it on the cheese plate!

here's a good photo to put the size of the biscuits in perspective. we are however making a larger size biscuit available as of this month. these are a few of my close friends from undergrad also enjoying the JOY biscuit tasting. people keep telling me i should market to humans in addition to doggies. although JOY biscuits are made with fresh human grade ingredients, marketing to humans wasn't the initial idea. there are way more regulations to create and distribute a human food product, and well...let's just say that that may be a part of the future plan of JOY biscuits!