Photos From Zamykal Gourmet KolachesCalvert, Texas
Set your tv this weekend to watch "Texas Country Reporter". You will have a treat as you get to watch Jody Powers and her shop, Zamykal Gourmet Kolaches in Calvert, Texas. Look at your tv guide or the Texas Country Reporter website for your station and time. For us, it comes on both Saturday and Sunday.
The Main Street business was named for Powers' grandmother, who also passed down her recipe for the delicious traditional kolache.
Powers is a lively lady with many interests, including history and designing and making Victorian clothing. You might find her out on Main Street, waving to cars passing through on Highway 6, urging them to stop and try her wares. Or she might be waiting on new customers and giving them the background of her shop and merchandise, with her very best accent. She might be dressed as a Victorian lady tutoring people on the correct use of a fan or even giving a dance lesson. Her day starts very early in order to have fresh kolaches ready for customers each morning.
If you are in Calvert, stop by and see Jody and enjoy a kolache at one of the tables in the shop or out on the sidewalk.
In the photos above you can see Jody, with her "girls", dressed in some of the Victorian dresses that she designed and made. In photo number 2, Jody dances on Main Street, hoping to attract customers to stop and have a kolache or two. Photo number 3, shows Jody waiting on a customer, while giving her spiel about kolaches and her shop. Photo number 4 shows a lady with an apron, resting at one of the sidewalk tables in front of Zamykal Gourmet Kolaches. The fifth photograph shows an assortment of Zamykal kolaches. These are just a few of the sweet treats that you will find inside the kolache shop in Calvert. Look at her website for a complete list, with a picture of each.
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Speaking of Calvert and "Texas Country Reporter", Virginia Vaughan will be in Calvert over the weekend to paint and conduct a plein aire painting workshop. Sunrise to moon rise on Saturday Februay 21, and into Sunday February 22.
Vaughan was on "Texas Country Reporter" last spring as she returned to the old famiy farm to paint for one more day. She has become known for her series of 365 paintings of her family farm, wich she calls "Last Year On The Farm". The series and her field notes were included in her book called "Last Year On The Farm: A Time of Change". The collection of paintings have toured in various places around the country.
And, recently, as I have mentioned previously on this blog, Vaughan has been honored for being a Finalist for the upcoming 2009-2010 Texas State Artist.
Come paint with us, if you are in the area!
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Thanks to Esther and Flossie for sharing their memories about Conitz Dry Goods Store. And for the comments from several other readers. It's good to know that others are reading my blog and enjoying my pictures.
Also, I would like to remind everyone that, if you want to look at my information about vision loss and Macular Degeneration, look in the previous posts at titles that are prefaced with the word "Vision". You can find links to sites that have all sorts of information by looking under EYE SITES in my sidebar.
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5 comments:
I am soooo driving back up to Calvert to eat more of her beautiful and tasty kolaches. Thank you for sharing Calvert with us out-of-towners.
We drove 1 1/2 hours to go to this bakery after watching it on Texas Country Reporter. We arrived at 9:15 and they were virtually out of everything!! They only had about 10 left! At 9:15! That is totally unacceptable for a bakery. I was expecting to get a selection, but got no selection. The lady did her little dance for us, but it didn't help that we had come so far for nothing. There were a lot of kolaches on their back kitchen table, but I believe those were for people who had ordered in advance. I had no idea that you had to do that to get any. Never again will I go to this bakery, and I recommend that you don't either unless you can get there at 6:00 a.m. By the way, the scraggly kolaches we did get tasted great, but they weren't anything special.
I'm sorry that you had a bad experience, Joyce. I think that was unusual, since she didn't know that she was going to have such a response after the program aired. I think that she does sometimes sell out but not that early.
I've heard people call her on the phone and ask about hours. She tells them a time, and adds, "or until I sell out, whichever comes first". And she has told them how many she has left at that time, so they can decide whether or not to make that drive.
People do call in orders ahead of time, and order online.
We spent a couple of hours there on Sunday morning after the program aired. We were there from about 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and she still had kolaches, but was running low on some things.
I chose to have a strawberry kolache and could only eat about half of one. I took the rest home for later. I don't know how people eat a whole kolache! I also bought some "pig in a blankets", the sweet bacon, and sausage and cheese, and some chocolate kolaches for lunch and for the grandsons. She had lots of the things in the refrigerated case.
We think they are good, and have kolaches with each trip to Calvert. And like to give them out at workshops, etc.
The Zamykal kolaches are a bit different from the way that I learned to make them from a family in Gonzales, Texas. But they just used biscuit mix, or canned biscuits, and then the filling. They would have been better with a yeast dough, I always thought. The Calvert kolaches are like a wedding sweet, while what I was shown was just a fast snack that came out more like a pecan, berry, or coconut pie, or biscuits with a filling.
I think it is amazing that Jody does all that work by herself, and everything she does is made with love and dedication. Of course, this was her grandmother's recipe.
My favorites are strawberry and key lime while my aunt loves chocolate and peanut butter, and my family loves plain chocolate.
I really like the sweet bacon and sausage and cheese versions. I'm not big on anything sweet in the morning.
We have been there in the afternoons and bought kolaches with no problems. Since the program aired, it might be a good idea to call ahead. If she knows ahead of time, I'm sure that she will make up special orders. When we were there, she was baking quiche for people to pick up after church.
There are other places for food in Calvert, too. CocoaModa and its chocolate factory, with french cuisine, has opened, as has a soda fountain and sandwich shop. And also there is Loretta's Cafe (I haven't been to those, yet) and the Wooden Spoon where we usually eat. There are other places, but that is about all that we have time for when we visit.
We look forward to stopping in for kolaches every time we are in Calvert.
I'm glad that you had a good visit, pleintexasgirl! It was great meeting you!
We'll have to do this again! We're talking about doing another workshop in October.
Enjoyed looking at your blog, too. Your painting looked really nice! I'm going to have to look at some roosters and see what they really look like! LOL
Gee, Joyce. That is too bad that you missed out on the kolackes that day, but it is best to call ahead as it is a one woman, although she is almost superwoman to do what she does, business. I have watched the shop grow over the three years into quite a wonderful place. My favorite is the blueberry cream cheese. But I know I have to get there early, and If I want a bunch I order the day before.
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