Diving In Episode 20: From Christmas Side Hustle to Tin Acre Gourmet Popcorn with Abby Balster
Episode notes
What started as a little extra Christmas money turned into a whole lot of popcorn.
On Episode 20 of Diving In, Lee Keaser sits down with Abby Balster, owner of Tin Acre Gourmet Popcorn, to hear how a holiday side hustle that began in her home in 2018 grew into a full-time business, a storefront in Botkins, fundraising programs, retail partnerships and dozens of popcorn flavors.
Abby takes us behind the scenes of the business — from filling the family’s “good living room” with popcorn supplies and making caramel by hand, to navigating the leap into full-time entrepreneurship after COVID changed her career plans. She explains how Tin Acre develops new flavors, why its Buckeye popcorn outsells everything else by a huge margin, and why running a popcorn company involves a lot more science, spreadsheets and production planning than you might expect.
We also meet “Rosie” the hot-air popcorn machine, hear about the experimental hops-flavored popcorn that absolutely did NOT make the menu, discover Abby’s most underrated flavor, and find out just how far a bag of Tin Acre popcorn has traveled.
It’s a conversation about popcorn, small business, taking chances, family support and what can happen when a simple idea grows far beyond the original plan.