Growing Life

A H o l i d a y e d i t i o n

W i n t e r

2 012

I n t h i s I s s u e

·Decorating tips and ideas

·Recipes for the holidays

·Meet our Director of Transportation

W W W . S T A C Y S G R E E N H O U S E S . C O M

Tis the Season! The holidays are upon us and many of you may have already started decorating. Whether you have a Christmas tree or menorah you probably do some level of decorating. This month Stacy’s presents ideas and tips for decorating your home. Holidays are a time of food, too, so we hope you enjoy our new recipes. The Stacy’s Team wishes you all a warm, safe, hap-py holiday!

Growing Life

Page 3

Y o u r R e s o u r c e

Decorating for the Holidays 4 Tips and how-tos for decorating this season. Meet our Director of Transportation 6 Vicki Fletcher explains how products ships. Recipes for the Holidays 8 Desserts and more!

T a b l e o f C o n t e n t s

Page 4

The holidays are an exciting time of year. Between decorating and getting into the spirit of things everyone is bound to find joy in the days to come. Owls are popular with jewelry pieces and art and now decorations for the tree! The owls pictured (right) clip onto a branch for decoration.

Decorate with Us

Page 5

Page 6

Vicki Fletcher

“Double check the double check.”

Vicki Fletcher has many responsibilities as Stacy’s Director of Transportation. It is her job to hire drivers, get the trucks and trailers, create a driver manual that follows all rules and regulations, make sure trucks leave and arrive on time, route the drivers, take care of all paperwork, and much more. A typical day for Vicki is hectic, but she finds her work very rewarding. “One of the best parts of my job is the problem solving, starting with the orders and get-ting them to the site. It’s always a chal-lenge,” said Vicki. She likes to solve the problems and see things work out correct-ly.

During the peak of the season Vicki works up to 17 hours a day making sure all the orders are organized, on time and ready to go. She is always on call, too. Stacy’s is a team and Vicki sees herself as dedicated to the team and its members, “I support our people because they’re our success, not me. They are an amazing group of people; they follow through and take pride in what they do. All I have to do is show them and they can do it them-selves.”

Communication is vital in the shipping and transportation department. Vicki constantly talks with other managers and always looks ahead to what she and her team can do next. Her goal is get the best routes without jeopardizing the customer’s standards. “There is some troubleshooting involved. The customer’s needs constantly change so I have to adjust to make it work,” said Vicki.

Before coming to Stacy’s Vicki worked as a processing manager at a Kmart in San-ford, NC. She had worked with Tim Brindley, the president of Stacy’s Green-houses, there. One day she received a call from Mr. Brindley with an offer for a posi-tion in the transportation department. Vicki’s initial reaction was, “One green-house, can they afford to hire me?” Mr. Brindley told her to come for a visit and see for herself. When driving down Quar-ry Road Vicki thought, “Oh my gosh, this is huge!” With that Vicki knew if she took the job this would be something for life. She enjoyed working with Tim from their previous employment together. He had the same values as Vicki, “He is a team player. It’s about how do we all look good,

Page 7

not just the individual. If one fails, we all fail.” So, Vicki said yes and made the move. When Vicki first began a big week involved shipping 26 trucks a week, now it involves 300-400 trucks a week.

Thirteen years later Mr. Brindley is happy that Vicki chose Stacy’s, “Vicki is an integral part of our operation. She is the last line of defense, the person that makes it happen. Running the shipping and transportation department is the single most challenging and difficult job in our company for the 16

peak weeks of spring. Vicki is also highly dedicated to the company, which makes her

extremely valuable. She constantly is thinking about what's best for both the company

and for the customer, so with Vicki, everyone wins.”

B a k e Wi t h Us

Page 8

Try one of these cute treats for your holiday party, or just for fun with the kids!

Snowmen Rice Krispies Treats 6 cups Kellogg's Rice Krispies cereal 1 package (10 oz., about 40) regular marshmallows 3 tablespoons butter or margarine White chocolate (for melting) Candy for hat, eyes and buttons Tootsie Rolls and chocolate icing were used in the photo 1. In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until com-pletely melted. Remove from heat. 2. Add cereal. Stir until well coated. 3. Using buttered spatula or wax paper evenly press mixture into a pan coated with cooking spray. 4. While the treats cool cut the Tootsie Rolls in half. Flatten one half so it is a flat circle. Place the sticky end of the other half in the center. Before the treats are completely cooled (but cool enough to touch) mold the treats into round balls. Remember to make varying sizes. 5. Melt white chocolate in the microwave. When completely melted, use to hold the two round shapes together. Also use the melted chocolate to keep the Tootsie Roll hat on. Then use chocolate icing, black gel or chocolate chips as eyes and buttons. 6. Let set in fridge for an hour and serve!

Page 9

Rudolph Cupcakes Chocolate cupcake mix Chocolate frosting Pretzels (large break easier) Vanilla wafers M&Ms Mini marshmallows Small candy for the eyes (can use left- over frosting) 1. Prepare cupcakes as directed. Let cool and apply chocolate icing. 2. Place the vanilla wafer on the edge of the cupcake but not off of the cupcake.

3. Use a small amount of frosting to secure an M&M to the wafer. Cut the mini marsh-mallow in half. If using a candy for the pupils place the sticky side up. If using a gel or icing you can place the marshmallow any way. Finally, break a pretzel to look like antlers and attach at the top of the reindeer’s face. You can also have all the reindeer by using brown M&Ms for the others and one red for Rudolph’s nose.

Peppermint Marshmallows Marshmallows Mini candy canes Simply put the candy cane in the middle of a marshmallow and serve. You can also dip the marsh-mallow in melted chocolate.