If you’ve been to the Market and caught the enticing aroma of caramel popcorn and roasted nuts, you've gotten a sense of what the Groomsville Popcorn hut has to offer. Jacob and Amanda Baird, the owners, have been vendors at the Carmel Christkindlmarkt since its inception in 2017. The tale of Groomsville Popcorn is both sweet and successful. Starting with just one booth and one employee at the Carmel Christkindlmarkt, the Bairds have grown to operate year-round with six booths and a team of more than 30 staff members. Their journey mirrors the success of the Carmel Christkindlmarkt, renowned as the best Christmas market in the U.S.
The Bairds know popcorn and German culture well. Every year, they try to travel to Munich for Oktoberfest to immerse themselves in the culture, explore food products, and bring back ideas for the Market season. They have also visited Christmas markets in Germany to gather inspiration. Their visits have included German candy manufacturers currently or potentially participating in Cologne's sweets and snacks expo. Additionally, the Bairds have attended other Christkindlmarkts to discover ways to enhance their booth and learn new concepts.
Jacob grew up on a 5th-generation corn and soybean farm. He loved the farm, and this passion evolved into his studies in agriculture at Purdue University, where he began to focus on methods for vertically integrating the farm and crops, such as seed corn, popcorn, and sweet corn. This focus opened up opportunities for him to compete at Purdue.
Jacob planted the first non-GMO popcorn seed in 2015 and never looked back. In 2017, Jacob learned about the Carmel Christkindlmarkt at the Carmel Farmers Market. He became a vendor at the newly established Christmas market that winter. That summer, Jacob determined it would be his last season at the farm and started his own business, Groomsville Popcorn, in Tipton County - just 45 minutes north of Carmel. Jacob married Amanda that September, and together, they began selling their popcorn at festivals and farmers' markets while preparing to participate in the Carmel Christkindlmarkt.
During the first season at the Market, they offered popcorn and Lebkuchen Herz'l (gingerbread cookie heart necklaces) imported from Germany. Jacob and Amanda managed their booth for the first year, receiving occasional assistance from family members. They frequently pulled all-nighters to prepare popcorn. They sold out of the traditional Lebkucken Herz'l in the first two weeks. The Bairds invested the cookie sale proceeds into purchasing a German nut roaster to sell roasted German nuts, a classic snack at German markets. With much effort, they implemented the new product, roasted nuts during the Market season, and it was a huge fan favorite right from the start.
For their second season, they expanded their business to two booths at the Carmel Christkindlmarkt, where they started selling chocolate-dipped fruit, marzipan, and German candy. By this point, Amanda had graduated with her Master's and was working at Purdue, so they decided to hire a family member to manage the second booth.
“The Carmel Christkindlmarkt has made a huge impact on our lives, and we are so grateful for the opportunity to participate. During that first year we knew that we had found a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and we were going to strive to make the most of that opportunity,” Jacob said. “Working the Market all day, then making additional products and getting more supplies all night, became our new normal for the holiday season. Every investment back into the businesses and the Market will always be worth it for us.”
Entering their third season at the Market in 2019, the Bairds expanded to offer another booth and serve a German entrée: the Flammkuchen, a pizza-like dish they fell in love with while visiting Germany. They reinvested their profits and purchased a large commercial brick oven necessary for cooking Flammkuchen properly. They also expanded their staffing to 10 people across the three booths.
With the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Groomsville Popcorn faced a setback. The Carmel Christkindlmarkt wouldn’t be able to operate that season. However, they made a comeback in 2021 by opening a fourth booth, allowing the German candy to have its own space. In their fourth season, they expanded to include another booth, bringing the total to four Market huts with 12 to 15 staff members.
Groomsville Popcorn has continued to see success at the Market. In 2022, the candy booth was expanded into a new walkthrough booth, and a hot chocolate booth was added. They operated a total of six booths in 2022 and hired 30 people, and both Amanda and Jacob were fully self-employed with Groomsville Popcorn.
“It has been eight years now, and each of those years, we’ve continued to see a large increase in sales, and each of those years, we’ve continued to reinvest into our business and back into the Market. Everywhere you look in Carmel, you can see the forward thinking that takes place to make Carmel a premier city to live, work and play. Next year’s Christkindlmarkt is something we begin planning for before the season has even ended. We strive every year to be the most authentic vendor who executes their concepts the best in the world,” said Jacob.
Jacob and Amanda's commitment to the Market's success, along with their emphasis on providing high-quality products and deepening their understanding of German culture, makes the Carmel Christkindlmarkt genuinely authentic. They strive to maintain the authenticity of their booths. Furthermore, their investments in the business and the Market extend to their community, fostering successful collaboration and a shared commitment to quality that benefits the entire region beyond the Market season.
Dedicated vendors like the Bairds offer delicious German products and sweets that leave guests thinking about them all year and looking forward to when the Market opens again so they can indulge once more.
