The Pedal Kettle: New Bike-Based Business Concept Pops Up in Portland

The Pedal Kettle is this summer’s latest tricycle vendor to join the ranks of Portland’s famous (dare we say, world famous) food carts. There’s a growing number of tricycle carts in Portland—think Icicle Tricycles—but this is the first to bring us the sweet and salty goodness of hot kettle corn.

The brainchild of Eric Van Gelder and Josh Gould, two industrious entrepreneurs who, like so many young Portland residents found it necessary to start a business in order to pay the bills, the Pedal Kettle is quickly becoming a fixture at street fairs. Its maiden voyage was a Last Thursday event in May and since then Van Gelder and Gould have attended five other fairs and are adding more to their calendar each month.

The Perfect Junk Food

For the uninitiated, kettle corn is an addictive snack that blends salt, sugar and fat with fluffy popped corn. Although Dutch settlers in Pennsylvania described it in their journals during the 1700s, it’s not clear where it originated. Some sources say that cowboys made it over their campfires using honey or molasses as a sweetener, while others credit German immigrants, Midwest farmers or the Amish for perfecting the blend.

It's become a popular seller at festivals and fairs in the past decade because of the satisfying blend of sugar and salt, but also because it's fairly low in calories and fat. 

Van Gelder says that he was smitten by kettle corn the first time he tried it at a farmers market in Davis where he was completing a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of California, Davis. It wasn’t enough to make him change his career path, but a dry employment spell in Portland forced his hand so he turned to the golden kernels for inspiration.

Mushroom popcorn, oil, sugar and salt are the ingredients for kettle corn.

“I saw tricycle vendors in Fresno where people sell ice cream and fried pig ears around the soccer fields,” says Van Gelder. That gave him the idea for the tricycle popper. “But I knew we had to make the cart look nice, since we were going to be in Portland.”

Enter Gould, a designer and fellow UC Davis graduate. While Van Gelder capitalized on his skills and education in engineering to devise the mechanical components, Gould, who has a degree in interior architecture specializing in furniture and lighting, applied his design and conceptual skills.

“Everything I learned in college, I’m applying to this,” says Gould. “I even took tractor welding in college. That’s how I know how to weld.”

Aside from sweat equity—Van Gelder and Gould did most of the fabrication—the initial investment in materials was a mere $2,000. The bike frame was found in a friend’s backyard. Gould converted it to accept a three-piece crank before welding it to a metal box frame to hold supplies and the corn-popping kettle, which is actually an industrial-size dough-mixing bowl. 

Van Gelder developed an ingenious electric mixing device from a windshield wiper motor geared down “nice and slow” to keep the arm moving. That’s what mixes the ingredients together and keeps the popcorn from becoming clumps of sugary burnt matter.

After painting the frame and tricycle fire engine red, they enclosed the box with stained wood panels, added signage and started popping.

A propane tank attached to the outside of the cart is used to heat the kettle to approximately 480 degrees—the perfect popping temperature. Gould and Van Gelder say they looked at using pedal power but the amount of energy required to pop a batch of corn is approximately 1500 watts. The average person puts out a mere 100 watts in that amount of time. “We don’t have 15 people to do this,” says Gould.

The Donald Trumps of Kettle Corn

The entrepreneurs say that their late spring start makes it impossible to get into the farmers markets and some other events—most of those require vendors to sign up by January. They predict that next year they’ll be booked through the summer.

“It’s profitable,” says Van Gelder. Indeed, small bags sell for $3, a medium bag for $5, and large bags vary in price depending on the event. The investment was minimal, there is no overhead, and ingredients are few and relatively inexpensive, albeit difficult to source. (They use organic sugar and mushroom popcorn, which is essential for proper kettle corn.) What’s more, they don’t have to do any advertising. “Fifty percent of our business is the smell,” says Van Gelder.

At Last Thursday, they sold over 200 bags of corn. Gould says people were lined up for hours. “A lot of people say it’s the best kettle corn they’ve ever had,” he adds. Both Gould and Van Gelder can manage the events but Gould’s fiancé, Michelle van Tijen, is also willing to pitch in when necessary. She’s even able to maneuver the cart, which handles like a plodding tractor.

It’s way too early to know if Gould and Van Gelder will be able to retire on the fortunes made by the Pedal Kettle and besides, neither intend to give up on their careers. In fact, Van Gelder recently landed a job in his profession. Gould is working as a nanny and doing a variety of other jobs until he can find something in his profession. Both agree they want to keep the Peddle Kettle going, even with full-time jobs.

“It’s fun. You make people happy,” says Van Gelder. “And they make us happy.”