Herndon's Hollow

Herndon's Hollow Small batch herbs/seasonings, gluten free baking mixes and freeze dried candy.

07/23/2026

🔑 Thursday Tidbit

Keys feel like they should be unique.

You get one cut for your lock, you carry it around, and it works exactly the way it’s supposed to.

Turn it one way, the lock opens.
Turn it back, it closes.

It gives the impression that there’s something very specific—almost one-of-a-kind—about that pairing.

But most standard keys don’t work that way.

They’re built from a system of patterns.

Each notch along the edge of a key corresponds to a specific depth and position. Inside the lock, pins are set to match those exact heights. When everything lines up just right, the lock turns.

It feels precise… but it’s not unlimited.

There are only so many depths.
Only so many positions.
Only so many combinations those can be arranged into.

Which means there’s a limit to how many “unique” keys can exist within a given system.

In larger buildings, older locks, or mass-produced systems, overlap isn’t just possible—it’s expected.

Two keys cut for completely different locks can sometimes be close enough to partially work… or, in some cases, fully open the same door.

Modern locks have improved on this.

More pins.
Tighter tolerances.
More complex keyways.

But the basic idea hasn’t changed much.

It’s still a physical system of shapes aligning just enough to allow movement.

And when you step back and think about it, it’s a little strange.

Something that feels personal… specific… almost exclusive…

is really just one variation in a much larger, shared set.

đź’¬ Check the website for up-to-date ordering details.
đź›’ Order: hotplate.com/herndonshollow

✍ Blog: herndonshollow.blogspot.com

🛍 Culinary blends & popcorn toppers available at The Boise Refillery
(10530 W Fairview Ave, Boise)

07/16/2026

🧵 Thursday Tidbit

Velcro wasn’t invented in a lab.

It started with something most people would’ve brushed off and forgotten.

In the 1940s, a Swiss engineer named George de Mestral went out for a walk with his dog.

When he came back, both of them were covered in burrs.

The kind that cling to fabric, get tangled in fur, and take a little effort to pull free.

Instead of just removing them and moving on, he stopped and looked closer.

Not casually—really looked.

Under magnification, those burrs weren’t smooth or random.

They were covered in tiny hooks.

Each one designed—without intention, without planning—to catch onto loops in whatever they touched.

Fabric. Fur. Anything with a surface they could grab onto.

That’s why they stuck so well.

That one observation turned into a question:

Could something like this be made on purpose?

It took years of experimenting to get it right.

Creating a material that had hooks small enough to latch on, but strong enough to hold.
Pairing it with a surface that had just the right kind of loops.
Making it durable enough to be used over and over again.

Eventually, it worked.

And that simple hook-and-loop system became what we now know as Velcro.

It’s one of those things that feels like it must have come from careful design from the start.

But really, it came from noticing something small… and deciding it was worth understanding instead of ignoring.

đź’¬ Check the website for up-to-date ordering details.
đź›’ Order: hotplate.com/herndonshollow

✍ Blog: herndonshollow.blogspot.com

🛍 Culinary blends & popcorn toppers available at The Boise Refillery
(10530 W Fairview Ave, Boise)

07/09/2026

🌽 Thursday Tidbit

Corn isn’t just a vegetable.

It’s also a grain… and a fruit.

Which sounds like one of those technicalities that doesn’t really matter—until you look a little closer.

When corn is harvested fresh and eaten the way most people are used to—on the cob, soft and slightly sweet—it’s treated like a vegetable.

That’s how it shows up on the plate.
That’s how it’s cooked.
That’s how most people think of it.

But if you let it mature and dry out on the stalk, it changes.

At that point, it behaves like a grain.

It can be ground into cornmeal or flour.
Used for baking.
Stored for long periods in a completely different way.

Same plant. Same kernels.
Different stage… different use.

And then there’s the botanical side of it.

Each individual kernel on an ear of corn develops from a fertilized o***y of the plant.

Which means, technically, each one is a fruit.

Not in the way most people picture fruit—but by definition, that’s what it is.

So an ear of corn isn’t just one thing.

It’s a collection of hundreds of tiny fruits…
that can be treated like a vegetable…
or processed like a grain…

all depending on when it’s picked and how it’s used.

It’s one of those everyday foods that seems simple—until you realize it doesn’t really fit into a single category at all.

đź’¬ Check the website for up-to-date ordering details.
đź›’ Order: hotplate.com/herndonshollow

✍ Blog: herndonshollow.blogspot.com

🛍 Culinary blends & popcorn toppers available at The Boise Refillery
(10530 W Fairview Ave, Boise)

Independence Day marks the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.It’s easy to think of it as a single mome...
07/04/2026

Independence Day marks the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

It’s easy to think of it as a single moment—one day, one decision, one clear turning point.

But like most things, it wasn’t that simple.

It came after years of tension.
Disagreements that kept building.
Decisions that didn’t get made all at once.

And even after it was signed, it didn’t settle everything immediately.

What it did do was set a direction.

A statement of intent.
A line drawn that said, “this is where things change.”

Over time, that moment became something more—something recognized, remembered, and marked each year.

However it’s spent—gatherings, food, fireworks, or something quieter—

It’s still tied back to that idea of choosing a different path forward.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy Fourth of July from Herndon’s Hollow 🇺🇸

07/02/2026

📬 Thursday Tidbit

Not every piece of mail makes it to where it’s supposed to go.

Wrong address.
No return information.
Illegible handwriting.
Missing details.

When that happens, it doesn’t just disappear.

It gets sent to what’s known as the Dead Letter Office—now officially called the Mail Recovery Center.

It’s not quite the way it’s shown in shows like Signed, Sealed, Delivered.

There aren’t people opening every letter, reading through messages, and tracking down long-lost connections.

Most mail is handled based on what can be verified.

If something can be identified and redirected, it is.
If it can’t, it’s eventually disposed of—especially letters, which are protected by privacy laws.

Packages are a little different.

Those can be opened, not to read anything personal, but to look for information that might help get them where they were meant to go.

And if that still doesn’t work… they’re eventually auctioned off or discarded.

It’s a practical system, not a sentimental one.

But it still sits on the same foundation the postal service was built on in 1775—

moving things from one place to another, as reliably as possible.

Even now, nearly 250 years later, that basic purpose hasn’t really changed.

đź’¬ Check the website for up-to-date ordering details.
đź›’ Order: hotplate.com/herndonshollow

✍ Blog: herndonshollow.blogspot.com

🛍 Culinary blends & popcorn toppers available at The Boise Refillery
(10530 W Fairview Ave, Boise)

06/25/2026

📬 Thursday Tidbit

The United States Postal Service predates the country itself.

Before there was a United States, there was already a need to move information from place to place in a reliable way.

In 1775, during the early stages of the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress established a postal system to keep the colonies connected.

Benjamin Franklin was appointed as the first Postmaster General.

At the time, it wasn’t about packages or everyday mail the way we think of it now.

It was about communication.

Keeping messages moving between leaders, between colonies, across distances that were otherwise difficult to manage.

Over time, that system expanded.

Routes became more defined.
Delivery became more regular.
And eventually, it turned into the nationwide network that still operates today.

It’s easy to think of it as just part of the background now.

But it started as something much more fundamental…

a way to keep people connected when distance would have otherwise made that difficult.

đź’¬ Check the website for up-to-date ordering details.
đź›’ Order: hotplate.com/herndonshollow

✍ Blog: herndonshollow.blogspot.com

🛍 Culinary blends & popcorn toppers available at The Boise Refillery
(10530 W Fairview Ave, Boise)

06/18/2026

🍎 Thursday Tidbit

Apples float.

It’s one of those things most people have seen… but don’t really think about.

Drop an apple into water, and it stays right at the surface.
No hesitation. No slow sinking. Just… floating.

It’s not because of the skin.
Not because of the shape.

It comes down to what’s inside.

Apples are made up of roughly 25% air.

Not in one big pocket, but spread throughout the fruit in tiny spaces between the cells. Those air pockets lower the overall density just enough that the apple ends up lighter than the water around it.

And that’s all it takes.

Most fruits are denser, so they sink.

Apples sit right on the edge… and float instead.

That one detail ends up shaping how they’re used more than you might expect.

It’s why apples were traditionally used for bobbing—easy to keep at the surface, easy to grab without them disappearing below the water.

It also plays a role in texture. That slight airiness is part of what gives apples their crisp bite instead of something softer or denser.

For something so common, it’s a small detail that quietly affects both how it behaves… and how it’s experienced.

đź’¬ Check the website for up-to-date ordering details.
đź›’ Order: hotplate.com/herndonshollow

✍ Blog: herndonshollow.blogspot.com

🛍 Culinary blends & popcorn toppers available at The Boise Refillery
(10530 W Fairview Ave, Boise)

06/11/2026

🕰️ Thursday Tidbit

Last week’s tidbit touched on how time zones came to be.

But the switch to standardized time didn’t happen all at once.

In 1883, when railroads across the United States began using time zones, towns didn’t immediately abandon their local time.

For a while, both existed side by side.

And that led to something unusual.

In some places, it became known as “the day of two noons.”

One noon followed the sun, just like it always had.
The other followed the newly adopted railroad time.

Depending on which clock you were looking at, noon could happen twice… or not quite when you expected it at all.

It didn’t last long.

Standardized time was more practical, and over time, it replaced local time completely.

But for that brief period, time wasn’t just different from town to town…

It could be different within the same place.

đź’¬ Check the website for up-to-date ordering details.
đź›’ Order: hotplate.com/herndonshollow

✍ Blog: herndonshollow.blogspot.com

🛍 Culinary blends & popcorn toppers available at The Boise Refillery
(10530 W Fairview Ave, Boise)

06/08/2026

*****UPDATE!: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED*****

🌿 There’s a market coming up next weekend.

I’ll be set up at The Market at Idahome RV Resort in Middleton on June 13 from 11 AM to 3 PM.

It’s a full summer-style market—local vendors, food trucks, and a mix of things to walk through and explore.

I’ll have a smaller, focused lineup with me this time.
Cookies, brownies, muffins… and a few extras.

More details to come as we get closer, but if you’ve been waiting for the next in-person event, this is the one.

đź’¬ Check the website for up-to-date ordering details.
đź›’ Order: hotplate.com/herndonshollow

✍ Blog: herndonshollow.blogspot.com

🛍 Culinary blends & popcorn toppers available at The Boise Refillery
(10530 W Fairview Ave, Boise)

06/04/2026

🕰️ Thursday Tidbit

Clocks didn’t always agree with each other.

Before time was standardized, each town kept its own.

Noon was whenever the sun was highest in the sky… which meant the time in one place could be a few minutes ahead or behind the next town over.

Most of the time, it didn’t matter.

Life moved locally. People stayed close. There wasn’t much need for everything to line up exactly.

But once trains became common, that changed.

Schedules had to be precise.
Arrivals and departures had to match from one place to another.
A difference of even a few minutes could cause real problems.

So in 1883, railroads across the United States adopted a standardized system of time zones to keep everything running on schedule.

It wasn’t even a law at first… just something the rail companies agreed to follow.

The government didn’t officially make it standard until years later.

It’s strange to think about now… but there was a time when “what time is it?” had a different answer depending on where you were standing.

đź’¬ Check the website for up-to-date ordering details.
đź›’ Order: hotplate.com/herndonshollow

✍ Blog: herndonshollow.blogspot.com

🛍 Culinary blends & popcorn toppers available at The Boise Refillery
(10530 W Fairview Ave, Boise)

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Caldwell, ID
83607

Telephone

+12086143360

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