Red Bluff store promotes Tehama fare
Red Bluff, CA — It’s a one-stop shop for chocolate-covered prunes, habanero-flavored pickled garlic and buffalo pepper sticks.
And it keeps Larry Carper busy.
“Like I tell my wife, I live here now,” said Larry Carper, who in September opened Taste of Tehama on Oak Street next to the historic State Theatre. The downtown shop, where he spends about 12 hours a day, offers an array of locally produced foodstuffs, crafts and jewelry.
“I used to be a house painter, but it gets tougher every year,” said Carper, who at 68 decided he didn’t want to be climbing up and down ladders forever. He opened the store “while I still had the energy. I wanted to get going with it.”
A Red Bluff resident since 1975, Carper starts his work day around 7:30 a.m. His tasks include making chocolate treats and cooking burgers during the lunch hour.
On a recent Tuesday, Terry Carlisi from the Great American Buffalo Co. in Corning popped in to deliver a bulging bag of pepper sticks. She took a moment to describe the taste.
