It may not be the height of his career but popping corn and selling it from a converted coffee cart downtown is a fulltime occupation for local “good guy” Graham Irvin – and a lot easier, he reckons, than erecting massive seating systems for 2000 school-kids at a time back in Perth.
Read more: Popcorn cart proves just the ticketYep he’d been there, done that – for 23 years in fact – so when this former scaffolder got the chance seven years ago for a lifestyle change which would keep him in Raglan year-round with his young family, he took it.
“I was getting weary of travel,” Graham told the Chronicle, of his regular seven-hour flights across the Tasman, from February to August every year when the scaffolding work was on.
Enter good family friend and Taipari Ave neighbour Marshall Waterman with an offer Graham couldn’t refuse. Marshall was an American who spent his summers in Raglan, selling kettle corn from the old Bow St Motors forecourt.
It was around the time another American in town, Bill Neal, set up his ‘Sweet As’ popcorn business, operating from the basement of his home.
A decade or so on, Marshall decided he would really “rather play golf and go fishing” when in Raglan, so maybe Graham would like to try his hand at popcorn-making.
Graham was game, and gave it a go – tentatively at first, on weekends only – after Marshall had set him up with his trailer and marquee, and sourced all the ingredients from corn kernels to oils and sugars.
“He handed me a gold plate,” says Graham. Seeing how popular the product was, he decided to turn this small business into his permanent job and hasn’t looked back.
Big Poppa’s Kettle Corn is now well established in a prime position at the bottom of Bow St – a stone’s throw from the jetty – thanks to both Waikato District Council and Ngati Mahanga approval, for which Graham is grateful.
There’s just enough space to park his fairground-style cart, with its eye-catching signage, and the attached marquee. Graham sells from the cart, while popping and bagging this “sweet & salty” treat inside the tent setup, with a local teen or two to help out at busy times.
And he’s often been seen giving kids free popcorn when they can’t afford a bag, says regular customer Leanna Darby. “He is one of the good guys in our community who puts people ahead of profit.”
Graham points out however that he makes a good living out of selling popcorn, and loves what he does. He also ventures over the divvy and parks the cart some weekends at Morrinsville, while every third Saturday it’s off to Tamahere Country Market.
“But I could stay here seven days a week,” he says of his Raglan base.
Graham’s recently developed a new flavoured cinnamon-sugar popcorn, with the help of his daughter Charlie who’d given Taco Bell cinnamon twists a go.
It’s incredible, says Leanna. “Dangerously good!”
