I took some time to highlight a local business that a dear friend created and is loving what he does by servicing the community and helping people in their busy day to day lives. Everyone gets busy from time to time, so i can speak for myself and admit I don’t have that much free time anymore. I work a 9am – 5pm weekday job so trying to get errands done can be a hassle but having one less thing to worry about like you’re tires can be a life saver, Kyle has personally come to me and serviced my vehicle and it didn’t take any time out of my day. If you’re ever in need, reach out to Kyle on his Instagram page and you can get back on the road in no time!
Social media is a growing multi-use tool for everyone. Surfers and skaters have been able to capitalize on social media as a way to grow their audience and earn money by promoting brands. It can be tough, for local surfers especially, to get good quality clips showcasing their skills. This is where False Front Media can help. False Front Media records clips of surfers, skaters, and more on a high quality camera and creates video edits for their social media feeds.
Here’s a YouTube video that takes a behind the scenes dive into False Front Media.:
Filmed and edited By Schuyler Arevalo
False Front Media was created by Noah Gilbert, an Oxnard local. Him and his team help create and promote high quality videos on social media, they primarily operate on Instagram and YouTube. My experiences working with False Front Media have been positive. The process no matter the project has always been quick, enjoyable, and productive. Noah Gilbert has great ideas for video creation, once his vision is set and the video starts coming together I’m always able to appreciate the art of putting clips together to make a video a little bit more.
L->R: Lexi Quolas (VCS), Sarah Fox (VCS), Jennifer Smith (co-owner), Sophia Smith-Grunder (co-owner), Kelyla Nelson (VCS)
A Family That Creates Together, Stays Together.
Ventura, California is home to many local small businesses, but there are none like Ex-Voto Chocolates and Confections. Offering handcrafted chocolates, organic based ice cream, toffee, house made nut butters, fresh caramel, espresso drinks and much more. This gem has captured the hearts of their patrons using gourmet chocolate that is fair trade and is of single origin.
Owned and operated by the mother daughter duo, Jennifer Smith and Sophia Smith-Grunder, it took time for them to come up with a name that would fit their passion for confections; that is when they settled upon Ex-Voto. The term “ex-voto” is Latin for “milagro” and by definition, it means an offering given in gratitude for an answered prayer.
This small but mighty business started in 2015 with Jennifer selling her decadent chocolates at the local farmers market in Ojai, California. Two years later, they opened their storefront and flagship business in Midtown, Ventura. Initially, Jennifer encouraged her daughter to focus on a cooking and baking career of her own. It just so happens that Sophia makes a phenomenal caramel, amongst other things, better than Jennifer could of dreamed. Thus, Ex-Voto grew into a run and operated family business. The business has boomed since the duo settled in Ventura and have been making history ever since.
VC Social got the chance to sit down with Jennifer and get to know the history behind the business and what ignited their future. First things first, a bit about Jennifer: she began cooking when she was just 5-years old and is completely self taught. Her passion led her to culinary school in San Francisco studying pastry and bread making. Although, she continued to educate herself, take specialty classes online and certifications courses in hopes to figure out what avenue truly felt right to her. Jennifer’s intuitive spirit led her to chocolate as she started to see the word popping up in more ways than one. It was enough to spark her interest to teach herself the craft.
Hand painted and crafted chocolate truffles.
Chocolate, Chocolate And More Chocolate!
Jennifer fell in love with how complex, scientific, challenging, and creative chocolate can be. In turn, she draws inspiration from culture, food and nature resulting in truly complex flavor profiles that otherwise wouldn’t be found elsewhere. Her creations take form of one item and converging it with another. This can be seen in Ex-Voto chocolates, like the Sweet Pecan & Chili Gianduja (in dark chocolate) or the Key Lime (paired with white chocolate ganache).
Jennifer has developed close relationships with her patrons; she pays close attention to what customers are asking for and most importantly when they want it. This has played an important role in their business model and identifying their target market. Ex-Voto began focusing on seasonal items to pay homage to the time of year and most importantly what the seasons represent. Almost all year around you can find your favorites like their Turtles (salted caramel with slow roasted almonds) or the house-made peanut butter buddhas in milk or vegan dark chocolate.
Salted Caramel & Roasted Almond Turtles
Seasonal Easter themed chocolates
Sophia airbrushes flower mold for truffles
It’s Springtime here in Ventura and the Ex-Voto team has been working hard on their seasonal selection; it comes in different shapes, colors and textures including: eggs, bunnies and flower molds. A few of their Spring seasonal items include the Baklava Caramel eggs (using honey cinnamon caramel and pistachios), Pomegranate Rose in dark chocolate, Orange Blossom in white/dark chocolate, and Bananas Foster in milk chocolate, just to name a few.
Is your mouth watering yet?
Featured Ice Cream menu and additions.
The Unique Ice Cream Flavors
Both Jennifer and Sophia come up with recipes by combining different notes, textures and complementary flavors that are well balanced to make heavenly combinations.
Ice cream is a childhood favorite for Jennifer and she has created each one offered at Ex-Voto to perfection. We asked her how she comes up with the recipes for her batches and she shared that most is trial and error. Like her banana honeycomb recipe, Jennifer explained that she had to experiment to find the best way to bring out the banana flavor considering its rather starchy. Her first initial idea was to do banana and peanut butter but she realized that both flavors were too flat. She tasted, processed and talked with Sophia and other employees, bringing up potential matches until they came up with honeycomb. It gives the banana a complementary sweetness, crunch and bitterness.
One of the flavors VC Social favored was her in-house made Queso Fresco y Miel ice cream. Jennifer explained that it took her over 15 tries to find the perfect balance between the Mexican based salty soft cheese and sweet notes of honey. The flavor has become one of their best sellers and permanently remains on their ice cream selection. The combination is almost cheesecake-like and pairs well with house-made marshmallow creme that is lightly toasted with a torch in front of you.
Honey Lavender ice cream with marshmallow creme and rainbow sprinkles in a scratch-made waffle cone.
By keeping up with customer demand their business has created a sufficient following. Most importantly, Ex-Voto takes pride in the relationships that they form with each and every customer that walks through their door. We spoke briefly to a customer, Arlene, who told us that Ex-Voto is one of her favorite places to frequent. She loves the quality of their products and whenever her grand-daughter is back in town from college, they make it a point to stop in and grab a scoop of ice cream. Their patrons genuinely feel like they are part of the family and their support in the business continues to other generations.
Supporting Our Community
It was an absolute pleasure chatting with Jennifer and getting to know the ins and outs of her and Sophia’s daily routine and life at Ex-Voto. As we continued to chat after the interview, Jennifer shared another reason why she works as hard as she does. Her son Seth, 21, a student and surfer, has an extremely rare form of cancer called Synovial Sarcoma, one that has very little research on. If you’ve ever wondered why it’s important to support our community and small local businesses, this is why.
Seth during his new test trial.Seth’s fundraising surfboard sticker. Artwork by Christine May Brand.
Please visit Seth’s website for more information about his journey, treatment and the cancer research fundraiser his family has set up. If you would like to help contribute to their cause for a cure, you can donate directly or find Seth’s custom sticker at Ex-Voto’s storefront location or online here.
Thank you again Jennifer, Sophia and Ex-Voto team for giving VC Social the opportunity to get to know you and discover some new favorite sweet treats!
I attended the Diversity in Culture event this week and I heard Ms. Dolores Huerta speak. I would like to start off by introducing her and some of her achievements. Dolores Huerta is a civil rights activist and American labor leader, a mom, a teacher, a leader and so much more. Dolores has worked with Cesar Chavez, and she is also the co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association. Dolores also has an organization named the Dolores Huerta foundation, her foundation aims to inspire and organize communities to find their voice and rise up and volunteer and to also build up volunteer organizations to be empowered and encouraged to make and pursue social justice. The foundation also focuses on work involved in civic engagement, education equity, along with LGBTQIA+ equality, and safety and health .
I had the opportunity to hear Dolores speak about a multitude of topics such as the ones listed above plus women’s rights, the labor movement, Black Lives Matters, racism and other issues as well. Dolores Huerta has experienced a lot and she had a lot of knowledge to share with us at the Diversity in Culture event. She spoke about her work alongside Cesar Chavez, and their work together to fight for the rights of the farm workers to receive the right compensation for their work, access to restrooms, the right to unionize, etc. Dolores stressed the idea that we are all one human race, one family, and that regardless of the color we are, our eyes, our hair, we are the human race — homosapians. We must participate to help and support each other and different cultures.
After Dolores’ speech, I interviewed the president of the Anthropology club, Kimberly Ramos. The first question I asked her was, Why did you attend the event?
She explained that the organizer of the event was planned by the anthropology club advisor named Gigi, and she also looked forward to hearing Dolores speak and also promoting the anthropology club. I then asked her, How was your experience hearing Dolores speak? She stated that she had been wanting to hear Dolores speak for a long time but never got the chance too, so finally being able to hear Dolores made an impact on her. She also expressed how the speech made her feel motivated and driven to organize and participate more In her community. The next question I asked her was, was there anything that she said that spoke out to you? Again she pointed out how Dolores engaged her to get more active in the community, and also the message that we can start with small changes in our community and work our way up. Lastly, I asked her, What was your favorite part of the event? Kimberly stated that her favorite part of the event was when Dolores actually started speaking, because there was a lot of build up before she started speaking.
Dolores Huerta is an amazing and empowering woman. She has accomplished so many great achievements and fought so hard for everyone’s rights, and she continues to do as she gets older. She had made such a strong impact on people everywhere and continued to engage in communities that need help, and to push us and motivate us to make change. Change starts with us.
Xielo Artisan Desserts is a dessert shop located in downtown Oxnard, CA that specializes in authentic Mexican pastries, crepes, and raspados (shaved ice). Xielo is a MUST-TRY for anyone with a sweet tooth. If you’ve been looking for heavenly desserts… look no further!
I took my first trip to Xielo on a weekday afternoon and was greeted with a line of people out the door, a telltale sign of good food, if you ask me! The line moved quickly, and I was soon able to step inside to admire the cozy cafe. The cafe was charming with a brick wall on one end and a large image of the Guadalajara Cathedral on the other end. There were glass cases on the counters that displayed a variety of pastries that looked so delicious I wanted to taste each one!
The staff member taking my order was polite and patiently answered my questions. I decided on the Nutella crepe and took home a variety of pastries for my family including guava empanadas, an apple bar, a slice of pastel de requeson (cottage cheese cake), and of milhojas (puff pastry) cake.
The crepe was made in front of me and my order was ready quickly. I was pleasantly surprised by every bite I took of the crepe which was filled with strawberries, bananas, xielo cream, and Nutella. It was lightly dusted with powdered sugar. The crepe was soft and had the perfect amount of fruit. It wasn’t overly sweet; every bite was truly heavenly.
My family also enjoyed their desserts, and I am already planning my next trip to Xielo. There are a ton of other items on their menu that I’m excited to try, such as jericallas (Mexican custard dessert), estrellitas (star cookies), and savory crepes. For you coffee-lovers out there, Xielo also has traditional Mexican cafe de olla. I, for one, am especially excited to visit on a warmer day to try out their raspados.
Don’t hesitate to stop by Xielo Artisan Desserts the next time you’re craving something sweet. Grab one of your favorite Mexican treats or try out something new— you won’t be disappointed!
As students we spend most of our time either stressing out about homework or procrastinating to do our homework (I am guilty of this). However, sometimes all we need is a break, a moment of peace and nature to recharge our batteries.
We happen to live in one of the most beautiful places in Southern California, but we hardly take advantage of it. We have a beautiful spot in our very own backyard, it’s called the Ventura Botanical Gardens and if you haven’t visited already it’s time you do. Would you like to see what it’s like to spend a Sunday afternoon there? Click the video below and watch as I take you guys on a quick tour of the place.
Ventura Botanical Garden – HOURS
TUESDAYS — SUNDAYS from 9am – 5pm. Closed Mondays. $7 Admission for the general public.
(Members are free, children 18 and under are free, EBT cardholders are free and every Friday is a FREE day.
Leashed dogs are welcome Wednesdays, Fridays and monthly FREE days.
VC Social 