Back to Flatlander Status

Hello my friends. It’s my slowest season of the year and it always gives me some time to reflect a bit on what I learned last year. Honestly the turn from December to January happens so fast for me every year, I barely have time to process the reflection.

Spring as the new year makes so much more sense for me. New growth. Opportunity. The slow warm up before the pressure cooker of summer.

Every year that turns I learn more. For a couple years I cried MERCY and did not want to keep learning. However it happened, I have persevered. In the budding of new growth I consider yet another shift in businesses and another approach at making it work for me. 

What does this mean? Currently, it means that my jellies are largely produced in very small batches under the cottage industry laws of Florida and available on my website or at a market event. The jams are produced in larger batches, with help, most often in Vermont.

Why split this way? These two states are both places I consider home and like to spend my time. When I moved to Vermont and stuck to the 10 year mark, I was accepted as close to one of their own as could be. When I sheltered to my home state of Florida during times of uncertainty, around year 13, I gained a bit of needed distance and Vermont gave me even more. Back to flatlander status. Despite still spending months of the year in Vermont, I now live in Florida. I had been living in the Vermont bubble (a glowing and wonderful place to be, really) so I had forgotten how rough my first couple of years were. Crying in the grocery store looking for my food is part of why this blog to business all started.

Always, I love to share what I know. For many years my thirst to know focused on foraging,  the art of food, then learning preserving. I jumped into social media marketing at the earliest stages; using the free platforms to garnish attention that would catapult us to 500k a year in less than 5 years time. I adored Instagram as the newest digital expression of art and disliked the earliest changes allowing users to upload photos off app. I loved that it was INSTA and captured the eye of the beholder in a public & shareable way. I even originated #beerjelly. 

These days, I have less love for the necessities of social media and am reluctant to spend more of my precious time taking and editing video when I really want to spend more time in other art forms (Did you know I studied studio art for +8 years?).

As Potlicker has rapidly shifted since the beginning of 2020 (really 2018) my experience in Food Manufacturing has compounded. I have so much more knowledge.

When I started the intentional shift, I thought I had done my research, all the planning, and was ready. My recipes were tested. My own kitchen had produced the same projected volume in one day as they would. These were “experienced” manufacturers each one of them assured me. Each one of them was wrong. They were experienced in their products. Not mine.

What no one admits: Kettles are not hot enough to make good jam. All jam produced over a certain volume will taste like garbage, Imho. I am sorry if you had jam that you were not pleased with. 

This being said, after plenty of trial and error, I have gone back to limited availability without much ambition to scale larger again. We value quality over quantity. We value functional art as much as novelty foods. We are not here for your health needs and remind everyone that too much of anything is a never a good thing.

We hope the flavors will surprise you, inspire you, and stick with you.

Some of the most coveted and asked about flavors will be on the website as wait list flavors and I will only produce once the main ingredient is available or the waitlist gets long enough. Currently, Florida Mango is my most asked about jam. These will go fast once available so get yourself on the waitlist now. 

With my +10 years in business, I can offer a lot of valuable information to people looking to start a food business and small/medium sized food businesses looking to make a move to copacking or building your own manufacturing. If this interest you, and you don’t already follow my blog, please click here now. If you would like business advising or have specific questions or consulting needs please reach out to me via email to Nancy@ PotlickerKitchen.com. 

If you are just here to keep tabs on me or the business and maybe you buy some jam, Thank You.

Find me at:

5/20 Moon Market at Tiki Cove (Land O’ Lakes, FL)

5/27-28 Brunch Fest (Brooksville, FL)

6/4 Fig & Julep/Hyde Park Farmers Market (Tampa, FL)

6/TBD Cabot Farmers Annex (Waterbury, VT)