Howdy, I would like to start by introducing ourselves. My name is Yulanda, and next to me is my mom Ruby. Our story actually starts about a year ago with some very major changes in our lives; some good, others were not. At the end of August, I had just started keto as a way of losing weight. My family and friends (and I if I am totally honest) were worried about my health. A few months later, I found myself out of a job. The owners fired everyone that worked there and brought in a family to oversee the motel in order to cut costs (I had worked there for nearly 10 years). But the darkest days were yet to come. November, my dad was admitted to the hospital with what the doctors thought was severe constipation, turned out it was cancer. We lost my dad a just a few days before Thanksgiving. My mom and I were in limbo. Finding a job was impossible with my weight. Even though I was losing weight, employers only saw my limitations. My mom and I needed something to keep us occupied and that would bring in a little money. She has always loved to can and preserve foods and one day someone gave us a lot of strawberries (way more than we could eat), so we had a choice, we could either freeze them, or she could make jam. Can you guess what she did?That first batch of jam was given to family and friends, who then asked for more. More jam was made, as was apple butter (SO much apple butter). We began to barter work that needed to be done with the apple butter (yeah, that was a surprise to me as well). And then came the carrot cake jam.
When we taste tested this, our eyes both lit up. We knew we had something great and it was then that we started making plans. I immediately went to my computer and started designing our logo and labels. Mom started making more jam. Momma’s Kitchen was born. We started looking for a farmer’s market that we could set up at and found that DJ was trying to get a Local’s Only Farmer’s Market up and running. We attended that first meeting and was so glad we did. Our Jams, Jellies, and Fruit Butters have not only expanded from the Apple Butter, Carrot Cake (both of which are our top sellers), and strawberry, but we have also started adding keto buns and cakes.
Although our lives will never be the same, we have found a new joy at being able to create something that gives others pleasure. We love hearing about how much they love the jam or cake they bought, or how they have to have their gluten free cookies each week. Focusing on Momma’s Kitchen has helped us through our darkest days and we know that my dad would have been proud of us and if he was here today, would probablly been trying to convince us to let him have most of what I sell, lol. We want to thank everyone for being there for us (even if you didn’t know that you were0, and that we look forward to many, many more smiles. Thank you.
Momma's Kitchen 