We recently connected with Mary and Curt Marshall and have shared our conversation below.
Mary and Curt, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
For more than 30 years I created jams and jellies I made for friends and family. It was a hobby I enjoyed while working full-time as a Publicist for the Marketing Dept. at Shaw Air Force Base. Over the years we started getting more and more orders, especially during the holiday season. It was fun for me, but I never really thought about it being a business even after I retired. In fact, just the opposite was true. I wanted it to remain a hobby, something I did for fun. Fast forward to 2020, COVID shutdowns and my husband retiring in late 2020. One evening in early 2022, I asked my husband about turning my hobby into a business and he jumped at the idea. We were both retired, and we already knew we had a good product. We knew we would need a business license, and because we wanted to use our home kitchen, we knew we had to follow the cottage food laws. A few weeks later, with all the proper licenses in place, The Mary Mart LLC was born. Our name comes from our son who dubbed my canning pantry under the stairs years ago “the Mary Mart.” He, his sister, and later our grandsons would all go shopping there for whatever they wanted.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?
30 years of a hobby making jams and jellies turned into our retirement business in January 2022. I come from a background in marketing and my husband served 23 years in the Air Force and then another 15 years as the manager at a military campground. Cooking has always been my passion so a few years before I retired I started a cooking blog and became a food columnist/contributor for a local bi-monthly magazine. When I was nearing retirement I got my home preservation certification from the University of Georgia and began teaching canning classes for a local fresh foods store and our local college that offered extension courses. We’re also huge advocates of local farms and markets so I’ve volunteered for years at 2 farmers’ markets as their marketing and social media manager. All of this contributed to the vision we had for our jams and jellies to use fruits locally sourced from local farms. When you can go to the farm and pick up the fruits and peppers freshly harvested, there’s no comparison to that fresh flavor. We also work closely with a local distiller to use their top-shelf spirits in our jams that enhance our unique flavors. Fresh is best and we believe that flavor shines through when you have your first taste. Of course not all fruits are capable of being grown locally, so we search for the best sources for those fruits.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
In today’s tech world, we believe it’s imperative to have a social media business page, preferably on more than one platform such as Facebook and Instagram because they all have different audiences. You also really need to engage your customers as much as possible. Followers on social media will look forward to your posts and engage others if they enjoy your content. Coming from a marketing background really helped us because I already knew the importance of social media, how to write engaging content, and design some of our flyers. My husband also understood the importance so together we tried to create posts we hoped would attract customers. We also began using hashtags regularly that applied to us and created one, #thinkoutsidethejamjar that really helps explain our flavors are not just toast and jelly jams, they’re condiments, glazes, and more. Additionally, we also added a recipe for “bottom of the jam jar vinaigrette” that uses any jam you have to the back of our business card so customers can immediately become creative.
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
We do manufacture our own products and the first requirement was to find a reliable source for the canning jars and lids. Having canned for years we already had much of the necessary equipment, but then we needed to add storage shelves and other things to an area of our house dedicated to the business. Some of these items were stainless steel utensils, measuring cups, a new steam canner, food-safe storage containers for things such as sugar, storage containers for fruits as we processed them, spices, and more. Lessons learned along the way are to set a plan at the beginning of each week. What products need to be made to meet the demands of the farmers’ markets and small businesses we wholesale to? Do we have all the necessary ingredients in stock to make the jams? Keep a running list of ingredients so as products get low they can be reordered. Keep a good inventory of products on hand so you’re only making what’s needed or doubling up some products in keeping with the demand. We also create our own recipes, which involves product development, and independent taste testers. Some jams have been huge wins and others total failures. We have samplers at all our markets, written flavor profiles and suggestions for use, and encourage all our customers to taste before they buy because everyone’s palate is different.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themarymartllc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themarymartllc
Image Credits
Sharon Benton Studios (3 photos with gray backgrounds)