We were lucky to catch up with Jennifer Rose recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jennifer , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Ever since childhood I remember frequent stomachaches and experiencing some food troubles. But it wasn’t until 2015 that I was finally diagnosed with an inflammatory bowel disease. After years of teaching myself to cook everything from scratch, from pastas and perogies to breads and pies, I then had to entirely change my diet to get the inflammation and disease under control. That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to change. To all of the sudden take each food and every single bite into consideration was extremely difficult and depressing. I felt so restricted in my options, I lost my love of cooking. It wasn’t until I started working more with spices and seasonings that the fire inside me came back to life. As if a whole new world had opened up. Now I could flavor a potato a million different ways and still find joy in the challenge of creating a delicious dish with healthy ingredients.
Starting this business has helped me regain that love of cooking and connections to the foods I eat. And it gives me the ability to generate an income around my health struggles.
I am happy to report that I am currently in remission!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ve been a stay-at-home, homeschooling mother of four for a number of years. Also while dealing health issues. I wasn’t sure of what I’d do for work as the kids aged and my health started to decline. It was my husband who encouraged and supported me in starting my own business. He too is a small business owner. Unsure of how loose teas and seasonings would be received, I took the leap and began blending ingredients. So many of my creations have turned out so well that I’ve even shocked myself over how delicious they are.
I knew going into this that the quality of the ingredients was one of my top priorities. And you can certainly tell when you smell or taste what I’ve created.
The quality and full flavors of the ingredients are what I credit for helping my business take off and succeed.
The smells, the tastes, it’s all an experience to be enjoyed.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The main reason I started my own business was to have the flexibility when dealing with the unreliability of my health issues. But I also didn’t know what that would look like. How could I attend vendor events? How could I travel and talk with store owners? How could I open a store myself? I didn’t know. And I still kind of don’t know. But, what I do know is that as long as I take it day by day and step by step, that I can do just about anything. And if not, then I can learn to adapt or pivot. For example, I was concerned with doing outdoor events. I’m heat and cold sensitive. I can get sick or dizzy or end up in a lot of pain. So we’ve had to learn some tricks as well as making some investments, such as a heated vest and a battery operated fan.
I also learned that a floor mat and a good pair of shoes are incredibly important.
At every event we learn something new and we’re always adjusting.
Talking with seasoned vendors has also been helpful. I started hosting small business and vendor meetings to help others make connections and hopefully help us all to better succeed.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

One thing I’ve learned in my experiences with cooking and with this business of selling spices and seasonings is that people tend to struggle with creativity in the kitchen. And often are unsure of how or when to use spices and seasonings. So it was important to me to create fun and unique flavor blends that customers would want to use time and time again rather than end up in the back of the cabinet never to be seen again.
So I’ve found it very helpful to share a wide range of recipes and ideas on social media.
I also wanted my products to be affordable so customers could restock as needed rather than only being able to purchase during special occasions.
With the cost of goods continuously rising, I find it even more important to highlight inexpensive, yet healthy, ingredients and all of the many ways you can use them. Beans for instance, don’t get enough love and appreciate, in my opinion. There’s so many ways to use them. All you need is a little spice.

Contact Info:

• Website: Huronteaandherbco.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/huronteaandherbco?igshid=MzNlNGNkZWQ4Mg==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/huronteaandherbco?mibextid=ZbWKwL