Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lisa Fulk. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Lisa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

The last few years have been incredibly challenging for most small food businesses. Between inflation and weather, the cost of raw ingredients has tripled on nearly all of the items we use in the kitchen. We work closely with local farms whenever possible but we also need to have fresh produce during the months when little grows here in Florida. This summer we are concentrating on tropical fruit jams because things like mangoes are growing abundantly at the moment. We’re trying our hand at pickled pineapple and passionfruit jams in the hopes of supporting local agriculture while also keeping costs down.

Lisa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

In 2011, with two small children to entertain, I started visiting u-pick strawberry farms. As the kids would inevitably pick more fruit than they could eat, I began to experiment with jam making. Sunshine Canning was started in 2012 after I attended the intensive Master Food Preserver program in NY that was offered through the Cornell extension office. I originally planned to teach canning classes because it was a hobby I had grown to love. Within a year I had far too many jars of jams and decided to try a holiday craft fair to see what sold. By 2014 I had become permitted as an acidified canner, moved into a commercial kitchen space, and begun doing weekly farmers markets in southwest Florida.

It’s been over a decade now since I started this business and I continue to do everything by hand. I travel around Florida gathering up bushels of produce and then return to the kitchen where it is cleaned, cut, and jarred. There are no preservatives or chemicals used, so each jar is canned in a hot water bath to make it shelf stable – just like our grandmothers did it! I love creating fun new flavors and I also get so much joy from the loyalty my customers have shown over these past years. We are active vendors at numerous weekly farmers markets and holiday shows, and we are also stocked at quite a few local small businesses in the area. Sunshine Canning is truly artisanal, small batch, and made with love in Sarasota, Florida and we are proud to be part of the local food community here.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

We manufacture every single jar here in the Sunshine Canning kitchen and, honestly, that isn’t an easy model to follow. It’s incredibly difficult on your body to do the same repetitive kitchen work day after day. Two years ago, around my 48th birthday, I had to have both my hips replaced. It hasn’t been a great recovery, so I am living and working within the shadow of chronic pain. I looked into using a co-packing facility but I just can’t relinquish the control! By handmaking each jar I can see the quality of the produce, often buying it directly from the farm where it was grown. I can taste a fruit and modify how much sugar goes in to a recipe and make other tweaks as needed. I can basically guarantee that the product we are producing is the best version possible, and that’s important to me.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think, more than anything, it’s the many years I’ve spent in the booth at markets and craft shows. I now have employees that work some markets for me, but I still work a market every Saturday. I’ve spent years talking to customers and sampling products, listening to what they like and explaining how I arrived at certain flavor combinations. Customers absolutely love the chance to meet the maker and talk about your craft.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sunshinecanning.com
• Instagram: @sunshinecanning
• Facebook: @sunshinecanning