McRAE — Amanda Martin poured some Black Dandy tea into a cup as she offered her guests some chocolate-chip scones and gluten-free lavender cookies. The tea is a blend of Earl Grey, black tea and roasted dandelion.
That may seem like an odd combination, but Martin and her mother, Bonnie Graham, are in the business of combining unexpected flavors into jellies, teas, coffees, baked goods, ice cream and syrups. In fact, one of their most popular combinations is orange citrus rosemary jelly.
“It’s a madness,” Martin said about how they came up with the name, Jelly Madness, for their hobby turned home-based business. “We can’t stop thinking about different flavors. Our kitchen is an experiment all the time.”
Martin, who has a degree in family and consumer science, taught high school for a while before working for a couple of gourmet food businesses. Graham is a dietitian, and the mother-daughter team began making jellies as a hobby and decided to make it a full-blown family business about three months ago.
Graham and Martin attended the annual Lavender Festival in Apache, Okla., and decided to try their hand at selling their goods at an Arkansas farmers market.
Another key person behind Jelly Madness is Martin’s husband, Eric, who said a customer once told him the jellies taste like the candle he always wanted to eat.
Because Amanda is from Beebe and Eric is from Searcy, the couple returned to Arkansas after moving around the country for work, school and Eric’s military obligation. The family finally settled on a blueberry farm in McRae.
The Martins said they use the highest-quality ingredients they can find. And the couple, along with their three children, grow, or at least handpick, most of the fruit, herbs and vegetables that go into their products.
“People want to know what’s in their food,” Amanda said.
“Right now, we are dependent on other local farmers,” Eric added. “If we can’t get it around here, we make sure it’s a U.S. product.”
Graham also grows some herbs, but until the lavender patch takes root, Amanda said, they get organic lavender from France because that particular herb is a major ingredient in most of the business’s flavor combinations.
“We use aluminum-free baking powder and organic spices,” Amanda said.
Mostly selling their goods at farmers markets and festivals, Amanda said she and her mom are having fun with their hobby-turned-job. The Martins will be at Holiday House on Nov. 7-10 at the State House Convention Center in Little Rock with plenty of samples of their goods.
“Last month, they canned 2,000 jars of jelly,” Eric said.
In addition to the jarred food items, Amanda and Graham began packaging mixes for baked goods, such as scones, pancakes, cornbread and cookies. Many of their recipes are gluten free and easy to prepare.
“I meet a lot of women who don’t cook, and that’s why our mixes are so popular,” Amanda said. “We wanted to be able to share our baked goods and not have to bake them.”
The kids love to get involved in the business, including picking and growing ingredients and, of course, tasting the recipes.
And the entrepreneurial spirit runs deep in the Martin Family.
J.D., 9; Rivers, 8; and Westen, 5, have started their own business that is a branch of their parents’. The mini Martins call their business Flowers, Fields and Friends. Because the kids are home-schooled, they are able to travel to markets with their parents and have their own line of goods.
“We are going to sell flowers,” J.D. said as he looked up from his task of picking squash from the garden. “We were going to try to get some winter flowers in the ground, but it just didn’t happen.”
The kids are growing their own crops of micro greens, radishes, lettuces, tomatoes and herbs. Eventually, the kids want to add flowers to their line.
“I can’t believe that our mom and dad are letting us have our own business,” Rivers said.
But it was also always a childhood dream of their mom’s.
“I still have the business plan from when I was a little girl,” Amanda said with a smile. “My mom and I were going to open a restaurant, but the restaurant business is so hard.”
To learn more about Jelly Madness and the Martin Family Farm, visit jellymadness.com or www.facebook.com/JellyMadness/timeline.
Staff writer Jeanni Brosius can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or jbrosius@arkansasonline.com.