Jim Stott and Jonathan King started selling at a farmers' market in Portsmouth, N.H., in 1991. They made everything in Jim's family summer cottage, and they did all of it themselves: cooking, hand-writing labels, taking photographs, and standing at the table on market day. Family got pulled in. Nieces and nephews filled jars one at a time. Jim's grandmother Pearl, then 90, glued burlap onto the lids. The first recipe came from Pearl too. Jim wanted the smell of her blueberry pie in a jar, so he
Jim Stott and Jonathan King started selling at a farmers' market in Portsmouth, N.H., in 1991. They made everything in Jim's family summer cottage, and they did all of it themselves: cooking, hand-writing labels, taking photographs, and standing at the table on market day. Family got pulled in. Nieces and nephews filled jars one at a time. Jim's grandmother Pearl, then 90, glued burlap onto the lids. The first recipe came from Pearl too. Jim wanted the smell of her blueberry pie in a jar, so he built it around Maine wild blueberries, which cost more than cultivated ones and taste like nothing else.
The company moved to York, Maine, in 2000, where it still is. Batches are still made small and sampled one jar at a time for color, texture, and flavor. Fruit gets tasted on arrival, since no two crops are alike.
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