June 2019 marked an anniversary for us. It was five years ago this month when JamBusters! started vending our first-ever product. In fact, the very first vending date I attended was on June 14, 2014. It was in a parking lot that runs along Highway 3 in our hometown of Princeton, British Columbia. I had tried to sell ‘stuff’ at the same weekly outdoor parking lot market a few weeks prior to this and didn’t sell anything. However, I did notice that people walking around the market were carrying bags of homemade food they purchased on-site.
The Story Begins With Rhubarb
I had harvested a huge crop of rhubarb from a plant in our yard a couple weeks prior. It was the year before when both George and I discovered that someone had stolen all of the rhubarb so in the spring I started vending was the one where we decided that never again would anyone get their hands on our rhubarb before we could. Anyway, because we ended up with so much rhubarb I spent a lot of time in the kitchen finding ways to use it. I must have baked and cooked it in several recipes before I found one for an interesting jam combination.
JamBusters! Was Born From That Jam
The recipe was interesting to me as I tend to gravitate towards unusual recipes. You know, not your ordinary Rhubarb Jam-type recipes. The one I picked and tried was something that was a rhubarb jam with ginger in it. I tested it on George who was pretty amazed that rhubarb could be used in such a different way. In fact, it was on his insistence that I started to vend the jam. He told me at the time that I had something that he was pretty sure would sell at the local market. So instead of trying to sell ‘stuff’ I took a couple flats of this rhubarb jam with ginger in it.
A Roaring Success
I sold quite a few jars that first day and ended up selling out of the product. I did make additional batches and they all sold well. By the time we got serious about vending, the rhubarb jam with ginger in it had somehow fallen off of our regular inventory list until we resurrected it a couple years ago. This time around we re-branded it Someone Stole Our Rhubarb Jam as a cross promotion for George’s eBook of the same name. As its predecessor did, this version of the rhubarb jam also sold well so we know we have to keep rhubarb in our inventory.
A New Product In 2019
This year we ended up with another huge crop of rhubarb from new plants we received two winters ago and instead of bringing back Someone Stole Our Rhubarb Jam, I found a pretty cool chutney recipe. The product was named Barr Street Rhubarb Chutney and it has also sold well. So I guess rhubarb is here to stay in the JamBusters! inventory of products. I’ve even been harvesting and freezing rhubarb from our plants so that I can keep producing the rhubarb chutney long after rhubarb season has ended. It’s been a funny process of sorts.
Back To June 2014
Thanks to the success of that rhubarb jam with ginger in it five years ago, we were encouraged to introduce another product. Our second JamBusters! item was introduced later that month and we called it Bananarama Honey. It wasn’t a honey at all, it was a banana spread that looked like and had the texture of honey. Sales of that product led us to create more items and in the following year George got more interested in JamBusters! and became a bigger part of it rather than just the set-up and take-down guy on our active vending dates.
The Story Begins With Rhubarb
I had harvested a huge crop of rhubarb from a plant in our yard a couple weeks prior. It was the year before when both George and I discovered that someone had stolen all of the rhubarb so in the spring I started vending was the one where we decided that never again would anyone get their hands on our rhubarb before we could. Anyway, because we ended up with so much rhubarb I spent a lot of time in the kitchen finding ways to use it. I must have baked and cooked it in several recipes before I found one for an interesting jam combination.
JamBusters! Was Born From That Jam
The recipe was interesting to me as I tend to gravitate towards unusual recipes. You know, not your ordinary Rhubarb Jam-type recipes. The one I picked and tried was something that was a rhubarb jam with ginger in it. I tested it on George who was pretty amazed that rhubarb could be used in such a different way. In fact, it was on his insistence that I started to vend the jam. He told me at the time that I had something that he was pretty sure would sell at the local market. So instead of trying to sell ‘stuff’ I took a couple flats of this rhubarb jam with ginger in it.
A Roaring Success
I sold quite a few jars that first day and ended up selling out of the product. I did make additional batches and they all sold well. By the time we got serious about vending, the rhubarb jam with ginger in it had somehow fallen off of our regular inventory list until we resurrected it a couple years ago. This time around we re-branded it Someone Stole Our Rhubarb Jam as a cross promotion for George’s eBook of the same name. As its predecessor did, this version of the rhubarb jam also sold well so we know we have to keep rhubarb in our inventory.
A New Product In 2019
This year we ended up with another huge crop of rhubarb from new plants we received two winters ago and instead of bringing back Someone Stole Our Rhubarb Jam, I found a pretty cool chutney recipe. The product was named Barr Street Rhubarb Chutney and it has also sold well. So I guess rhubarb is here to stay in the JamBusters! inventory of products. I’ve even been harvesting and freezing rhubarb from our plants so that I can keep producing the rhubarb chutney long after rhubarb season has ended. It’s been a funny process of sorts.
Back To June 2014
Thanks to the success of that rhubarb jam with ginger in it five years ago, we were encouraged to introduce another product. Our second JamBusters! item was introduced later that month and we called it Bananarama Honey. It wasn’t a honey at all, it was a banana spread that looked like and had the texture of honey. Sales of that product led us to create more items and in the following year George got more interested in JamBusters! and became a bigger part of it rather than just the set-up and take-down guy on our active vending dates.
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