11/3/2009 7:40:11 AM

Comments (1)

By Dawn Schuett

Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN 

DENNISON Ruth Edstrom's small business depends a lot on the appetite her customers have for her homemade products and how well her garden grows at certain times of the year. 

In 2007, she started Ruthie's Kitchen out of her Dennison home to sell food

	In the Kitchen Ruthie's Kitchen 3190 County 24 Blvd. Dennison, MN 55018 (507) 263-3271

that she makes. Caramels were her first product and then she added jam and jelly, artisan bread and more foods. Prior to that, Edstrom said, she'd been doing "little bits and pieces for a long time," by baking and canning items to give to family and friends.

She decided to become an entrepreneur after her daughter gave her a label maker. Adding labels to her products gave them a marketable appearance. "All of the sudden, they looked like they were salable," Edstrom said.

And they are proving to be. Edstrom has a Web site and fills custom orders, and is a vendor at some art and craft fairs and church events in the region, the farmers market in Dennison and at the Midtown Farmers' Market in Minneapolis, which ended its season Oct. 31.

There's a demand for food that's homemade with the purest and freshest ingredients, and Edstrom finds satisfaction in providing that to her customers.

"I think they want to know what's in their food," she said. "I think they want to know who made their food."

She offers all sorts of jams and jellies from apple and tomato to elderberry and wild grape. Edstrom grows most of the fruits and vegetables that go into the jams and jellies, including plums, raspberries, strawberries and tomatillos. She picks other plums and grapes growing wild and harvests pumpkins from her garden for pumpkin butter. Relatives and friends sometimes give her crabapples and chokecherries to use.

Edstrom said she listens to customers when they make suggestions. After hearing last year that her mixed pepper jam with jalapenos and Thai peppers was too mild, Edstrom modified the recipe this year to be "blow-it-out-your-ear hot." The jam goes well with cream cheese, she said.

When preparing for an event, Edstrom makes 30 to 40 loaves of bread a weekend. She bakes her biscotti with walnuts, almonds or pecans and the caramels have vanilla, pecans or walnuts. Edstrom's kolache pastries with poppy seed, prune, almond or apricot filling are also popular with customers. Some of her other products include salted nut rolls, butter buns, relishes and caramel corn.

Ruthie's Kitchen is a part-time endeavor for Edstrom, who commutes during the week to Minneapolis where she works for Hennepin County. Eventually, she said, she'd like to have a commercial kitchen for the business.

Dawn Schuett is a Farmington freelance writer.

There are 1 comments - Display All Comments