BLACKSHEAR—Shayna Mosley had no idea an overabundance of produce from a friend’s garden would lead to a business Mosley and her family operate from their Blackshear home.
The neighborly gesture of Crystal Mock sharing some extra peppers from her garden in 2019 led to “Heirloom Preserves,” a collection of jams, jellies, and pickled vegetables Mosley makes in her kitchen. The items are sold at Blue Jay Cattle Co. in Hoboken and The Medicine Cabinet in Waycross.
Mosley, a medical technician who administers echo cardiograms at Ascension St. Vincent’s outpatient center in Waycross, said the near seven-year-old business was more an accident than intentional.
Upon delivery of the extra peppers, Mock asked if Mosley could make pepper jelly. Mosley had never eaten pepper jelly, let alone made her own.
After a trial-and-error effort, Mosley was satisfied with a result. Another friend, Andy Thornton, then followed with okra, and that led to pickling that vegetable, which Mosley said now is among her best-selling products.
“It sells out quickly,” she said during a break in her patient schedule at Ascension. “I can barely keep it in stock. Seems like I’m always making that.”
After those two items, everything else seemed to just fall in line thanks to Mosley’s roots in the gardens of her great grandmother and grandparents, as well as the aforementioned trial-and-error process.
“They didn’t waste an ounce of anything,” Mosley said of her grands. “And, I learned my cooking skills from them.”
Like the first two items, those that followed were the result of “some experiments” with husband, Dustin.
“Sometimes there was success and sometimes we’d throw it out the window,” said Mosley, who added she picked up the pickling skills from her grands, but learned the jam, jelly and preserve work on her own with a lot of trial-and-error. “We’ve stunk up the neighborhood for sure trying to get something just right.
“Cooking is an art, for sure, and sometimes I don’t know how I’ve done it.”
A visit to her “Heirloom Preserves” Facebook page reveals the keepers, of which there are many in pint and quart sizes. And also like the peppers and okra, all their ingredients are grown locally.
“If you’ve bought some blueberry jelly, (blueberries) probably grew in a field not far from us,” she said, adding climbing a fig tree in someone’s yard has been the first step in that fruit ending up in one of her jars.
There also are no preservatives, artificial flavors or colors in any of the products, and whatever is in season leads the list of products she’ll be making.
Mosley said depending on the needs of her vendors or orders she’s received, her time in the kitchen varies. It could be a few hours after work on a weekday or two or three, to a full weekend with she and Dustin, as well as their four children — two from his previous marriage and their two together —, helping with something.
“It takes a lot of hands sometimes to get it all made and delivered,” she said. “Everybody helps in some way. I couldn’t do it without them.”
Mosley said if she had to put a signature on her creations, the variety of jams and jellies aren’t too sweet, and the items that are spicy certainly are.
“I’m really good at spicy,” she said. “If it says it’s hot, it’s hot.”
Of all her creations, which now includes tallow lotion, the watermelon jelly is probably her favorite. Like the pepper jelly, it’s also a big seller.
“It was my late grandfather’s favorite,” she said, adding it has just the right touch of sweetness.
In addition to the jelly, she also offers pickled watermelon rind, which returns to those family roots of “not wasting an ounce.”
To this point, Mosley only has offered her products to those locally. She said she’d welcome wider distribution that included orders which need shipping, but those attempts haven’t met with much success.
“I have family in Alaska and about every other box gets their safely,” she said. “I haven’t found a good affordable shipping source that gets there safely. Maybe we’re just not big enough, but (shipping orders) would be lovely.”
I addition to someday having a mail order component of the business, Mosley said she’d welcome a shop of her own if the finances could work.
For now though, she’s content with the progress of the business and content to “see where the wind” takes it.
