Our Story

 

Our story begins over 20 years ago when a wonderful Florida retiree, Jack Spencer, introduced my father to his homemade Calamondin jam. He had his own backyard tree, as many Floridians do, but the fruit was new to my family, recently relocated to Florida. My Dad wasted no time planting his own Calamondin tree and making jam with Jack's recipe. A short while after that, Jack’s wife, Joy, made a Calamondin cake for us to try. Well, I haven’t been the same since.

My Dad’s jam was my favorite breakfast staple for many years. About three years ago, he decided to retire from jam making and passed the baton to me. I was terrified!! What if the joy of Calamondin jam goodness was lost forever in my hands? Well, with coaching from Dad and Jack, and my own personal twist, I mastered Calamondin jam to the relief of myself and our close friends.

Heady with excitement that the Calamondin world was now available to me, I decided the next stop on the Calamondin train was Joy’s cake. I prepared and served it at a 4th of July party a couple of years ago. My friend Mary Lou got a wide-eyed where-has-this-been-my-whole life look and announced that this could be a business. Well, it’s all her fault. I decided she was right. Let’s face it, I was a Calamondin junkie, and there were no fixes available. You couldn’t go to the Calamondin store. You couldn’t buy Calamondin cake or jam. I decided to remedy that.

Our first grove was planted May 9, 2009 on a property near my house in Fort Myers. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to grow citrus well enough for a business so I started close to home. With help from Jim and Cindy Wilson, the new grove has been a success and a second, much larger grove has been planted this season on our family farmland in Bokeelia, Florida.

I loved Joy’s cake recipe, but knew I wanted to create my own personal version from scratch, so I set to work experimenting and came up with a luscious, dense cake packed with flavor. I’ve seen the where-has-this-been-my-whole-life look a lot since I’ve been sharing it with people. And now that Cindy is addicted, too, she’s been gracious enough to join us in our Calamondin mission.

As a physician, I decided if I was going into the food business, I was going to make a commitment to food quality and health. Granted, cake and jam aren’t exactly health food, but we are working on gluten free and low glycemic index products. We use organic ingredients wherever possible. Our fruit is herbicide and pesticide-free and we are pursuing organic certification. During processing, we find it necessary to freeze the fruit puree for later use. I choose to freeze the puree in glass or BPA free plastic to minimize exposure to petroleum products, a potential risk factor in breast cancer. Our organic ingredient list includes eggs, butter, sugar, vanilla and continues to grow.

Working with Calamondins is a labor-intensive process. The peel is delicate, so harvesting must be done with scissors to snip the stem, rather than just grabbing the fruit and risking tearing the skin and contaminating the inside. Each fruit must be hand squeezed to remove seeds. As Calamondins are small, this is a time consuming endeavor. Is it worth it? Our taste testers say YES and so do we. Try our delicious Calamondin products and experience citrus bliss for yourself.