Demand for Slice O’ Country’s generations-old recipes is keeping its owner Sarah Brewer on her toes. The home kitchen-based, Boothbay Harbor business started in June and Brewer has found success at craft fairs and shows.

The business has 32 products, including blueberry jam, strawberry rhubarb, wild raspberry, peach, rose hip, pickled beets, pickles, and red cucumber relish. Among the most popular are the rose hip and the blueberry. The rose hips in the jelly are primarily rugosa roses from Ocean Point, but Brewer has been thinking of experimenting with terroir and trying rose hips from spots like Popham Beach.

“It's a very unique flavor. I can't compare it to anything. It smells and tastes familiar, but you can't put your finger on it. I say 'Well, it tastes like a memory.’”

Similar to the rose hips, the blueberries and raspberries are harvested from the wild by Brewer and her family when they go camping in northern Maine. Whatever is not picked wild comes from farms or producers as local as possible. Brewer said strawberries had a difficult year with the amount of water in the springtime, but Fairwinds Farm grew its crops on raised beds which gave the strawberries a chance, and the wet spring created an excellent bumper crop for blueberries.

Brewer is allergic to tomatoes, so her salsa is made with zucchini instead. The pickles come from Brewer's great-grandmother's recipe, slightly altered to pass fermentation regulations. “My mother, when she was my age, took it to several fairs and she took blue ribbon. I haven't entered them into a fair because I've been busy getting the business going ...”

Brewer said she fell in love with making preservatives when she was 10. She tried starting up a business 15 years ago, but found herself too busy starting a family. She has been making food to sell at craft fairs since June.

Brewer has been attending Purdue University part time for business management for two years. Classes have helped her understanding of a home business. “As I've been going through my classes in college, I've got it paralleling the startup of this and knowing what steps I need to take ... It's just been very helpful with all the marketing and planning and keeping track of the paperwork.”

Besides the weekly craft fair on the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library lawn, Brewer wants to do some fair circuits next summer in hopes of winning her own blue ribbon. There will be more time next year to get into marketing and development of more products: Brewer will be graduating from Purdue.

"I've become a chemist on top of this because you have to do all this testing yourself after you've been approved. Every single batch you make you have to test the temperatures, you have to test the pH levels and you have to throw the batch out if it doesn't pass … If my business was to grow significantly, then I would have to look into the nutritional labeling ... There's a lot involved.”

The trouble with home processing is it is also in your home, said Brewer. “So you've got life happening around you. You have to kick everybody out, clean all of your surfaces and then you can start processing. That's the difficult part: Getting everybody out of the kitchen. It smells good. They all want to come back in.”

Brewer said her processes have long been the same and some have been around many generations.

Some of Brewer's products can be found at Caper's Deli on Townsend Avenue in Boothbay Harbor. Look for Slice O' Country at the Central Lincoln County Holiday Bazaar on Nov. 16, the Fundraising Craft and Vendor Show at West Bath Fire Department Nov. 17, and the Woolwich Fire Department Auxiliary Fair Nov. 23.