GOOD THINGS TO EAT

Charlotte Skwira – Baked & Canned Goods

Charlotte Skwira has been baking and sewing ever since she was young. She got her love for her hobby from her mother and claims that baking and crafting is her therapy. Her day job has always been bookkeeping and working with numbers but she recently received a cottage food license and decided to share her goodies with more than just family and coworkers. 

With so many products having preservatives and chemicals, Sharon wants to give people healthier and cleaner options.

She is fortunate to have family members who love growing fruits and vegetables because she loves taking those homegrown ingredients and makes delicious recipes with them whether it is baking or canning. For example, all of Char’s pumpkin products are made with fresh pumpkin. She never uses canned pumpkin! Char gets much enjoyment from sharing her baked goods with others.

The company’s offerings also include herbal elderberry teas, elderflower-infused tallow lip balms, and elderberry/elderflower infused honey. Everything is free of artificial additives and crafted with transparency and purpose. As a veteran-owned farm, Ben and company believe in hard work, honest ingredients, and staying connected to the land. Shopping at Popple Tree Creek Farms, ensures more than a product but a way of life rooted in integrity, wellness, and small-town values.

Sharon Shea

As a child, Sharon was engaged in the “art form” of helping her mother preserve vegetables and fruits by canning. It was called “frugal” or “economically wise” to make sure that her large family had adequate food for the off-season, when these foods were not available at reasonable prices.

Today is a different story. Canned goods may be used for personal use, but are ideal for use as consumable gifts for hostesses, friends, or family members. Unique decorating on the outside, and colorful combinations inside, make the, attractive as well as tasty. Pickles, preserves, jellies, apple butter, salsa, and pure maple syrup from Sharon’s and neighboring property, are among the many selections she has to offer.

Sharon’s baked goods are in high demand. Home-made cinnamon rolls with burnt butter icing is beyond compare to any commercially made. Fruit breads, cookies, and lefse are fresh, moist and delicious. The fillings in her home-made pies are full of fruit or pecans which can be eaten immediately or frozen for future use.

Sprays are not used on any of their crops, not even the apples. Each apple is encased in a zipper plastic bag to keep the nasties off them which results in 98% perfect fruits. In a typical year, the Fruth’s bag about 2,000 apples when they are the size of marbles.

The sweetener used in most of their products is sugar – never corn syrup! The no-sugar line is sweetened with either Splenda or apple juice.