ALEX FOREST, one half of Smart Alex Jams, gestures while explaining the importance of precision in cooking time and ingredient amounts while waiting for a jam mixture to “cook down” in her Brunswick kitchen.
But when Alex Forest and Bobbie Touchin say it, they’re talking about six to eight hours each day when they’re up to their elbows in berry patches or bins of fresh-picked fruit, or wielding ladles, cooking spoons and canning jars in a very serious manner.
ALEX FOREST ladles hot jam mixture into jars. Each batch fills 15 jars, which will be sealed, labeled and stored on-site for distribution. Forest and Bobbie Touchin use freshlypicked fruit and no preservatives, so each jar has a one-year shelf life.
BOBBIE TOUCHIN, the other half of Smart Alex Jams, inhales the thick, sweet scent of hot jam mixture. Touchin and Alex Forest, who are business- and life partners, produce more than 18,000 jars of homemade jam each year.
In addition to picking the majority of the fruit used in the 14 varieties they make, they market on Facebook and through their website. They applied for and received a mini-grant from Portland-based Women, Work and Community, which they used to have a banner made for their show display.
They bought a nice canopy and display and started hitting local fairs and trade shows.
The personal touch — as well as the quality of the jam — has worked well for Forest and Touchin, who consider small sales to individual customers the most gratifying, if financially limiting.
“I never want to become a dynasty, and we’ll never cold-pack (a mass-produced product),” Forest said, “because that’s when you lose it. When I’m stirring that pot, I’m thinking of the customer who’s going to buy this jam.”
While the confining and intimate kitchen also lends itself to the authenticity of the smallbatch, homemade product, Forest acknowledges that the day is coming — and quickly — that they’ll have to do something to expand operations.
“That’s what is a little bit scary,” Forest added, “in order to take that leap of faith, I have to be willing to hand over the spoon to someone else.”
Booming business, baby steps
The two women are business and life partners. Forest, a for- mer accountant, is the more accomplished cook, so she is the mistress of the small kitchen where the baking magic happens.
Touchin is retired military and still works armed security at Bath Iron Works. The shipbuilders provide an invaluable service to the jam-makers: They serve as taste-testers.
“Bobbie will take some to work and if the guys like it, that was a good sign,” Forest said. “Even if they didn’t, they were very honest about it, too, which we appreciate.”
Touchin also provides some of the organizational discipline and logistical support for Smart Alex Jams by labeling jars, packing crates, taste-testing and even doing some of the “hiring.”
“My sister, Rebecca, was our first employee,” Touchin jokes.
Rebecca flew in from New Mexico and spent five weeks helping the duo pick strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and other seasonal fruits that eventually will wind up in Smart Alex Jams gift boxes and sales loads.
The trio picked more than 300 pounds of berries during that time. Rebecca liked the job and working conditions so much that she’s coming back in September to pick apples, peaches and other stock.
In addition to being the de facto Human Resources manager, Touchin also is responsible — sort of — for coming up with the business’s name.
Upon returning from the store one night with one of Forest’s favorite desserts, Touchin wrote a semi-sarcastic comment into the frosting that read, “Here you are, Smart Alex.”
From there, the now-booming cottage industry was born.
“Alex loves to cook and everyone always told her she should start her own business baking things,” Touchin said.
Prior to becoming her own boss, Forest endured the “panic moment” that followed when her accounting position was eliminated by her former employer, and then later when her hospitality position in Maine also was downsized. When the nausea faded, she looked around at the employment landscape and decided to try something different.
She and Touchin established Smart Alex Jams in 2012, immediately trademarked the name and designed some business cards on their computer.
Then they picked a bunch of berries and started cooking and marketing.
One year later they have contracts with numerous community-sponsored agriculture groups and farms, including orchards in Limerick and a winery in Lincolnville.
Forest knows people envision an industrial kitchen, with stainless steel ovens and huge pots. Even though the state regulates her kitchen operations with the same standards as any restaurant or commercial bakery, she wants to find a balance between the extremes.
At maximum capacity, Forest’s little kitchen produces 300 to 400 jars a week, 15 jars in every batch. They produce 14 different varieties, including four seasonal flavors.
Raspberry-mango is the most popular.
“I don’t want the industrial kitchen,” she said. “It’s baby steps. But seeing it grow so quickly in just the second year, we know we’re going to have to take the next step pretty soon.”
For the time being, Touchin and Forest have to finish the busy summer trade show and festival season. Then, when fall and holiday seasons arrive, they’ll release a “mystery” flavor that Forest has been developing.
She’s also working on low-sugar variations, and likely will add another gourmet winebased flavor to the roster.
“You never want to get so big that you’re too busy to remember the customer that you were making jam for in the first place,” Touchin said. “High-tech and convenience are nice, but how many people can take the time these days to stir a pot?”
jtleonard@timesrecord.com
Contact info
¦ HOW TO FIND:
Internet: www.smartalexjams.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/smartalexjams
Postal: P.O. Box 447, Brunswick, ME 04011
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