Making lemonade from a few unwanted lemons is one thing, but what can you do with 150 gallons of blueberries?
Cindy Epps of Cindy’s Bits & Pieces was determined to work her surplus of backyard fruit into a shortbread recipe, but it took years to figure out a shelf-stable solution. She released Blueberry Blessings, made with crushed freeze-dried berries, in 2023.
“They’re never going to outsell cheese, but there are people who love them,” she told me.
Consequently, she endeavors every summer to harvest all 80 bushes on her Dry Branch property, sometimes with her grandchildren’s help. Last year, she wasn’t sure she’d get the job done; she confessed as much to a customer, who “politely point[ed]” to a sign in Epps’ sales booth quoting Matthew 19:26: “All things are possible with God.”
“In that moment, it was as if I had been gently busted by God,” Epps wrote on her blog.
And so, Blueberry Blessings remained on offer, along with eight other varieties of sweet and savory cookies. When Epps, then a full-time dental hygienist, founded her company in 2014, she only sold peanut brittle, but cheese wafers soon thereafter became her signature product.
Still, “I try to have one new one a year to keep the ball rolling on,” she said. Epps is thinking about releasing peach shortbread next year.
“I’m sure the peach one won’t sell,” she said. “It’s like the blue cheese: I’ll take 300 spicy cheese to a show, and maybe 30 blue cheese.”
Those 30 blue cheese walnut cracker buyers, though? They’re thrilled.
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