Peg goes full circle to make canning work

LANCASTER – Peggy Corbett started canning when she was 6. Growing up just yards from where she now lives, “it was something you did with your family back then.”

It was something special for a large family that included her family of eight, plus cousins who created an 11-person family.

“If you wanted something sweet, everyone pitched in,” she said.

Now, she starts cooking every day and creates something sweet – actually a long list of sweet jellies and jams that she cans.

Peg’s Preserves grew from her love of canning.

As a teen, she entered her jellies and jams into competitions at the Bolton Fair and Sterling Fair.

She collected “a 50-gallon tote of ribbons” and has stopped competing; these days, she’s more likely to be tapped as a judge.

And she teaches.

She taught kindergarten in Lancaster for 27 years, taking an early retirement in June to focus on the preserves business, which has been a full-time hobby-turned-business for several years.

Now, her teaching consists of occasional canning lessons at Agway.

“It guides people to proper methods of canning,” Corbett said. “I want the methods of canning to be passed on.”

“I loved kindergarten, but this has my heart,” she said of her business. “I’m putting my life back on track,” adding that she had gone to cooking school, then shifted her attention to children and teaching.

Corbett said her daughter learned canning and “is better than me,” though her daughter’s life doesn’t have time for the canning, certainly not the way Corbett pursues it.

Her daughter used to also compete, but, for now, with life and kids, she fills in sometimes for Corbett when she’s manning a farmers' market booth.

Corbett has been a longtime participant in 4H, where she has passed farming skills to generations of children.

“It gives the kids the opportunity to learn those skills, those old-fashioned values,” she said. “I enjoy teaching something I like to do.”

Although she sells the jams and jellies, “I can everything,” Corbett said. Peg’s Preserves focuses on the 45 different jams and jellies she now offers.

“I find it to be stress relieving,” she said.

But, as a business, she spends hours each day working at it, from the farming to harvesting berries and then cooking and canning.

Then there’s the selling.

Her small store at her home on Brockelman Road lets people come to her.

But she is also busy going to farmers' markets.

You can find her, depending on the day, at the Lancaster, Harvard, Shrewsbury, Pinecroft (in West Boylston) or the Canal District (in Worcester) markets.

She had done the work at the Deershorn Farm store, but when that was sold several years ago, “it was the push for me to go on my own.”

With her focus now entirely on Peg’s Preserves – except for her other focus, her grandkids – she keeps very busy.

She hopes to add a Boston market in the winter, since she’s making jelly year-round

Corbett makes her jams and jellies as fresh as possible, creating each week what she expects to sell that week.

Every morning, she sets up and generally produces about 200 jars, a little less if she’s doing sugar free, which she does in smaller batches.

Canning focuses on safety, she said. She noted the licenses needed, from the kitchen license to certifications. Between each batch, she has to sterilize everything, she said.

She understands the need for that process, which prevents cross contamination with products that some may be allergic to. Having her own allergy, she understands the importance of avoiding a trigger allergen. She also has allergens awareness and Safe Serve certifications.

She sees potential new flavors as a chance to be creative.

She cited fennel: “I think about what can I do with it, the licorice taste.”

Popular flavors, such as pumpkin pie and banana bread, also can serve more uses.

She said banana bread can be used over ice cream.

For someone who has allergies, they “can have the jelly, but not the pie.” Having it over ice cream, they can “have their pie and eat it, too.”

Her favorite is raspberry peach, a flavor she said is great if someone is not feeling well.

Corbett said she grows most of the produce at her home and in a small orchard, which her husband helps with.

Her husband is also a beekeeper, which gives access to fresh local honey.

“That’s how I keep prices down,” she said, noting she charges $5 a jar at her store and $6 at the markets.

The markets represent more costs, even before factoring in travel time and set up, she noted, such as permits and licenses from the towns and boards of health to booth fees at the markets.

Plus there’s the cost of jars, which she now buys in bulk.

She said her husband was surprised by the success of the business; she makes more from Peg's Preserves than she did when she was teaching.

“It’s taken us by surprise, how quick it took off,” she said. “It’s an enjoyable job.”

She said she enjoys meeting people at the markets, noting they are excited to be at the market so are generally in a pleasant mood.

“Meeting the people and seeing their reactions is exciting and self-rewarding,” she said.

The only negative: Once she sells what she brings to a market, it’s gone. That did upset one customer, who had her heart set on a flavor Corbett had sold out of early on a day’s market. But she said customers can email her to hold specific flavors.

Corbett said she encourages people to go to the farmers' markets, even if they don’t buy anything.

“It is a social event,” she said. “A lot of people who show up are from out of town,” she said. But the farmers are there “to make sure you get the best food.”

The markets help show people, and their children, about local produce that is fresher and tastes better, she said.

Local products helps get the flavor into the products, she said.

Peg’s Preserves is generally open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the summer, and Corbett can be found at the farmers' markets along with other local farmers, artisans and crafters.