THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 26, 1996 TAG: 9605240242
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: 91 lines
Just about single-handedly, Vickie Chappell is spreading a taste of old Princess Anne County across Virginia.
From her home way down on Princess Anne Road, this wife and mother of two is tending to a tasty business that has pushed the limits of her time and the walls of her house, literally.
In her tiny kitchen she turns out about 20,000 jars of delicacies a year made with the likes of strawberries and blueberries from Pungo or scuppernong grapes and pecans from her own yard.
Her jams, jellies, preserves and cakes are sold in places as close to home as Pungo Produce to specialty stores across the state because she has the gold ``Virginia's Finest'' seal from the Virginia Agriculture Department.
Chappell began her business about two years ago with the encouragement of her mother, mother-in-law and husband John. She introduced her products at the 1994 Pungo Strawberry Festival where she'll also be today, selling her goodies.
In two years, she already has turned her large car port into a showroom for wholesale customers and a labeling, packing and shipping room. Her sun porch is the storage room for shipping boxes.
``And my china cabinet is full of jelly!'' she said.
Although garlic jelly (tasty with a bagel and cream cheese )is unusual and even though pecan jam (great on ice cream) is not your run of the mill jam, Chappell offers up something even more unusual in a jar - cakes.
Her 16-ounce apple rum cake and old-fashioned pound cake are yummy, moist cakes baked right in the jar and sealed in the same way a jelly jar is sealed. The cakes, which stay fresh for a year, come by their rich country taste rightfully so.
``The apple rum cake is my mother's,'' she said, ``and the pound cake is Mrs. Chappell's.''
She had to alter the recipes slightly to get the moisture content right for a cake in a jar. At first there was a lot of experimenting and some failures but the good old-fashioned flavor stayed the same.
``It's my favorite thing of all,'' Chappell said, ``because it's still neat to me. Whenever we have company, everyone knows what I'm going to break out!''
Her kitchen is very small, not much bigger than a Pullman kitchen and she uses a regular family-size stove and can only bake 6 cakes in the oven at one time. She makes so much jelly and jam on top of the stove that she burns out the electric eyes constantly.
Her pear preserves are a big cause of burnout, she said. Cooked for hours in an open pot, the preserves are made from pears that grow on trees in her yard.
``It's old-fashioned pear preserves with no pectin,'' she said. ``My husband was raised on it. It's good over biscuits.''
Her hot jalapeno jelly is a favorite of hers, too. Made with peppers they raise in the yard, it's a tangy, especially peppery spread.
Burgundy wine jelly is a new product that she came up with when she started carrying her wares to wine festivals. She also sells at other festivals and at gift shows, but she doesn't advertise, relying on word of mouth instead.
The little wholesale showroom features a variety of gift packs from tiny 2-ounce jars packed in decorative crates to a fancy basket featuring a cake and two 4-ounce jars of jam or jelly. She also sells individual jars in 2- and 4-ounce sizes by the case.
Other products include red and green pepper jelly, scuppernong grape jelly, blueberry jam and strawberry and peach preserves. In retail stores, 2-ounce jars usually sell for $1.99 and the 4-ounce, $2.99. The cakes are $5.99.
Although she doesn't open her home to retail customers, she'll take credit card gift orders over the phone and ship them out for a $5 shipping and handling fee. The number to call is 721-0873. But if you just want to try some for yourself, you can find her products at Pungo Produce, East of Napa and Farmer Jack's.
P.S. Lifeguards! an exhibit of pictures and memorabilia of Virginia Beach lifeguards will be on display Tuesday through June 24 at the Life-Saving Museum of Virginia, 24th Street and Oceanfront. The exhibit is free with museum admission.
BIRD CALLS: This year's crop of baby eagles is doing well. The two on Back Bay are just about ready to fly. The two at Stumpy Lake are almost grown and their tail feathers are coming in.
John Tinkham said a big flight of migrating bobolinks, ``bubbling and chattering,'' stopped over in his Thoroughgood yard to dine and took care of the cankerworms infesting his maple trees. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know
about Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555.
Enter category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by MARY REID BARROW
In her tiny kitchen, Vickie Chappell turns out about 20,000 jars of
jams, jellies, preserves - and pound cakes, baked and sealed right
in the jar. They are sold throughout the state with the ``Virginia's
Finest'' seal. by CNB