Meet North Carolina Winner Farmer’s Daughter

Posted on Friday, October 21st, 2011 in Pickles, Preserves by Sam Rosekrans

April McGreger founded Farmer’s Daughter Brand with the intention of representing her Southern roots in her pickles and preserves products. Originally learning the trade from her mother and grandmother, she finds creativity in the diverse vegetation provided by North Carolina’s seasonality—inspiring all sorts of delicious concoctions.

The hardest part for April is reeling in her imagination to create preserves that are palatable for all. She won in two categories last year with her Spicy Green Tomato Pickles and Bourbon’d Fig Preserves, but likes to be on the cutting edge with her inventory—always looking to combine new and interesting tastes. Her affinity toward blending different flavors together is evident in her reference to something as bland as pepper jelly: “I love taking ubiquitous recipes like pepper jelly (something you see everywhere, but not usually that good-tasting), and bumping up the flavor by using things like heirloom jelly, roasting peppers, and adding spice.” As a tip for your next cocktail party: pepper jelly goes well with cream cheese and lox on crackers/toast.

April began her career in the food industry as a pastry chef at a fine dining restaurant in North Carolina where she developed strong connections with farmers, sourcing all ingredients locally. After six years there, she branched off into her own business in May of 2007. Both her mother and grandmother taught her how to make preserves growing up, hence the name of her company: Farmer’s Daughter Brand. She makes it a point to source all Southern products; she loves the idea of regionally identifying foods. April enjoys the freedom and flexibility that comes with her work. Because she is so reliant on the farmer’s local produce, her business fluctuates with the seasons, which allows her to travel to other regions of the country during her region’s off-season: “It’s fun to travel in winter to other regions and see what they’re all about, but a lot of what inspires me is reviving old recipes, getting involved in the history of things, and having annual specialties.” However, being so dependent on local produce can also be a challenge, April explained, because if there is a high demand for a certain fruit or vegetable, but not enough locally grown, then you are out of luck.

Winning last year’s Good Food Award was very meaningful to April, who confessed that she often loses sight of the bigger picture in the food world. There are so many small producers in this country who take pride in their work and value slow food, but rarely do they coalesce. The Good Food Awards provides a platform for such networking and the validation that many like-minded producers in the food industry do in fact exist. April was in awe of the shared community that the Good Food Awards message provoked: “In small business it’s sometimes isolating because you have your head down and you’re working on your own product, but it’s awesome to be able to meet and be inspired by people who have the same ideals and motivations and who are doing similar work.”

This year, April is going in a different direction with her entries, focusing more on strawberries. Whatever produce is freshest and available is what guides her recipe foundation, which makes her products very connected to the seasons. April confided that the element of seasonality provides for an interesting base for her preserves making, from which her creativity takes over to produce a masterpiece of blended flavors.