Today we’d like to introduce you to Judy Jarvis.
Judy, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
We moved to Georgia in August of 2020 in the middle of the pandemic from Brooklyn NYC by way of Guyana. Due to the move, my husband had to leave his job as he could not work from home like I could. We brainstorm a number of ways to supplement our income. After we got settled and started to familiarize ourselves with our neighborhood and surroundings, we soon realized they were no Guyanese Cuisine whether it was fast food or dine-in restaurant around.
I love to cook and did some of that whilst I was in NYC mostly for friends and family (who always commented I should start selling or get a restaurant). After realizing there were no Guyanese foods around a lightbulb went off and we decided that bringing Guyanese Cuisine to our area was what we’ll do. We knew we could not afford to open a restaurant as we were not known in the area so the next best thing I though of was farmer’s markets as we used to sell at farmer’s markets when we lived in Zimbabwe some years ago.
With the help of my then neighbor and friend we did some research on farmer’s markets around and contacted them got the requirements and hit the ground running. We got licensed at first as a cottage industry and we started selling baked goods from our home to person who saw our flyers and my husband also did house to house telling neighbors about our services and products and also to share flyers. When the summer of 2021 came around, we started at Lilburn Farmers Market on Fridays and Snellville Farmers Marker on Saturdays. We also used social media to let persons know about us and what we do.
Today we are general caterers who spiralized in Guyanese Cuisine, we also sell at four farmer’s market – Lilburn Farmers Market on Fridays, Snellville Farmers Market on Saturdays, Suwanee Farmers Market on Saturdays and Duluth Farmers Market every 2nd Sunday of the month. We also sell via Market Wagon and our customers can also place orders for delivery. Besides pastries and roti, we also sell healthy juices to help with back pain, libido, blood pressure, diabetes, etc.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Smooth road, oh no there has been and still continues some big bumps is the road, but we are navigating them as best as possible.
We had and still have the challenge of having to explain what Guyanese Cuisine is, and what the ingredients are etc. But I must say people are very receptive at the Farmers markets, willing to try new things.
Sourcing ingredients was really a challenge, we had to pay more because we could not source them in bulk.
Going to events and only selling five plates and having to waste so much product/food because person only go for what they know.
As you know, we’re big fans of Beatrice Cuisine. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We are a husband and wife duo married for seven years with three children move to Georgia in 2020. We specialize in Guyanese Cuisine, we sell at farmer’s markets, fairs and festivals and we cater for all occasions. We are known for our healthy juices especially the immune booster and Capadulla.
We want person to know about Guyanese Cuisine it’s unique a mixture of nationalities on one plate, example India where we got our roti and curries from and Africans where we got cook-up rice and cassava pone or the most and best pepper pot from Amerindian.
We want everyone to know the difference between our Cuisine and that of other Caribbean nations. Everyone knows Jamaican Cuisine but persons are now getting to know about Guyanese Cuisine.
We not saying that we are the best Guyanese cooks around, we are just doing our best to introduce our unique cuisine to this part of the country and hopefully as we grow we’ll expand to different cities.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
Persons can collaborate with us by inviting us to take part in a various events or hire us to do catering for events they may be having.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: instagram.com/beatricecuisinegy
- Facebook: facebook.com/beatricecuisine
