Farmers markets offer more than prepared bites—they’re home to local makers crafting small-batch goods designed for the home kitchen. From curated spice blends and fresh fruit jams to roasted whole-bean coffee and pepper-forward hot sauces, these vendors are turning their passion for flavor into everyday staples meant to live on long after the market ends.
Brewing Up a New Career
Garrett Buckles never had a passion for coffee beyond his morning cup of joe. But when a friend opened a roastery in Fort Myers and Buckles began experimenting with roasting, he got “bit by the bug” and started rethinking his career in the insurance agency he and his wife owned and operated.
Buckles eventually took a position at a local specialty coffee roaster to learn the trade, immersing himself in the craft of coffee production. In 2020, he founded Brown Bag Coffee Company in Safety Harbor.
After attending trade shows and meeting farmers from coffee-growing regions around the world, Buckles focused on sourcing directly from producers rather than through co-ops. The approach allows Brown Bag Coffee to offer specialty-grade beans harvested from family farms, particularly in Brazil’s Cerrado region.
Specialty-grade coffee is typically defined as beans scoring 80 or higher on industry grading scales. The carefully selected beans arrive at Brown Bag’s Safety Harbor warehouse in 132-pound burlap sacks, stacked eight to 10 feet high and filling nearly a third of the space.
From there, Buckles focuses on developing roast profiles that highlight the bean’s natural characteristics. A medium roast serves as the base, with light and dark roasts built from it to create different flavor expressions. The beans are then hand-scooped into 1-pound bags for sale.
Beyond whole-bean coffee, Buckles also produces cold brew using a traditional 20-gallon vat method, later bottled and flavored with various syrups. The company also offers iced teas and lemonades.
Brown Bag Coffee Company operates a production facility and warehouse in Safety Harbor, where it roasts, packages and distributes products. It also runs a coffee shop in Ybor City’s Centro Ybor and, as of recently, a second retail location in Palm Harbor. The brand has also expanded through local markets, including the Ybor City and Safety Harbor markets, and continues to sell wholesale throughout the St. Petersburg area.
From Homemade Jam to a Multi-Line Brand
Founded nearly a decade ago under the parent company Dawes Distribution — named for Sharon Young’s grandfather — the business Young and Dwight Hudgins built has grown into three distinct product lines: Barbara’s Kitchen, The Dreaded Fisherman and Brie and Tiffany Herbal Teas. And it all began with a simple love of strawberry picking.
After a particularly abundant haul, Young decided to turn the fruit into jam. The result was a revelation compared to store-bought versions. What started as a holiday gift for friends and family soon became something more.
After marrying Hudgins, Young returned to school to study culinary arts. Encouraged by those around her, she began selling her jams at local markets. Named in honor of her mother, Barbara’s Kitchen was born.
From the start, the couple set out to change how people think about jam. “Jams aren’t just for toast” became their guiding idea, incorporating the spreads into marinades, glazes and even smoked dishes. What began with about 10 flavors has expanded to nearly 100, including seasonal varieties and multiple iterations of a single fruit.
Quality remains central to their process and the jams are still handmade, never mass-produced through machines. In some cases, the fruit is handpicked by the couple themselves.
Their growth has led to expansion beyond jams. Inspired by Young’s Jamaican roots and Hudgins’ background in agriculture and naturalism, they introduced salsas and chutneys, followed by The Dreaded Fisherman line, which includes fermented honey, natural seasonings made with old-world herbs, aged balsamics and cold-pressed olive oil.
Brie and Tiffany Herbal Teas — named after their nieces — followed, offering all-natural, hand-dried blends sourced from organic growers. At their brick-and-mortar location, the couple also hosts jam-making classes, charcuterie workshops, wild game nights and tea parties that blend tradition with education, covering everything from the differences among jams, jellies, marmalades and preserves to tea history and the benefits of herbs and spices.
Their products have found a growing audience, from local markets to vendors at Tampa International Airport and shops across multiple states, with orders reaching as far as Canada and the United Kingdom. Travel continues to inspire new flavors, with the pair sourcing unique ingredients from farms and regions they visit.
Today, Barbara’s Kitchen and its sister brands continue to grow from a foundation rooted in family, tradition and education.
Bringing the Heat
Self-proclaimed chef Carlos Sanchez never attended culinary school, but fell in love with cooking — and the art of flavor — at 13. As he got older, he realized his taste buds gravitated toward heat and spice. Friends and family began bringing him hot sauces from their travels, but while he could handle the heat, many lacked the clean flavor he craved. He sought a hot sauce that wasn’t just reserved for occasional use or designed purely to be intensely hot, but one that could stand alongside everyday condiments like ketchup and mustard — a go-to for hamburgers, hot dogs and more. Unable to find it, he decided to make his own.
In 2018, Sanchez spent a year experimenting with spices and fresh ingredients, including garlic, cilantro, onions and herbs, testing combinations and ratios until he found the right balance — one that allowed the peppers to take center stage. Fresh garlic, fresh onion, Himalayan sea salt and apple cider vinegar for fermentation form the base of his sauces, each highlighting a single pepper: Carolina Reaper, scorpion, ghost pepper, jalapeño and habanero — what he calls the “fierce five.”
What began as a hobby quickly gained traction. After going through multiple bottles a week, friends and family encouraged him to bring the product to market. In 2021, he did just that, participating in local farmers markets, hot sauce festivals and events.
Since then, Sanchez has partnered with a co-packer to meet growing demand. His product — Carlos’ Consuming Fire Hot Sauce — is now available in about 21 stores from Florida and Georgia to Ohio and New Jersey. It’s also the official hot sauce sponsor of the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels, the Clearwater Threshers, Phillies spring training, the Tampa Tarpons and the Daytona Tortugas.
“From the beginning, my thing was simply that I would love for people to have my hot sauce in their cupboards, in their refrigerators and in the hands of culinary chefs to use in creating dishes,” he says.
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