Today we’d like to introduce you to Connie Gibson.
Connie, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I had always grown herbs and flowers in our gardens while living in McKinney. When we moved on our small farm in Corsicana, I began to grow well, more. It turns out our daughter in law had a green thumb too and while visiting at their house one day my husband asked; How much money do you think you have on that basil plant out there? It was large and beautiful.
After that, Jim and I decided to take and dry our herbs and sell them at our local farmers market. People were interested but were quick to let us know they didn’t know what to do with them. Thinking about that we went off to the grocery store and realized that most herb or seasoning products were named in such a way they gave us direction on how and where to use the seasoning.
With a lot of health issues in our family, we knew we wanted our products to be pure, fresh and healthy, so we begin to develop our own seasoning recipes. They incorporate our fresh, dried herbs along with other spices and sea salts in some but we purposely left out all artificial ingredients, all anti-caking, etc. We decided our full ingredient list would be on the front label of each and every jar.
Our family had cleaned up our eating and had been getting rid of things we thought not healthy for us. We did find a beekeeper to obtain local (Dallas area) honey, and we begin to infuse that raw honey with fresh foods for fun new flavors to cook with. Again, we do not use any artificial flavors, just real food in our infused honeys.
We introduced our first few seasonings and flavors into the marketplace at Canton and some farmers markets in the Dallas area to find people were interested in what we were offering.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
No road is ever smooth. All of life comes with bumps, twists, turns, and disasters. Beginning a business is no different. The road takes persistence.
We believe in our products and have seen our customers do too. We work diligently to make this business good for the people who work with us and our customers who support us.
This type of work is very labor intensive and has a lot of hard costs before we can ever get it to market. The only way for me to continue on those difficult areas in the road is to stay true to my faith in Jesus Christ, try to walk with Him and know He is Good and has good in store for me.
Thankfully, working with family has not been a struggle. We all work hard to work well together and that is a decision we all make every day.
Most times when things aren’t going smoothly – deliveries not arriving on time, costs higher than expected, government requirements, illness and more – it is a decision that changes the mood of the day and all of those around us.
C & J Farms – Texas Artisan Seasonings – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We work to provide the freshest of ingredients in our seasoning blends and in our bulk dried herbs. We grow, harvest and dry and love to help people understand how to do this too. Sometimes, people are not successful in growing their own herbs when just a little information can change that for someone.
Our seasonings only contain herbs, spices and/or sea salts. The fact that we use no preservatives, anti-caking or anything at all other than the above ingredients is what sets us apart. We also make these daily. We create, blend, jar, and market everything and we do. This allows us not to have it sitting on shelves in long-term storage spaces.
Our customers can purchase directly from us and get the freshest product. We offer our seasonings in a very unique jar which has helped our brand be recognizable. We also offer refills for our products and our customers love this aspect of our business. We are proud to be able to offer a great product at a very good value.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I want the people who come along beside us daily helping us with all the aspects of this work to enjoy it, feel valuable and have room to grow. We can’t do it without them, and when they feel happy at work and valued, then I believe we have been successful.
We all want to have financial success to our work, or we can’t continue to help provide stable job opportunities with long-term benefits if the financial success isn’t a part of our goals.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cjfarmstexas.com
- Phone: 903-875-1798
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: cjfarmstx
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/CJFarmsTexas
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/CJFarmsTxHerbs
- Other: https://business.google.com/dashboard/l/01165452621609860609
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