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All about Gumbies’ Goodies – Gourmet Salsas and Sauces – from Jeff and Karin

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Karin and Jeff, founders of Gumbies’ Goodies

Here’s a little bit about how Jeff and Karin started Gumbies’ and how it got its name:

 It all began when Jeff picked up ideas from his mother’s cooking skills and later decided to visit an abolita’s (gramma’s) kitchen. He admired her loving care for the ingredients used to make specialty family recipes. He watched and learned about the importance of time spent, quality produce, precise order of cooking of ingredients and, especially, the loving care taken to create flavorful appealing goodies to be enjoyed by all. Through this experience, he developed an inner sense of quality cooking.

Jeff then took his prior knowledge and attended a canning class in 1984 to perfect his joy of cooking. In a happy marriage of growing his own produce and selecting the best to be canned for family and friends’ gifts, he spent hours out in his garden and worked in conjunction with his brother Nelson who owns the StoryBook Farm in Washington. He acquired an adept ability to grow and select the tastiest fresh produce for use in his canned goodies.

Karin joined him in this pursuit in 1991 and enjoyed the intricacies of taking fresh grown produce and turning it into some of the best canned goodies she had ever tasted. She designed the original labels, learned to help with the canning and encouraged Jeff to develop this growing business.

June 2010 sent the Gumbies off to OS Kerr Institute, where, after intense study, Jeff & Karin were awarded Kerr Institute Food Processing Certificates.  They can now run aseptic food processing plants as big as Gerber’s!  The more tests they took the higher the scores; with Jeff acing his & Karin scoring in the high 90’s.
Many apps later, all required licenses were obtained and are being kept current.  The Gumbies had arrived!

Over the years, Jeff has canned 1000’s of gift goodies. Also, he has catered for Weld School’s Administrative Functions, weddings, Valic/AIG Holiday Parties, graduations and many celebration get-togethers. Jeff’s canned goodies were in such a demand that it was a natural progression that they decided to become a commercial business. But what name would ultimately suit this passion for cooking?

Jeff and Karin are both long time educators. Jeff was a track coach for over 25 years and during that time he’d call his kids, “Gumbies” for silly mistakes on the track. In turn, the kids started to call him, “Coach Gumby” and the name stuck so well that “Gumbies” was an inevitable name for his canned goodies that are now ready to share with you. Enjoy!

— from Jeff and Karin

Please check out the giveaway on my blog to win 4 jars of delicious Gumbies’ Goodies here!

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Comments

  30. ann says

    i have not heard of Gumibes Goodies before. It sure sounds like they did a lot to educating themselves on foods and canning. Canning over 1,000 goodies WOW
    Must be good because they started their own business for it, plus doing catering.
    Also coaching – how does he find all the time. Hope to try the products real soon
    Great review.

    Reply

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