Local business specialises in extraordinary sauces and pickles
SOMETIMES our options are limited when it comes to selecting a jelly or sauce to pair with a snack, but here in Guyana, that is not the case, because we have a wide variety of sweet pepper jelly, stew pepper sauce, sauces and exceptional pickles to choose from in the line of Jofa Products out of Sophia.
These extraordinary products were derived from a bad experience when they purchased some achar from a local vendor and the taste was nothing to shout about.
It was then Fay Gilgious-Greaves and her husband, John Greaves, decided they could make a better product, and embarked on their experimental journey of making sumptuous sweet-pepper jelly as a relish, spicy pepper sauce, sauces and pickles, all from local products.
Fay, a retired educator who spent 21 years teaching at a vocational centre, envisioned earning and establishing her own small business in 2021 from her home in 121 Block E South Sophia.
The entrepreneur told the Pepperpot Magazine that it is nothing new for her to experiment in the kitchen, because putting out excellent products of their brand, Jofa, a combination of both names John and Fay.
Fay, who is usually the face of their small business, related that she is the person who would meet stakeholders and companies to negotiate the sales and other things, while her spouse is a ‘behind-the-scene kind of person’ who supports her in his own way.
The ideas were all hers, and she is very ecstatic about what she does in maintaining a standard and providing a good product on the market to compete with any other that might be available, but so far, they have had little or no competition.
Fay also manages Online teaching, and gets things done in her free time to market her products and fulfill orders.
She reported that the preparation is a long, tedious one, and when there is a demand for her products, she would employ two persons from the community to assist her in taking out the seeds from the sweet peppers to make the sweet-pepper jelly.
Other times, she would sit comfortably and seed 30 pounds of sweet peppers by herself.
“I am looking forward to a lot of things, seeing my small business expanding, attaining the age of 60 to qualify for my NIS pension, and to finally receive my ‘Made in Guyana’ trademark label by the end of this year,” she said.
Gilgious-Greaves retired in 2021, and before that, she was always a ‘busybody’, doing things at home, such as farming and selling ‘greens’, and is also a seamstress who made African clothing to retail on a small scale.
She is also a regular feature at Emancipation Day celebrations, where she cooks several dishes and takes them to the National Park to sell.
Gilgious-Greaves makes tasty Pepperpot, cassava pone, konke and other dishes.
Reflecting on how she got started, she explained that one day they bought a bottle of local achar, and while it wasn’t bad, it lacked something. Her spouse told her he could do better.
It was then the stew-pepper idea was birthed, and it turned into a small business when he asked her to gather up all the ingredients and make the stew pepper the ‘old-school style’ like how their foreparents prepared it in the black-and-white days.
“I had stepped out, and when I got home, I was surprised at the aromatic atmosphere coming from my kitchen, and I went to see what my husband was doing, making stew pepper, and from then, it was no turning back after I had a taste,” she stated.
Gilgious-Greaves reported that they began giving samples to friends, family and others and then it became apparent they had to make more and have it bottled for sale due to the demand.
She added that she wanted the challenge and stepped up to it and have been trying to make herself marketable since she had already made her mark in arts and craft and was starting out in food.
Gilgious-Greaves participated in several pop-up shows and first started out with pepper sauce and green seasonings, which flooded the market.
She knew she needed another option for her small business and when her pepper stew, sweet pepper jelly, became a hit she had something going.
Today, she has since launched three new products – sweet pepper/pineapple sauce stir fry, garlic/cherry stir fry sauce and sweet pepper stir fry sauce. She also has Jofa mauby drink and pickles.
Gilgious-Greaves recently graduated from a successful 10-week training course among 14 persons from the Centre of Local Business.
In order to put out a quality product, Jofa Products is registered with the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) and the Guyana Manufacturing and Marketing Association Limited (GMSA) and have since participated in several business expos, Uncapped and others both locally and overseas.
Faye told the Pepperpot Magazine that she is very happy to market their products and the feedback has been encouraging so far; with that in mind, they can only get better in producing quality products.
She related that Jofa Products are available at the Guyana Shop, Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) on Robb Street, Georgetown and other retailed supermarkets including Survival Supermarket on Sheriff Street.
The mother of two added that she is motivated by being a ‘go-getter’ who cannot stay still for long and has always been doing new things to earn and decided to do it as a small business, having achieved retirement.
Gilgious-Greaves told the Pepperpot Magazine that she is a qualified social worker and will continue to challenge herself to be more creative to launch newer products.
She hopes to have her products available on the shelves at shops and supermarkets all over Guyana and become a household name.
The small business owner related that her products are registered with the Food and Drug Analyst Department and it is a safe, high-standard, quality product.
Gilgious-Greaves is originally from Beterverwagting, east Coast Demerara, but when her mother died, she went to live with her grandparents in Charlestown.
She later relocated to Sophia, which has been her home for 31 years.
She has five siblings, but the fate of one sister is unknown for the past 18 years. She went missing from the streets, having suffered a mental breakdown and hasn’t been seen since despite searches for her.
The grandmother of one pointed out that her products have reached overseas since a lot of people bought from her at the various expos to take back and she had a healthy sale in Barbados.
Gilgious-Greaves has since constructed a small, incomplete building to house her small business from her home and is optimistic her small business will grow.