Jessica DeMarco, founder of Copper Pot & Wooden Spoon, grew up surrounded by family food and farm tradition. She pursued a culinary career working in fast-paced restaurants, but was ultimately inspired to slow down as she experimented with traditional methods of preserving the bounty she found at western NC's farmers' markets.
Mark Overbay, founder of Big Spoon Roasters, tasted fresh-ground peanut butter while serving in the Peace Corps in Zimbabwe, where locals there roasted nuts over an open fire and ate the butter alone with a bit of honey and salt.
Craig Rudewicz was an avid cocktail enthusiast in Raleigh when he realized that New York and the west coast had the monopoly on bitters and that North Carolina was left without. No more! Craig started Crude Bitters and Sodas in 2012 as the first (and currently only) bitters company in NC.
April McGreger grew up on a farm in Mississippi but made North Carolina her home when she came to UNC for graduate school. After a long stint as pastry chef at the acclaimed Lantern restaurant in Chapel Hill, and after studying preserving traditions around the world, April founded her Farmers Daughter Brand in 2007.
