Homegrown, Handcrafted Foods Are This Haddon Twp. Business' Speciality

HADDON, NJ — Amanda Rodriguez, who owns and operates The Rod Homestead in Haddon, said she thrives on making and crafting foods that use ingredients that come from her South Jersey farm and garden.

The few times she cannot complete a recipe with items from there, she sets out to find what she needs elsewhere in South Jersey.

As a result, whether customers purchase her baked macaroni and cheese, beef burritos, garden-fresh basil sauce, waffles, one of her soup kits, or any of the other food items she makes, Rodriguez says the buyer is getting something that is homemade and home-crafted from the southern part of the Garden State.

The ideas for her menu come from other foods she has tried.

"I will eat something and taste maybe four things," Rodriguez said. "I start from there, then I build or take away until I find what I like."

The first thing Rodriguez ever made was her own vanilla extract, which was based on the chocolate chip cookie recipe her mother gave her as a child. Over the years, she fine-tuned her cooking and baking skills in places such as New York City, Princeton, and Savannah Georgia.

"I was always gifting my vanilla extract for Christmas," Rodriguez said. "My friends kept telling me 'You have to stop giving this stuff away. You have to start seeing if people want [to buy] it.'"

She soon found that people not only wanted the vanilla extract, but they also wanted the other things she made too, like the baked macaroni and cheese, beef burritos and garden-fresh basil sauce. This demand meant she had to find a place to set up shop.

"I was searching for a place. About 12 months ago, I was doing spring flea markets up here and this building was the first place that said 'We would love to have you.'"

Thus, The Rod Homestead was born inside SoHa Arts Building, a building along the White Horse Pike in Haddon where artists and crafters from all different genres can rent out space to fine-tune their craft.

When a customer orders from The Rod Homestead website, Rodriguez begins that fine-tuning process within her kitchen at SoHa. Her foods often come packaged in decorated mason jars or other embellished containers. Rodriguez said she picked up her designing skills while earning her Master's degree and making shoes and handbags for a Pennsylvania business that works in the fashion industry, Rodriguez said.

The Rod Homestead's website has Rodriguez's full menu, information about upcoming baking classes she offers and more.

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