Market Forces: Olsson’s Fine Foods

This week, Patch spoke with Jennifer Smit, co-owner (with her husband Rudie) of Olsson’s Fine Foods, a store in Lawrenceville. Their stand at the Summit Farmer's Market is an oasis on hot days when lines form for their cold lemonade and ice cream. It is located towards the center of the lot, facing DeForest Avenue. 

Would you describe your business?

We are an eclectic mix of gourmet foods. We sell cheese and coffee and tea and gluten-free, along with some farm-raised meats, but then we come to Summit with homemade ice cream, homemade lemonade, and homemade spreads: blue cheese and garlic, horseradish and cheddar, olives and grilled peppers, salmon and tomato, artichoke and tomato basil. And we just started to bring our tomato chutney. So we’re bigger than what we bring to Summit. Our store in Lawrenceville is open Thursday through Sunday. We also go to Hopewell, West Windsor, Westfield, and the Trenton Farmer’s Market. We have three part-time employees, and in the summertime we have a little bit more – a few college kids. We really are just a family-run business.

How did you come to own the business?

The store’s been around for about 25 years. My husband and I had gotten our cheeses for our wedding here. About three years ago - it was Thanksgiving - we heard that they were going to put this business up for sale. My husband and I were both working in corporate America. He was a general manager. He didn’t get much vacation time and he was traveling 75 percent of the time, so it was no way to live.So it was more about a lifestyle change and being with the family more.  We were looking for something and everything kind of fell into our lap. We have this baby [Ed: a seven and a half-month old son] and I have three step-daughters that live in England, and this affords us the luxury of being able to see them a little more. The people who work for us keep the store open so that we can see our step-daughters every six to eight weeks and keep them a priority. I still work in corporate America for the money and the benefits, but he does not. We work our tails off, but it’s for us.   

Why the food business though?

My husband is Dutch, and we’ve traveled the world and done weird things like go to the grocery store everywhere we go. That’s where you see how real people do it. We’ve always traveled the world enjoying good food, and we always liked to cook together so it was a pretty natural fit for us. We’ve taken classes. We’ve met a bunch of cheese makers and entrepreneurs – grass-fed chicken people – that we’ve become friends with. It’s a very small world when you get into it, and we have very similar passions so it works out okay.

 How did you get involved in the Summit Farmer’s Market? What do you like about it?

We had a friend that suggested we go and see if we could get into it. It was a good market and the people were nice, and that’s what we were looking for. Summit is really well run. It’s really one of the models of markets. You have to come early and stay late; if you sell out, you have to stay as long as possible. Here are the rules: you have to be nice to vendors and to people, and if not you have to go. I don’t think it’s ever said that way, but it’s no-nonsense.  And the people are really nice. Here’s a perfect example. We were all working hard one day, and the kielbasa people brought me a kielbasa, and I gave them ice cream, and same thing with the pickle guy. That’s nice. You know you might not become millionaires doing this work, but you’re going to have a nice life.

What’s your best-seller in Summit?  

The lemonade does the best. We juice the lemons ourselves, and over time we’ve worked on the recipe. We always take local fruit from the farmers to add to it, so I think that gives us something a little different. And the spreads are doing really well too. We have regulars now for the ice cream, people that come and buy quarts of ice cream every week. Our homemade ice cream is one hundred percent cream, really.

What flavors do you have?

Right now it’s blueberries from the farmers, no additives; dolce de leche, strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, almond joy, and something called Badda Bing Ice – it’s bing cherries in ice.   

What do you like best about what you do?

My husband and I have met the greatest people. People that we never would have known before have become our friends just because we have met them through the market. It’s been the most wonderful experience.  

Running a business is hard work – what keeps you going?

Through the recession, I think my husband and I were never quitters. We got kind of creative: we teach cheese classes now; we increased the number of markets we’re in; we evaluated what was doing well and what wasn’t. I think we’re feisty, and we’re in it for the long haul. When I’m having a bad day, he’s on, and when the roles are changed, I am. So we keep each other going and inspired – that’s how we are able to get through it.