A woman who cooks with relish for a good cause
 Marie Hirschfeld of Cheshire makes her own marinades, relishes and chutneys. Hirschfeld then donates part of the proceeds from each sale to the New England Organ Bank in Boston. (Dave Zajac / Record-Journal) |
© 2005 Record-Journal
CHESHIRE -- The original relish came from her grandmother. But that was just a springboard for Marie Hirschfeld's business, Giff's Original. She gives 5 percent of the proceeds of the small sauce and chutney business to charity.
This year's charity is the New England Organ Bank. Hirschfeld chose it after her grown daughter, Robin Williams, died Sept. 15 in Vermont while awaiting a second heart transplant. She came to need a transplant after contracting lupus.
Hirschfeld, 67, always liked to cook, and worked as a junior high and high school home economics teacher on Long Island, and substitute taught, before leaving education to focus on food. She has a bachelor's degree from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh and took graduate courses at New York University while working in Hartford in food styling. She still does some food styling freelance and recently cooked the recipes in a children's cookbook so they could be photographed to go with the text.
Hirschfeld went into business after her friends and relatives told her they liked her sauces so much that she should sell them. She used money from her savings to start the business.
"I didn't go to a bank," she said. "It would have furthered my income more than now. I used income from my food styling business. I have a business plan I was about to take to a bank, then decided to go on my own."
Giff's sells five products now, and Hirschfeld is working on a sixth. The current products are Cranberry Ginger Chutney, Cranberry Pepper Relish, Pepper Relish (a variation on her grandmother's recipe), Mango Spice Salsa, and Grill & Marinade Sauce. They sell at $4 to $6, depending on the venue. The sauces are fat-free and low in salt. The sixth, another chutney, will have an Indian flavor, and be available by the end of 2005.
"I'm still tweaking the recipe," she said. "I had a family gathering yesterday. I had them taste it. They all loved it. But I don't know how honest it was."
While the business doesn't bring in enough income for Hirschfeld to make a living, it is well organized and has devoted followers. Hirschfeld makes a sample of each product in her Sir Walter Drive kitchen, and takes it to a manufacturer in New Haven. The manufacturer, Onofrio's Ultimate Foods LLC, then ships cases of the new product to a warehouse in East Haven. She says she oversees the production at Onofrio's, comparing the product being made with a sample from home.
"I stick with it to make sure it tastes the same as the prototype," she said.
When the business opened five years ago, Hirschfeld had her product manufactured by a Watertown company, Gourmet Foods. She heard about two years later that the company was about to close, and found the New Haven firm, instead. Gourmet made the sauces kosher. She wanted to find another kosher manufacturer in Connecticut, but was unable. She chose the New Haven company so she could stay in the state.
"I would like for it to be kosher," she said. "It was a trade-off. There aren't that many that will make 100 cases, a small batch."
While Hirschfeld is still sending out many of the orders herself, she'd like to find a distributor.
"It's a long road," she said. "It's very hard to find the right distributor. I'm really interested in finding a distributor who's not just an order-taker, who believes in the product and pushes it."
In addition to Internet sales and sales at select festivals, such as at the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington, she sells her marinades and sauces through specialty food stores, such as Lyman Orchards in Middlefield. She enjoys doing food tastings at Lyman Orchards. Hirschfeld has found that consumers can be surprised by the taste, and wants people to know what they're buying.
"A lot of people like her products," Marc Gadoury, Lyman store manager, said. "They're filled with fresh product. A hearty relish, it's filled. There's no way you'd find this relish in the supermarket."
