Stanton woman finds true calling in canning
By Audrie Palmer
Staff Writer
Lavone Woodruff started making jams and jellies with her grandmother when she was a child. She remembers helping to peel peaches for canning when she was in first grade.
Her grandmother would spend all day cooking the fruits in giant washtubs.
Woodruff would help as she could, peeling and doing whatever else was needed, but mostly, she said, she would just watch her.
As she got older, she started trying things out on her own and figuring out how to make her own concoctions.
“The salsas are my own recipes,” Woodruff said. “I blend all my own spices.”
She made them as gifts for friends and family members until her daughter persuaded her to try to sell them.
That was two years ago, and now every Saturday morning you can find Woodruff with her Yellow Rose jars at the Midland Downtown Farmers' Market.
She had an assortment of jams and jellies spread out on her table on a recent Saturday — everything from wild plum to pineapple, blueberry and jalapeño. She’s created her own favorites like strawberry mimosa made with champagne and orange juice and others like “Berry Good” and “Mango Tango.”
“We have a lot of repeat customers,” Woodruff said with a smile as a friend returned a few empty Mason jars.
Some specialty jams and jellies she makes — like “Blush” from cranberries, raspberries and Chablis wine — have come from her experimenting with different fruits and spices.
“So far, they’ve all turned out,” she said.
To counter the sweet jams and jellies, Woodruff sells her homemade red and green tomatillo salsas.
She’s been making the homemade delicacies during the past 50 years and has a system in her kitchen on days when she needs to cook new orders. She averages about five hours a day spent making various batches and said some days she can spend eight to 10 hours in her kitchen finishing orders.
In her kitchen, she has everything laid out, premeasured and ready to be cooked.
“I don’t really have a favorite I like to make. I enjoy making all of them. They’re just so pretty,” she said.
And how did they come up with the name Yellow Rose?
Lavone and her daughter Melloine Woodruff said they toyed with the idea of naming it after their yellow house in Stanton, but then Melloine said her mother loves roses.
“I called her and said, ‘I got it! Yellow Rose Salsa, the only one for me,’” Woodruff sang into the phone to her daughter.
They ordered red aprons with big yellow roses embroidered on the front along with the business name. A local jeweler molded earrings out of clay in the shape of the state of Texas with yellow roses attached for the mother and daughter. The two wear them proudly on Saturday mornings as they greet customers downtown at their booth.
And while she now has her own business selling the canned goods she’s been putting together for years, Lavone Woodruff said she still believes in giving many away as gifts.
“When you get a blessing, you have to keep passing it on,” she said.
——— Audrie Palmer can be reached at apalmer@mrt.com.
Jane Belknap, left, takes her jar of “Berry Good” jam from Lavonne Woodruff on Saturday at the Midland Downtown Farmers' Market.
Melloine Woodruff, left, and her mother Lavone restock their table with their homemade jams, jellies, salsa and jarred beans Saturday at the Midland Downtown Farmers' Market.