“I started out as a part-time blueberry farmer and was picking blueberries for not very much a pound,” Nan Paige recalls. It was her “little hobby.”
With 300 plants on her Pleasant Hill operation, Nan started thinking about ways she could make more money.
“I made some syrup and took it to a local PTA (Parent Teacher Association) bazaar and sold it all,” she says. “Then people started calling all through the year asking if I had any more.”
The next year, Nan made four times as much syrup and added raspberry to her line. The same thing happened again.
“People still kept calling to see if I had more,” she says.
Confident that she could make some extra money with her hobby, Nan left her job of 17 years at the local junior high school. It was January of 1990 when Nan and her husband, Bill, decided to start their business, Paige’s Pride.
Their first step was to develop a label for the syrups and jellies they planned to market.
“We ended up going to the art department at Pleasant Hill High School and the art teacher and his advanced class made it their project. They designed some different labels and the teacher worked out a unit on advertising,” says Nan.
Bill and Nan selected the drawing they thought best represents their business, Paige’s Pride. It was a country type scene surrounded by two-color checkered border. The teacher finished the project by serving pancakes and Paige’s syrup to the class. “We felt a sense of real community involvement right from the beginning,” says Nan.
The Paiges’ subsequently added another label to their product line, called Paige’s Choice. This four-colored, scenic label reflects the rich and healthy environment of the Willamette River where the Paige family has settled. The aesthetic quality of the product inside, as well as the abundant Historic Covered Bridges of the area are also represented in each label. The bridges represented on each flavor include the Lowell, Unity and Coyote Creek bridge.
“I think the reason these syrups and jellies have become so popular is that we don’t use any additives and we start with fresh berries.” says Nan.
Nan works from June through October, juicing her fruit while it is fresh, then freezing it.
In a kitchen facility beside her house, she then makes syrups and jellies throughout the year, except during marketing time for the products. Bill is a major part of the business at this point, handling all the shipping and sales.
Teamwork and skill have brought us Paige’s Choice. Flavorful and nice to look at, we guarantee you will happy with this product line.
