Iconic Island brand turns golden
PROVIDENCE BAY—For five decades a hardy group of berry pickers have braved the considerable thorns of the ubiquitous hawthorn bushes to provide the raw material for Hawberry Farms’ popular Hawberry Jelly.
The Expositor caught up with Agnes Cuthbertson to chat about the interesting history behind the confection.
“It came about because the motel (Huron Sands) opened in the mid-1960s,” said Ms. Cuthbertson. “We sold the motel in 2018 but continue making the jelly.”
Stew Cuthbertson founded Providence Bay’s Huron Sands Motel and Restaurant with his business partner Neil McArthur (the pair having met while working at Eatons).
“Stew (Stewart Grant Cuthbertson, aka Irving Lipshitz, Ms. Cuthbertson’s late husband) was always on the lookout for something to build up the shoulder season,” she recalled. “We tried different things and Hawberry Jelly was one of those things.”
That’s Hawberry Jelly, not jam, which would be quite problematic. “There are too many seeds to make jam,” said Ms. Cuthbertson, a retired home economics/family studies teacher at MSS. “You boil down the berries, strain the juice, and use that.” The juice is used to make jelly and the recipe has long been in common use on Manitoulin.
“Islanders have been making it for years,” she said. “One of the stories is that, because it is high in vitamin C, hawberry jelly helped keep body and soul together during the Great Depression. It was very useful.”
A number of early staff at Huron Sands were local Islanders, noted Ms. Cuthbertson, and making the jelly was pretty much second nature to them. “It was something they were always doing in their own homes,” she said. One of the staff, Evelyn, cooked up the first batch in a pressure cooker. “We had her making Hawberry Jelly and there were soon 100 jars sitting on the shelves.”
The original label featured an old-fashioned fireplace mantel laden with pots and jars—that image can still be found in advertisements in The Expositor archives.
“Those first labels were typed on a typewriter,” laughed Ms. Cuthbertson. “It looked more professional than a handwritten label.”
That first venture into the realm of jellies and jams was so well received that the family soon branched out into different types of jams and jellies and expanded marketing far beyond the Island’s shores.
“Hawberry Jelly is still very much an Island project,” said Ms. Cuthbertson.
Her late husband Stew threw himself into marketing with gusto, travelling to trade shows across the land to introduce the company’s wares to the uninitiated. Although there was a slight pause following Mr. Cuthbertson’s illness and subsequent passing, the family-run business is still going strong.
Today the Hawberry Farms inventory of jams and jellies is extensive, expanding from one jar of Hawberry Jelly to over 220 products sold in fine stores and trade shows across Canada.
Happy 50th anniversary to Hawberry Jelly, may you continue to grace toast for many years to come.
