In the kitchen: A taste for experimenting, a knack with the mixing bowl

Senior Friends abound

CSL: California Senior Legislature selects priorities

Foodworks: Sweet Mama Janisse makes her sauces here

HSRC Nutrition: Celebrate in healthy style

McKinleyville: Local senior writes book about McKinleyville

Garberville: Senior housing infrastructure project begins

Pick up a copy today! Better yet, subscribe and never miss an issue!

Foodworks
Sweet Mama Janisse makes her sauces here
by Barbara Clark

Marie Janisse-Wilkins is a one-woman powerhouse of California history and Humboldt entrepreneurial energy. She is the creator of products like Sweet Mama Janisse's Sticky Love Sauce and Soul Q Sauce, has had a song written for her and serves a robust lunch daily from her kitchen on Ericcson Court in Arcata.

"The beauty of my food is that I love to make people feel good," Wilkins said. "It's always such a pleasure to see people's reaction. It gives me a lot of satisfaction."

Her business, Bless My Soul Catering, is one of the 12 businesses in the Arcata Economic Development Corporation incubator, the Foodworks. Her recent lunch menu offered Jambalaya, Creole Herb Chicken, Smothered Pork Chops and Vegetable Pasta, with a side dish of rice, potatoes or vegies. But even with the generosity of her menu and her almost six years in the area, Wilkins said she's not yet making ends meet. People have trouble finding her kitchen at the industrial complex off Hwy. 299 and West End Road.

She's still tied to the life she left in Topanga Canyon near Los Angeles where she is finally selling her house. There she was caterer to the motion picture business for 18 years and one of the top five caterers in the area, listing Martin Sheen as one of her favorite customers and fellow church member. Partners there started her on commercial production of sauces-one director wanted a hot sauce, another a hot mustard.
It was her grandmother who gave her the original impetus and love of cooking. "Most of my recipes are things my grandmother made when I was young. I've changed a few things. We come from a really poor family, and she was a mix-master-she learned to extend things. She had special names for dishes she made-she never called her sauce a barbecue sauce, so I call mine Soul Q Sauce."

It was Wilkins' daughter Desiree who at age four named the Sticky Love Sauce. "I was making the sauce and telling her how much I loved it," Wilkins recalled. "Then the spoon broke and I had to mix it with rubber gloves. It was so sticky. My daughter said, 'just call it Sticky Love Sauce.'" And so she did.

The adult Desiree six years ago felt her mom should move from the hectic life-style of Southern California. "We are each other's biggest fans, and she's my best adviser," Wilkins said. "She sent me to Arcata. I trust my daughter. I raised her the same way my grandmother raised me-I know she would not send me to a place that wouldn't be good for me." Desiree herself moved to Sonoma County.

One of her good friends is blues musician Taj Mahal who wrote a song for her, Sweet Mama Janisse. He has recently arranged to have the rights to the song given to her, and she plans to use it as her theme song on a new cooking show. Meanwhile you can learn her cooking tricks through the class she teaches in HSU's extended education program.
Her newest product is called "Mint to Love" sauce. She said she took four cases and nine bottles of it to the Gift and Gourmet Show in Sacramento last month, and Mint to Love went "flying out of the door. The second day we only had two bottles left and the third day people came back wanting cases of it. I had to make a list of names, because I had brought with me only what I had time to produce before the show." The new sauce, to be used with fruit, lamb or spinach salad, will be in production and available in December.

"I'm in a love mood," said Wilkins, grinning at the name of her new sauce. "The world is in such turmoil, I know my sauce won't take care of everything, but a little bit will help."

Sweet Mama Janisse offers lunch Tuesdays through Fridays at her Foodworks kitchen on Ericcson Court, suite 130, from 11 to 1:30. Look for the service window under her sign Bless My Soul Catering. The phone number is 822-4775, and her sauces are available for sale at Culinary Crafts and Wildberries in Arcata, and Rays and the Co-op in Arcata and Eureka.A business incubator

Foodworks provides a fully equipped FDA approved commercial kitchen for rent by the hour. If you're planning a one-time party, you can rent the commercial kitchen and all the equipment for that event.

The Foodworks Culinary Center was started in 1991 as a business incubator for food processors. The mission of Foodworks is to foster the growth of small food-related businesses and to create jobs. Businesses nurtured at Foodworks are expected to "graduate" and relocate into the open market place.

Since its opening, 25 businesses have started up in the facility. Twelve of them are still housed there and 11 have graduated. Only two have discontinued operations.
Current Foodworks businesses are Bless My Soul Catering, Bon Boniere Ice Cream, Crannell Farms, Desserts on Us, Dino Deluca & Company, Mad River Farm, Pacific Rim Noodle House, Royal Cookie Capers, Smokey Jim's BBQ, The Tofu Shop, Trinidad Bay Company and Vegan Dream.

Foodworks manager John Palmquist can be reached at 822-4616, ext. 217. Many products made by Foodworks businesses are available at Pierson Building Center's Humboldt Artisans shop.

Barbara Clark is editor of Senior News.