Sweet Treats Owner, Lynelle Showalter and Rick Swanson
While visiting the annual flea market sale at the Loma Hall a few weeks ago, my wife and I stopped in to check out the food offerings at the concession stand and the vendors that surrounded that part of the hall. In addition to some old favorites, like the amazing gourmet rice crispy treats sold by Cassie Bahnmiller of Big Sandy, we discovered a new treat. Specifically, we discovered Sweet Treats. Sweet Treats is a local small business based out of Loma. It is run by Lynelle Showalter and her husband Rick Swanson. The couple started their business selling cotton candy, but recently expanded into home canned barbecue sauce, jellies, pickled beets, and other products raised in their garden. After sampling their wares and talking with Rick, who was interesting and friendly, I opted to pick up one of their most popular offerings: a jar of Rhubarb Barbecue sauce. It was a tough call given the wide variety of tempting treats.
You might be wondering how the sauce tasted? I passed a bowl of the sauce around at a potluck meal with friends. The consensus was that it was tasty. All agreed that it was sweet with a touch of spice that sort of sneaks up on you. More than a few compared it positively to popular commercial brands. Lynelle explained that one customer from Loma made it a point to tell her that he would need her to help him keep the sauce in stock at all times in his home.
So far, the home canning portion of the business has been a success. "The barbecue sauce sold really well at the local flea market. My main focus at Christmas was the choke cherry jelly and syrup, and that did well." She explained that the choke cherry products have been popular enough to prompt orders to start trickling in from repeat customers through her Facebook page. She also explained that the picked beets she began selling have done well. She thinks that has to do with the difficulty in finding that sort of thing in grocery stores, despite it being a favorite for many.
In addition to tasty treats, Lynelle is also selling treats for skin care. "I also have skin balms and they've done well." At this point in the life of the business, she explained, she is mainly experimenting with different offerings.
Sweet Treats came about after the couple retired and resettled in their retirement home in Loma. Lynelle explained, "One of the things that we like to do is go to the different summer festivals. When we were at Summer Celebration in Fort Benton, I was complaining that there was no cotton candy vendor. So that was kind of where the idea came from. We thought that it'd be kind of fun if we did this." The couple began looking into what would be involved in selling cotton candy at various community events. Before long, they made the initial investment and started Sweet Treats. Lynelle is a people person, which prompted her to look for different outlets for social interactions. She scratched that itch by working part time at the gas station in Loma and by starting her home business.
After selling cotton candy at summer events for a period, Lynelle made the decision to expand the business into homemade canned goods. "That really just started in the last year. So I looked into doing selling canned goods at the farmers market." She had previously looked into the idea, but like many small home businesses, state regulations made the idea untenable.
However, Lynelle discovered that Montana had reformed their regulations. "It had been a couple of years since I looked into the laws. And last year, right before Christmas time, I was doing some more research. I found out that the Montana cottage laws had changed." Cottage laws are the state regulations dealing with the sale of homemade food products.
"We have a large personal garden, and it's just the two of us. So with my canning, once I saw that, I was super excited, because I thought, 'Oh, great. I can sell at the different craft shows and farmers markets. My first event was the Christmas stroll, this last year in Fort Benton." The first endeavor selling canned products was a success. Since then, the sale of Lynelle's home canned goods has been a regular add-on to the Sweet Treats offering.
"I love running a local small business, and I love growing my own product, so I know what's in it and that it's healthy and clean. The cotton candy is just fun. It's all about having fun. And it's just a great experience to be at the fairs and see the smiles on the kids' faces. We love that." Sweet Treats canned products are available at various local events, like the Fireman's Fundraiser last year or local rodeos and sales. You can also arrange to buy their products via their Facebook page (Sweet Treats) in Loma.
