Shontel Babb couldn't find a sweet potato pie she liked. Here's what she did next.
Shontel Babb loves sweet potato pie, and she’s pretty sure you will, too.
Babb’s business, Aunt Tel’s Premium Sweet Potato Pie, focuses on one product, making it with the best ingredients, by hand. Though Babb loved sweet potato pie, she found that most were too sweet or over-spiced. She decided to create the one she wanted.
“I knew that I had an amazing product once I had the formula just right, and that I needed to get it to market,” she says. “I'm not a baker. I don't have a baking background. I couldn't tell you what to do with yeast or anything like that, that your true bakers will know and do. But with this pie, I just knew I had an amazing recipe that needed to be shared.”
Most small business owners get started with a little help from their friends. Babb is no exception.
“At the beginning of my business, I peeled every potato, boiled every potato, mixed all the filling,” she says. “I was then buying the crust from my friends at Swamp Rabbit Café and Grocery, and it wasn't enough to fulfill my holiday orders. This was the year that I opened – 2021 – and they didn't want me to fail. They did not want me to fail.”
The solution? The owners of Swamp Rabbit Café shared their pie crust recipe with Babb. Her connection there runs deep. She was an employee when the store first opened, and now it is one of her “always” retail outlets for pies.
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“It's there that I really developed a love for and appreciation for local efforts, fresh ingredients and the best quality ingredients,” Babb says.
That is reflected in her pies, which are made from organic South Carolina and North Carolina sweet potatoes, butter from Happy Cow Creamery and local eggs.
“I actually get my eggs from a homesteader in Williamston,” Babb says. “She is a black woman, former military, and she has hens.”
This fall, Babb is ready to propel the business to the next level, with the help of those who believe in her small business and the power of good, local food. She is doing that through a GoFundMe effort that will allow her to purchase the supplies needed to get pies in grocery stores for the holiday season.
“I have literally bet on this business and this pie and getting it to retailers,” she says.
After that, Babb will extend this season for her business and dozens of others through Frosty Farmer Winter Market, an indoor farmers market coming in January to Think Tank Brew Lab on the Swamp Rabbit Trail. For many farmers and creators, the post-holiday slump is an enormous challenge, but Babb is offering them – and their customers – a chance to jumpstart the new year. It is also part of Babb’s effort to tell the world that her pie transcends the seasons.
“We eat sweet potatoes year-round,” she says. “Why do we wait to enjoy this yummy pie? I'm trying to change the culture. I am changing the culture.”
Pies are always available at Swamp Rabbit Café and Grocery, at Babb’s shop within The Seafood Spot restaurant, at markets, other retailers and restaurants and through online orders. Vegan, sugar-free and gluten-free pies are also available.
Learn more at southernsweetpotatopies.com, gofund.me/61678268, and frostyfarmer.com.
This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Entrepreneur creates a sweet potato pie she loves, and you will too.
