Our Story
At Eltee’s Goods, our mission is to build community with food. Highlighting our favorite seasonal ingredients sourced from local farmers and produced by local chefs, our products allow you to savor the seasons’ bounty year round. Eltee’s first offering, Tommy Jam, is a perfect example, utilizing tomatoes from Farms in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and produced by me- chef, Lindsey Thalheimer- founder of Eltee’s Goods.
I started my professional life as a Special Education teacher, but my true passion was always to pursue food and the pastry arts. I made that dream a reality in 2013 when I moved to New York City to attend the French
Culinary Institute.
FCI helped me build relationships in New York's bustling restaurant scene, though I quickly realized that a smaller bakery environment was where I wanted to be. Early in my career I worked in small, community-centered establishments where, as the Pastry Chef, I learned the importance of personal relationships and saw that an emphasis on quality ingredients resulted in quality products.
I wanted to understand, firsthand, the building blocks of making quality food. I decided to WWOOF. WWOOF (willing workers on organic farms), is an organization that connects a worldwide network of small, organic farmers with willing volunteers who work all sorts of farm jobs in exchange for room, board, and a whole lot of life experience and farm knowledge. Over the course of seven months in 2017, I traveled across the United States with WWOOF, living and working on seven small farms. The experience became the foundation for what would become the next stage in my culinary career, establishing Eltee’s Goods and creating Tommy Jam.
Tommy Jam was born in the summer of 2018. It is the first product made by Eltee’s Goods. It is my baby, and my first entrepreneurial venture. I use the delicious tomatoes grown by the wonderful farmers at Windflower Farm in Valley Falls, NY. Practicing what I have learned, I am proud to say that I only use the best, freshest, local ingredients in my jam. I hope to spread the TJ gospel and get a jar of Tommy Jam in every food lover's kitchen - right next to their ketchup, or their worcestershire, or their raspberry jam, or simply, on its own shelf. Tommy Jam is the addition you never knew your kitchen needed, but once you try it, you will never go without it.
In the near future, I hope to expand Eltee’s Goods. By applying what I’ve learned working in kitchens and on my farming journey, and continued collaboration with the amazing folx in my community, I will create additional exciting products for your kitchen. Products you will be proud to own as they are made not only with the best ingredients available, but also with love and integrity.
Stay Tuned Friends,
Lindsey Thalheimer, Founder and Head Chef
Community and sustainability
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At eltee’s Goods, we strive to impact our community for good. We can always do better, however here are a few ways we are creating a positive environment for ourselves and our community.
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Ingredients
At Eltee’s Goods we strive to find the most local, fresh and ethically sourced ingredients to use in our products.
Our Tomatoes and Peppers are sourced from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania farms and are often just picked days before being delivered to us in the kitchen.
We often receive tomatoes from our largest tomato supplier Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative that are “seconds” or “#2” tomatoes. These are tomatoes that have been slightly damaged and are not up to the high standard of sale direct to the customer, so farms sell them to us at a slight discount to help reduce tomato waste.
In partnership with Baldor Produce, we source local butter, maple syrup and eggs whenever possible.
It is partnerships like these that help our vision of a community based business going. Through these relationships we are able to support our local farmers and peers.
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Packaging
It is so important to us at Eltee’s Goods to keep our packaging sustainable.
From our locally sourced glass jars, purchased from family run Filmore Containers in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to our compostable cookie bags, we try to avoid plastic, and increasing waste.
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Farmers Markets
As a small, emerging CPG (consumer packaged goods) brand, many may ask- why sell at farmers markets?
We have decided it is paramount to our mission to be working alongside like minded businesses, growning and selling locally and ethically sourced produce and products and selling to customers who care to support their local growers and makers.
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Jar Return
Once you have finished our products, our 8oz and 2oz glass jars can be of great use around the house! You can store dried goods, leftovers, spices etc.
However, If you’re struggling to find a use, or simply love our jams so much that you have too many jars, rather than throwing away the jars, you now have the option to return the clean, used jar back to us. Just find our booth at our next market and we will take them off your hands.
We are not able to reuse the jars, so we donate them to our local package free store for their customers to use!
