Jones is the breed of entrepreneur who never settles with good enough. After realizing obvious success with hickory syrup, he couldn’ t help experimenting with new products.
“ Truly,” he said,“ sometimes I wish I could stop thinking.”
But that nag for new helped Jones and Yarling expand into selling Poplar Bark Syrup, Hickory Smoked Sea Salt, Bestcestershire Sauce( a shagbark twist on Worcestershire sauce) and Brown County BS( barbeque sauce).
Hickoryworks’ syrups have drawn acclaim from chefs including Julia Child and leading Indianapolis restaurants like The Oceanaire Seafood Room, Ruth Chris Steak House and St. Elmo’ s Steak House. Folks have used Hickory Syrup in beers and cocktails, cookies, salad
” One chef would just find something they loved it for, and they’ d tell someone else. Before we knew it, we were getting calls for gallons.”
stores and before long transformed a mountain of would-be trash into a commercial kitchen. A rotating 55-gallon poly drum equipped with sprayers on both ends replaced the laborious process of handwashing bark. A behemoth 1970s commercial coffee maker took over brewing. Jones enlisted a central house vacuum system to help steam exit his syrup evaporator. And he fashioned a bottle dryer out of his father’ s old, broken geothermal furnace and a pair of commercial hairdryers.
A tinge of sadness still lingers in Yarling’ s voice as she recalls discovering that Jones had commandeered her sewing machine motor for a capping machine.
“ She hadn’ t used it in years,” Jones said, chuckling.
“ I just told him he’ d better never touch my heated rollers or hairdryer,” Yarling said, smiling back. dressings, teriyaki glazes, on ribs, and over ice cream. Some even put it on pancakes.
When their products have been featured over the years by giants including the Food Network and The New York Times, Jones and Yarling have found themselves flooded by thousands of orders. They jokingly credit themselves for keeping the tiny, nearby Trafalgar Post Office open. Jones said after racking up a $ 13,000 bill from the office in short order in 2009, a very appreciative U. S. Postal Service representative showed up on his front porch, asking if there was anything the agency could do for Hickoryworks.
Jones proudly reports their business is“ just weird enough” to draw so much media attention that he and
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Sept./ Oct. 2014 • Our Brown County 17