Rina adds a homey touch to her kitchen

Jams, jellies, relishes need to be perfect in this shop

Editor's note: This is part of an ongoing series about farmers and food producers in the Lowcountry.

Teresa Taylor
The Post and Courier

Rina Palmer of Rina’s Kitchen in Summerville stirs apple butter.

Oil companies, take note: Here's a CEO who is the lowest-paid employee in her business. In fact, she would prefer to not collect a paycheck at all.

She is Rina Palmer, owner of Rina's Kitchen in Summerville. Over the past 17 years, she has built a thriving business in canning jams, jellies, preserves, relishes, pickles and other homemade goodies, more than 80 products in all.

Each one is cooked and packed the old-fashioned way, with a spoon in hand and a watchful eye on the clock. The air is fragrant with spices such as cinnamon or the pungent aroma of garlic, depending on the day's task.

She and two employees can turn out up to 500 jars a day, but there is nothing in the kitchen that looks like mass production. Even the food processors are ordinary size.

"Mama's idea is that she is going to stir every pot," says Barbara Palmer, her daughter and business manager.

Which is the only way Rina will have it.

"I'm very particular about my product. Everything has to be perfect," says Rina.

That means the contents of each jar have to be identical in flavor and texture, from artichoke relish to the best-selling "Fruit and Fire," an apricot and jalapeno pepper jelly. She stands guard over bubbling pots, counting time silently to make sure nothing cooks a second too long.

Every day, whatever is to be made starts with raw products. Many are local, including strawberries from Edisto and blueberries from Hollywood, fresh-frozen to ensure a year-round supply. Wild elderberries were picked from the woods.

Rina, 71, launched her venture as a homemaker in her mid-50s with little idea of where it would take her. Her first sale was at the Summerville Farmers Market, and she brought home a whopping $8. "She was ecstatic," Barbara says.

With husband Jack's help, the business graduated from her home kitchen to a garage and then to a small commercial building just steps away from their house on rural Greyback Road.

Today, Rina's is known to locals who shop at the Summerville and Mount Pleasant farmers markets. They also ship to shops across South Carolina and the country, under their own label and private labels. "But Mom's name is going to be on every one," says Barbara.

If not money, what makes Rina go?

Pride. A need to be "doing something," preferably creative. Most importantly, friendships made along the way.

'Destiny'

Rina's improbable journey began in Udine, Italy, a small city in northeastern Italy near the Alps. She was raised in a Catholic orphanage there and in 1957 met and married Jack, an Air Force man. She was 20; she didn't speak English, and he didn't speak Italian.

Jack somehow reminded Rina of her treasured "American friend" from her childhood.

In 1945, at the end of World War II, "the Americans gave us the biggest party of our lives" at the orphanage, Rina recalls. It was Christmas, and the soldiers had put up a big tree. "And everybody got a package," she says.

At the end of the evening, the soldiers carried the children back to their dormitory. Even though they didn't speak the same language, Rina bonded with her "American friend" soldier. He talked and showed her pictures of his family back in the States.

The brief encounter made a huge impression on the girl. Rina often dreamed of him over the years.

After she married Jack, they returned to his family home in Tennessee. Jack took her to meet his Aunt Judy. A strange feeling came over Rina as they approached her house.

"When I go to the door, I got goose bumps," she says.

Judy took Rina back to her bedroom, where there were pictures of Judy's late husband on the dresser.

He was the "American friend." Rina recognized Udine in the background of the photographs. It turns out that he had died of tuberculosis that he contracted in Udine. Both women started crying.

"It was destiny," Barbara says of her parents' marriage. "She was supposed to meet him."

'My vacation'

Fifty-one years later, it's hard to believe that the new bride didn't know a thing about cooking. Early on, however, she learned canning from her mother-in-law.

The Palmers lived in a few places before the Air Force brought them to Charleston in 1971. As the mother of two daughters, Rina didn't work outside the home, but she never has been one to be idle. She started and ran a girls softball team in Summerville for eight years. She was a founder of the Flowertown Players.

Then, after that first sale, she became hooked on canning food. She and daughter Miriam went into business together, and Rina's Kitchen took off.

It's never been about the money, however. The greatest reward has been her relationships with people.

"I enjoy coming to work," Rina says. "I love going to the markets. It's a lot of work, but it's my day off — I call it my vacation. I've got a lot of friends now."

Teresa Taylor is the food editor. Reach her at food@postandcourier.com or 937-4886.