Nicknamed “The Waunakee Pickle Guy,” Andy Fountain, owner of Once Upon My Countertop, certainly lives up to his title. Each week, eager market-goers line up to his booth to get their hands on his homemade jams, salsas, and delicious pickled vegetables.
Although Andy has been cooking since age five or six, canning is what truly caught his eye. He grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where the growing season is pretty short, so canning is a common thing for most farmers. He learned the art of canning from his grandparents on both sides.
After graduating from Carthage College in Kenosha and moving to Wisconsin, Andy decided to bring with him his favorites from childhood, and began growing and canning his own food. His hobby quickly grew into the successful Once Upon a Countertop after a friend suggested that he sell his products at local farmers markets.
“The biggest joy is watching a customer come back to our booth at the farmer’s market and be like ‘there were the best I’ve ever had,’” Andy explained. “Canning and pickling is a lost art, for me to be recognized as an accomplished master of canning and pickling is exciting.”
Offering 10-20 products its first year at markets, Once Upon a Countertop now creates over 50 different varieties of canned foods, 90% of which are homegrown.
Andy, alongside his wife Stephanie and three children who serve as “taste testers,” create all of their recipes and products entirely from scratch — the name Once Upon a Countertop refers to how Andy literally makes his products on his counter!
This is Once Upon a Countertop’s second full season at the Monroe Street Farmer’s Market. Despite his relatively new status as a vendor, Andy describes the MSFM as becoming “a family thing.”
“[The customers] know that we’re there for them, and our customers are here for us too,” Andy explained. “They want to see us succeed, they want to see us continue at the market, so there’s a good blend of community and caring which makes the market unique.”
Additionally, the customers at the MSFM help push Once Upon a Countertop to try new and exciting recipes, Andy explained.
“At the Monroe Street market you see people that want to try new things,” Andy said. “That helps us twofold, because they’re coming to us with an idea that we can turn into a great product but it also gets them knowing that if they have an idea they can come talk to us.”
Andy detailed an interaction he had with a customer last year who approached him and suggested that he try making a jam with honey because she loved his jam but was trying to cut back on granulated sugar. Although he had never considered it before, Andy gave it a try and it is now one of his most successful products.
“When you have people that start out as strangers and now a lot of them are friends and family, when you have people walk up to your table and take a chance on you and eventually help you succeed, there is no way to express the amount of appreciation that you feel.”
Once Upon My Countertop will be offering around 40 different products at the MSFM, ranging from strawberry rhubarb jam to dilly beans to crisp bread and butter pickles with cauliflower. As Andy exclaims, “if you haven’t had bread and butter cauliflower, you haven’t really lived.”
To shop Once Upon My Countertop and many other amazing vendors, be sure to stop by the Monroe Street Farmers Market on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Edgewood College.
“I can’t put into words just how much we appreciate and how loved we feel at [the MSFM.] When you have people walk up to your table and take a chance on you and eventually help you succeed, there is no way to express the amount of appreciation that you feel,” Andy said.
For more information about Once Upon My Countertop, visit their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/onceuponmycountertop/