Big Mama’s Secret Sauce
When Lois Marks, aka Big Mama, and her husband moved to South Florida from New York City in 1977, she decided her backyard would emulate her life in Cleveland, Ohio.
“Growing up in the North, it was wonderful to see fruit on trees and year-round blossoms,” she recalls. So she planted tropical fruits in the backyard of the Pinecrest home they’ve lived in for the past 47 years.
Her goal was maintaining the three Fs: flowers, fragrance and fruit – which included lemon, lime, starfruit, lychee and calamondin.
“In the mornings my brother and I would go out before it was time to go to school and grab whatever she was growing,” says her son, Ethan Shapiro. “That was breakfast for us.”
Ethan was a picky eater when he was a kid, so Lois made her own salad dressing because the store-bought stuff tasted like chemicals to her. “I would make dressings with whatever I had in the garden, garlic chives or lemons. That’s the way I always cooked,” she says.
Six years ago, Ethan came around to embrace mom’s dressing. In his job as a project manager for IBM, his lunch went from a sandwich and a bag of chips every day to a salad dressed with mom’s vinaigrette. “I lost about 18 pounds when I started to change the way I ate lunch,” he says.
Lois would prepare a batch of dressing with what she had in the garden, always pairing citrus with garlic, and gave it to guests who visited. “They’d try it and always say, ‘why don’t you sell it?’” she says.
The unexpected flavor that shines bright in Big Mama’s vinaigrette is calamondin, a tart, fragile citrus fruit the size of a ping-pong ball that “tastes like a cross between a lime and a tangerine,” Ethan says.“It’s tart, but the peel is sweet. Kids think it tastes like Sour Patch Kids.”
For Big Mama’s vinaigrette, they’re picked when ripe and the entire fruit is used. The calamondin tree is an ever-bearing tree, says Lois. “While the fruit is about to ripen, it’s already blooming for the next crop.”
In 2020 during covid, they made a batch for the family. “I posted a picture of it on Facebook, and people wanted to try it,” says Ethan. In 2021 they made more to share, and the response was overwhelming. “Let me see what I can do with this,” he thought. Project management for IT is similar to running your own business, he figured. “It gave me a lot of good experience to go off on starting Big Mama’s and see what else I had to learn.” He took courses on acidified foods and became a licensed food safety manager. “We had to graduate something we made in our home kitchen into a real product,” he says.
It’s not easy to find calamondin for commercial use. Fortunately, a lot of fruit comes from the trees they planted 47 years ago. “Well, minus what was knocked over during Hurricane Andrew or cut down by the government [during the citrus canker outbreak],” she says.
After finding a bottle, designing a label and building a website, someone had to make sure that a homemade product could be consistently bottled. “After months of observing her add a little bit of this and a little bit of that, I was finally able to write down a recipe,” Ethan says. But when it came to testing, she would always add a little bit more salt, or garlic … as any home cook would agree, it was hard to stick to a recipe. “It’s a challenge we’ve successfully overcome,” he says.”To my mom’s chagrin, we’ve been able to do it well and keep the product consistent and delicious while making larger amounts.”
Their first batch of three dozen bottles sold out in one day. Six dozen sold out in three days. They’ve now sold nearly 9,000 bottles, are available in over 12 locations, and have just shipped to their 50th state, Alaska.
Both Ethan and Lois are on-hand for in-store demos. Big Mama’s Calamondin Vinaigrette works as a dip for veggies, a marinade for shrimp, and a sauce that pairs with steak and lamb. Ethan loves it on pasta. It’s super creamy, but has no dairy. In a world where vegan, gluten- and sugar-free products are in demand, Big Mama’s checks all the boxes – and it’s only 20 calories a serving. They’re eager to keep growing, says the mother-son team.
“We’re up to 12 locations and ready for more!”
Big Mama’s Backyard Garden
Find Big Mama’s Calamondin Vinaigrette in the refrigerated produce section at Milam’s Markets in Coconut Grove, Coral Gables Redbird, Pinecrest, Link at Douglas; Eat Florida Seafood in Key Largo; Sandal Factory in Islamorada and Key Largo; and other locations.
bigmamafoods.com
Instagram: @bigmamasfoods
Calamondin: the Secret Ingredient
Citrus ×microcarpa
Also known as calamansi or Philippine lime, calamondin (Citrofortunella microcarpa), native to Southeast Asia, is a natural cross between mandarin orange and the kumquat. Sometimes used in Florida as an ornamental, calamondin grows in USDA zones 8A to 10B. The juice freezes well and can be used in place of lemon, lime or key lime. Old Florida cookbooks list recipes for calamondin marmalade and calamondinades. In Filipino cuisine, juice is widely used in marinades and beverages, and the fruit enhances savory dishes, much like lime.
