Local entrepreneur Nicki Fromel, owner of Chelane’s, has taken her childhood passion for cooking and turned it into one sweet business. She’s mixed together recipes from her grandmother and husband, stirred in some changes, to perfect a delicious natural product for the jam connoisseur.

Not quite a year since its inception, Chelane’s embodies her entrepreneurial spirit.

Fromel, who lives in Black Diamond, started making jam at age 10 with her grandmother. “I’ve always loved to cook,” Fromel said.

After meeting her husband of five years, she found he had a recipe for jam as well. So, she combined the two and found that people loved the taste so much, she decided to go to market – literally. This year, she will be at the Farmers’ Market in Maple Valley.

Fromel said of her jam, “It’s high quality, from local berries, because the best berries are from Washington.”

It’s not only the ingredients she said, but the proportions of each that make the difference over commercial brands. Fromel buys her berries locally in support of other local businesses.

She encourages everyone to come out to he Farmers’ Market starting Saturday, June 19, to see the products and taste their quality.

Her jam is currently available at locations such as CJ’s Bakery in Black Diamond and Lake Sawyer Grocery. The restaurant at the Space Needle uses her jam as well.

Fromel has waited a year to get into the Farmers’ Market in Maple Valley.

“I like the feel of the Farmers’ Market,” she said. “You know that the products are going to be good.”

The market seems to embody the entrepreneurial spirit, comprised from local people, Fromel explained.

“I’m a local company, I buy from local farms and I want to get my product out locally,” Fromel said.

Joseph McKeown, owner of George’s Bakery in North Bend, expressed the same sentiment about local farmers’ markets.

McKeown, a third-generation baker, heard from other vendors that Maple Valley’s market was “a really good one, friendly, very community oriented.”

McKeown brings many different items from his old-style bakery to market including his famous eight-inch doughnut, apple-cinnamon sweet bread, Challah bread and a sour-cream coffee-cake.

Helping to form a sense of community and support local business through the Farmers’ Market seems to be a mantra among vendors.

Tom Hornberg, owner of Isabella Grace Winery in Hobart, said he had heard about the market and thought it would be “a really neat deal to get involved with.”

Hornberg said it’s nice to meet new people, as well as see they many people that attend the market regularly.

Of his winery he said, “It’s the idea of buying a bottle of wine made locally.”

Started in 2002, Isabella Grace Winery is a ‘boutique’ operation that prides itself on a high degree of personal attention and care.

Specializing in reds, Hornberg said they will debut their first ever white wine, a Pinot Grigio, this summer. It will be available at the market this summer.

Hornberg, along with his brother Jim and a close group of friends, hand-craft the wine from start to finish. The wines are barrel-aged for two years, then bottle-aged another six months.

“We really baby this stuff through all the way.”

Hornberg buys locally as well, getting his fruit from Yakima because “you can’t make the wine better than the fruit.”

Visit all the vendors and see their products by attended opening day of the 2010 Farmers’ Market at Rock Creek Elementary in Maple Valley.

For more information visit the website

at hor call the Market Manager at 425-463-6751.