When Kim Pacey Clay was a kid, she said she wasn’t doing it. No way. No how. She’s doing it. And generations of Baldwin Countians are so incredibly thankful.

After all, where else would we get our homemade jams, jellies and holiday fruitcake – 750 pounds’ worth this year that sold out long before some of us even had our trees fully decorated.

And fudge. Fudge so thick and delicious that it requires a moment of silence to properly honor.

Clay helms the family business at Punta Clara Kitchen on Scenic Highway 98 in Point Clear.

The yellow, clapboard house enveloped in wide porches and inviting rocking chairs was home to her Aunt Colleen two generations back and later belonged to her grandmother, Dorothy Brodbeck Pacey.

Dorothy began crafting treats as a hobby, turning her talent into a business when a friend suggested her preserves were much too good to simply hand out.

Now, 70 years later, that same kitchen is filled by the same family, cranking out the same delectable treats – preserves, jellies and pickled varieties of 25 different fruits and vegetables, pralines and homemade candy. Most of the recipes are more than 100 years old, passed down from generation to generation.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, the family added tiny masks to their hand-crafted chocolate bunnies. The cheeky cottontail was a hit, and sales boomed from 80 candies in previous years to over 800 that spring.

Now with the holiday season passed, Clay and multiple family members, including her parents Paul and Susan Pacey, will overhaul the home’s kitchen, the first renovation in at least a generation, and begin creating Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras treats.

Susan Pacey and Susan Harvison, daughter-in-law and daugher of Dorothy Pacey

Don’t have room in your suitcase for jars? Take home the recipes instead.

The family sells their original, century-old instructions for all their beloved fan favorites in “The Black Kettle” cookbook.

Even if you don’t try your hand at Grandma Dorothy’s recipes, the Punta Clara Kitchen will likely be here on your next trip south, your kids’ trips and probably their kids’ trips.

“All of our kids are looking at each other saying, ‘not it,’” Clay said with a laugh. “But there’s plenty of family around. It always works out.”

Editor note: This article was originally published in the Winter 2024 issue of Beachin' Magazine, a quarterly free publication of Gulf Coast Media. Pick up a copy at racks around the island, at our office, 901 N. McKenzie St., Foley, or read it here: link to e-edition.