Chars Kitchen
Charlene Barrie is the Chef and Owner of Char’s Kitchen, located in Turton. She has lived on Barrie’s Farm in the South Dakota area for more than 30 years, which she has successfully maintained with her husband Rolland Barrie. Mrs. Barrie has been married to Mr. Barrie for more than 33 years and together, they have raised six daughters who they are immensely proud of. They are also grandparents to eleven grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren. At various times, most have helped out on their farm.
Throughout Mrs. Barrie’s life, she has spent lots of time baking, canning and gardening, all of which she has thoroughly enjoyed. In 1995, her journey of selling homemade jellies began. She attended a flea market and took some of her homemade delights with her to sell. They were baby food jars with the name of the jelly taped to the jar. It was her daughter Glenda who inspired the idea of decorating the tops of the jars with fabric & bows, and computer labels. Then I started with vendor fairs.
After receiving numerous calls from local people following the flea market, asking if she could make more baked goods and jellies for them, Char’s Kitchen was born. Only having a few flavors initially, Mrs. Barrie began making more and she now has sixteen regular flavors of jelly, including four sugar free options. She has also created eight types of syrup, five flavors of pickles and two different salsas.
Over the years, Charlene has sold her goods in gift shops, at craft fair tables through the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), as well as at festivals and arts in the parks across the South Dakota area. Her all-natural jellies, which are free from preservatives, additives and corn syrup, are freshly made year-round. With varied flavors such as, strawberry rhubarb and pumpkin butter, to apple butter and raspberry jalapeno, it is in fact the Chokeberry and Rhubarb jellies which Mrs. Barrie recommends, as they are unique to the region.
What was once an operation from her kitchen, having gained an influx of regular customers over the course of three years, she expanded into her own “jelly house” located on her family farm. Her products, which also include gift baskets, can be purchased from her website for home delivery, however, they can also be found being sold in almost 30 stores across South Dakota, as well in Wilmar & Victoria Minnesota, Fargo, North Dakota, Eureka Springs and Arkansas.
Licensed by the State of South Dakota, Char’s Kitchen is Certified by the National Restaurant Association. The business holds a national ServSafe certificate and is state inspected.
Mrs. Barrie has had many career highlights and is proud to have served the public for such a long period of time. However, the first time she placed an order for 250 proper jam jars will always stand out as a notable achievement for her. Having built a remarkable business, she now orders around 10,000/12,000 jam jars every year and about 4,000 pounds of sugar!
As a credit to her passion and a testament to her professional excellence, she has received an Albert Nelson Achievement Award, featured in the eighth edition of the Millennium Magazine, was featured in an article in Forbes Magazine, is an honor member of Stanford Who’s Who, and has been featured by Marquis Who’s Who. Mrs. Barrie, who currently holds a membership with the Professional Women’s Association, is also the former President of the Conde American Legion Auxiliary and is an active board member of the VWF’s Auxiliary.
Having successfully run her business for more than 25 years, Charlene attributes her success to her work ethic and doing what it takes to ensure the high quality of her products is maintained. When she’s not working in Char’s Kitchen, or maintaining Barrie’s Farm, she enjoys entertaining, fishing and camping with her friends and family. Furthermore, she dedicates some of her time to help with community projects. In the future, Mrs. Barrie plans to slow down production at Char’s Kitchen with the aim to retire.