
DATE: Tuesday, August 19, 1997              TAG: 9708160088

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY KRYS STEFANSKY, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   75 lines

TOUR ROWENA'S IN NORFOLK SWEET JELLIES, CAKES, JAMS ARE MADE AT FACTORY

WE WANTED ANSWERS to life's puzzling questions - stumpers that often come up at breakfast before Mom has had her first cup of coffee.

Things like: ``Who puts the jam in the jam jar?''

Fresh out of stories about workers and factories and trucks, we decided to take the curious little rascals to the source.

We visited Rowena's jam and jelly factory and watched for half an hour as these creators and producers of gourmet foods went at their task.

Be forewarned - Rowena's is a tad hard to find. In the heart of Norfolk, the factory hugs a set of railroad tracks that runs parallel to 22nd Street. But if you can ferret out the Burger King at the corner of 21st and Colley Avenue, you'll see Rowena's bright red door on the building right behind.

We arrived at 10:30 in the morning, as they recommended. The children skipped across the parking lot and were charmed by the giant cut-out of a rabbit that sits in the flowerbed next to the front door. Inside is a small retail shop full of the company's delicacies and a string of smiling employees who looked genuinely tickled to see us.

As a welcome, we got paper hats. Have to wear them, said our tour guide, Linda Drain, since we were going in the back near the food. One size should fit all, but our headgear teetered distractingly back and forth through our tour.

She marched us into an office area through a door to the kitchen. There, more smiling ladies sat in a huge room fragrant with spices.

Chutney, we guessed. Nope, curry sauce. Yum.

We watched as the thick, honey gold syrup flowed out of a spigot into a jar held underneath by one of the women.

Jar. Squirt. Jar. Squirt. Jar. Squirt.

Each precisely measured amount filled each glass. Then each jar was passed to the next lady who screwed on each red lid. Then, down the line, sat Miss Lillie Robinson, who glued on the labels. She's been there forever we were told.

The kids took this all in stride, but we grown-ups were amazed. Where were the robot arms, the machines, the automation?

All done by hand, said our smiling tour guide.

Next door was another kitchen filled with racks of empty pound cake pans and several huge mixing machines. They held bowls big enough to bathe in and beaters so huge that the idea of licking them clean made the kids giggle. One bowl held the drippings of fresh batter, creamy yellow and smelling temptingly sweet.

We held the children up to see inside the enormous ovens with their rotating racks. Too bad they were empty. We wanted to see cakes twirling around in there.

She showed us where the cakes are each wrapped and tied with satin ribbon and then led us to the packing area. We saw how the warehouse works, how the food is stored, how it is readied for mail-order shipments . . . how they use packing peanuts.

``What's that?'' asked one of the children, pointing to the bag of styrofoam peanuts hanging from the warehouse ceiling.

With a flourish, our guide released a flood of them into a box and sent the girls into a frenzy.

``Please, can we have some?''

Back in the retail area, pockets full of packing peanuts, they were less enthusiastic about tasting the gourmet sauces. But as the real Rowena J. Fullinwider graciously stood by and chatted with us, they did gobble up sample poundcake cubes. Two helpings each. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

RICHARD L. DUNSTON/The Virginian-Pilot

In a kitchen at Rowens's, James Morgan, 5, gets a close look at a

big vat of cake batter. Tour guide Linda Drain led the group of

children, all wearing the requisite paper hats, on a visit through

the Norfolk factory.

Graphic

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