Made by hand in Dallas, Texas

Sweet first.Bitter after.Worth every jar.

I'm Carolina. I've been making jam for 14 years and I'm ready to sell it. This is a woman-owned business with no investors behind it — just me, and whoever decides to help me start.

I'm asking for $8,000 to take Amargo Jam from my kitchen to the Dallas farmers market. Every dollar is written down below.
Contribute on GoFundMe See where it goes
Carolina smiling in her kitchen wearing an Amargo Jam apron

Amargo means bitter. It's the name of the jam, and it's been a fair description of the last few years.

14

years perfecting the recipe, since my first jar at 16

1

woman-owned, Latina-owned, one kitchen, no investors

$8,000

the whole ask, split across 9 line items

100%

of it spent in Dallas — fruit, fees, and a market stand

Fourteen years of practice. Zero dollars of startup money.

I made my first jar of jam when I was 16. My mom is from Costa Rica, my dad is from here, and my kitchen is where those two worlds have always met. I've lived in Dallas my whole life and I love this city.

I come from humble beginnings. Everything I have, I worked for. I'll be honest with you: life has been hard, and some seasons have been genuinely bitter. But I'm a fighter, and making bitter jam turned out to be how I take something hard and turn it into something people want to eat.

I have the recipe, the skills, the certification, and the plan. What I don't have is the money to start.

That's the whole reason this page exists. Not for a handout — for a start. A stand, a stack of jars, the fruit to fill them, and the permits to sell them legally. After that, the jam does the work.

This isn't your grandma's grape jelly.

Small-batch lemon and blackberry, cooked in my own kitchen and preserved the old-fashioned way so it keeps. Sweet on the front of your tongue, bitter and bright on the finish, the way the good marmalades in a London shop taste.

Flavor
Lemon and blackberry — sweet opening, sharp bitter finish
Batch size
Small, made by hand, no factory line
Pair it with
A sharp aged cheese, a warm biscuit, or baked into a pie
Keeps
Traditionally preserved and sealed, so it lasts on the shelf
Two sealed glass jars of homemade jam on a wooden table
Next, once the jam is on its feet

Sweets and candies

Fruit drops, hard candies, and seasonal sweets, made by hand with real fruit flavors.

Next, once the jam is on its feet

Fresh-pressed juices

Non-alcoholic juices from real fruit. No concentrate, no syrup base.

Legal, certified, and labeled properly.

Texas Cottage Food Law

A legally compliant home kitchen operation, working inside the rules the state sets for cottage food producers.

Certified Texas Food Handler

State-certified food safety training. Every jar is made carefully, labeled clearly, and made the way I'd want it made for my own family.

Here is every dollar, before you give one.

No vague "operating costs." Nine line items, priced out, each one a thing I can't sell jam without. Tick the ones you'd want to cover and I'll add them up for you.

Tap any line to build your own gift.

$8,000 Nine line items. One woman. A full year of runway to prove this works.

If $8,000 is more than you had in mind

Most of this will be built out of small gifts, and small is genuinely fine. Here's what each one actually buys, taken straight from the budget above.

$25

A flat of fresh Texas fruit and the sugar to cook it down.

$75

A case of glass jars and lids, filled, sealed and ready to sell.

$200

A full run of printed labels, so every jar is legal and looks the part.

$800

A whole season of farmers market booth fees. The stand exists because of you.

Pick how you want to give Text me first

Three ways to help start this woman-owned business

Every dollar goes to one Latina-owned small business in Dallas, run by the woman who cooks every jar herself. There's no company behind me and no investor taking a cut. Pick whichever app you already have open on your phone — all three land in the same hands.

Best for grants and bigger gifts

GoFundMe

gofund.me/e860d35dc

Takes card, Apple Pay and Google Pay. It shows a public running total, so your gift visibly pulls other people in behind this business.

Open the fundraiser Fastest

Cash App

cash.app/$ccvd21

Instant, no fee on a standard transfer, and every cent reaches me. Best for a quick $20 or $50 straight into the fruit and jar budget.

Pay $ccvd21 on Cash App International friendly

PayPal

paypal.me/ccvd21

Good if you're giving from outside the US, or you'd rather use a PayPal balance or a linked bank account. Supporters anywhere in the world can back a Dallas woman's business here.

Send through PayPal

Prefer to hand it over in person, or want to ask me something before you give? Text me at +1 469 438 4450. I answer every message myself.

What happens the week the money lands

  1. Weeks 1–2

    Permits filed, business registered

    Vendor permits, business registration and market applications go in first, because nothing else can legally happen until they clear.

  2. Weeks 3–5

    Equipment, jars and first fruit order

    Canning gear and display stand are bought, and the first bulk fruit order goes to Texas growers rather than a distributor.

  3. Week 6

    First Dallas farmers market stand

    Labeled jars, a proper canopy and a table with my name on it. The first real day of Amargo Jam as a business.

  4. Spring 2027

    Three to five more markets, then sweets and juice

    Expand across Dallas-area markets, keep buying from local farms, and start rolling out the candies and fresh-pressed juices.

One grant can change my whole story.

Whether you fund a line item on GoFundMe, send a few dollars through Cash App or PayPal, share this page with someone who can help, or just want to try a jar when the stand opens — thank you for reading this far. Backing a woman-owned business means more than you'd guess.

GoFundMe Cash App $ccvd21 PayPal ccvd21 Text Carolina
Text only
+1 469 438 4450
Instagram
@amargojam
Facebook
Caro Cravens
Cash App
$ccvd21
PayPal
ccvd21
Based in
Dallas, Texas

You've picked $0 of the $8,000 — 0 line items

Choose how to give