CARY, Maine — What started as a quest to find relief from painful black fly bites has become a fast-growing business for a woman who is locally famous for her home baked breads, pies, authentic German soft pretzels and cookie kits.
Suzanne Hiltz, owner of Das NiederHiltz Haus in the small Aroostook County community of Cary, is selling her Chapped Hide line of salves and moisturizers as far away as Hawaii.
“My parents taught me that if you chew up plantain and put the poultice on a bee sting it draws out the poison and it won’t hurt as much,” she said. “When we moved to Aroostook County from Augusta my whole neck was covered in black fly bites and it was very painful. So I started chewing plantain leaves for my neck. It soothed the pain right away.”
Hiltz didn’t want to keep chewing the leaves, so she first created a plantain-infused olive oil that eventually led to the creation of her plantain salve that she shared with family and friends who encouraged her to keep going.
“A classmate from high school said, ‘you know you can go big with this.’ And I believed him,” she said.
Much like Burt’s Bees co-founder Roxanne Quimby, Hiltz is a homesteader, an artist, a Renaissance woman of sorts who can do just about anything from baking, sewing, constructing rabbit hutches and storage sheds to building a business born from an inventive curiosity. She’s also a mother of five children.
Last year, Hiltz’ husband, Jeremy Hiltz, suggested she contact the Northern Maine Development Commission for assistance. And with the guidance and coaching of Jacob Pelkey, NMDC entrepreneur program manager, she was awarded a $10,000 Maine Community Development Block Grant late last year.
“The grant really changed things,” she said. “It allowed me to make the line more professional.”
The Northern Maine Development Commission is the economic development district for Aroostook and Washington counties, and it has state and federal programs under its umbrella.
Pelkey’s program is designed to help connect businesses to the resources they need, which can include funding even for those with limited incomes and educational opportunities.
The funds that Hiltz received are unique in that they are largely unrestricted, so she could use them for many things, Pelkey said.
As an entrepreneur she put forth an idea for the review committee, and the committee awarded her idea, he said.
“It’s huge to get that $10,000 grant,” Pelkey said.
He points to another Maine skin care company that has taken off, Marin Skincare made out of lobster byproducts. L.L. Bean picked up the line. Marin Skincare went through the state’s Top Gun program, and Hiltz is also going to the Top Gun program this year, Pelkey said.
The Top Gun Program, a business accelerator run by the NMDC, is designed to elevate businesses with the right tools, resources, and mentorship for long-term success. The deadline to apply has been extended to Jan. 4, Pelkey said.
Additionally Hiltz is applying for a $25,000 Maine Domestic Trade Grant. The goal of this grant is to get products made in Maine over the state border and into other parts of the country, according to Pelkey.
If awarded the grant, she could use some of the funds for trade shows, for example.
One of the biggest changes to Chapped Hide was the packaging that went from jars packed and labeled in her kitchen to an artist-created logo and labels for tins. Hiltz envisioned a leathery look to the Chapped Hide name, and Cassie Mayo, who co-owns Dirigo Creative Co. digital design, created her brand’s appearance, she said.
“I couldn’t even try to sell it when it had a homely out-of-your-kitchen kind of look,” she said.
Some of the grant money went to trademarking Chapped Hide. She got an LLC and did a lot of advertising.
Hiltz also bought double boilers that streamlined the process of creating the salve, and she no longer has to use family household supplies.
In 2014, Hiltz invented the salve mostly for her family. For the first several years, she gave away jars to friends. But as more and more people started asking her for it, she decided to start selling the salve online and at the Houlton Community Market.
In August, she decided to give it a big push and posted it on Facebook and online sales started increasing. Additionally, she mailed out postcards to 400 different hunting and fishing stores with a blurb about Chapped Hide, and that’s how a shop in Massachusetts started buying it from her. Since that August push, she said she has sold at least 500 units of the Chapped Hide salves ranging in price from $15 to $29 each. (the lip balm starts at $5.29).
The Chapped Hide line includes the plantain salve as well as Pup Paw Salve for dogs, Chapped Hide Lip Balm and Chapped Hide Citrus Moisturizer.
The Chapped Hide plantain salve and other Chapped Hide products are now in T & S Market, Seiders Variety, County Coop Farm Store, North Country Gifts, Hussey’s General Store in Windsor and Natick Outdoor Store in Mass. It can also be purchased online, she said.
“She has a lot of things she could be doing, but she has this Chapped Hide product, Pelkey said. “To focus on that product, I think there is tremendous growth potential in that product.”
This story was updated to correct a typographical error.
