Three years ago, Sarah Bourke was at Napa’s BottleRock music festival when she tasted a shrub for the first time.
“My taste buds exploded,” she recalls of the fruit-flavored vinegar drink, explaining that she’d always wanted to start her own food or beverage company. “I don’t know what shrubs are,” she immediately thought of the tart syrups, which can be used to flavor sparkling water, enhance cocktails and mocktails, and serve as the base for salad dressings, among other applications. “But I think they could be my food business.”
Back in Santa Barbara, Bourke — who worked for Patagonia for six years before starting at Apeel three months ago — started making her own, using fig and guava from trees that grew in her side yard on Garden Street. Last year, while volunteering at Fairview Gardens during the pandemic, she learned about the cottage food license that allows people to legally sell food and drink products that they make in their home. “It’s really taken off from there,” said Bourke, who officially launched Sideyard Shrubs in June 2020.