DUNWOODY, Ga. — At 43, Regina Nekola Hild left commercial real estate to follow a dream.
Fast-forward to today, at 58, she’s the CEO & Artisan Chef at Regina’s Farm Kitchen. Now in its 10th year, the artisan fruit spread business she started in her Dunwoody kitchen has sales in 34 states. But the seeds of this career pivot were planted decades earlier on a family farm in Toledo, Iowa.
“I was raised on a 200-acre farm seven miles from the closest town,” Hild said. “We grew corn, soybeans, hay and had cattle, pigs, chickens and more. You were expected to help out.” It was there she learned how to preserve fruits and vegetables. But that would come in handy later.
Upon graduating from college in Florida, Hild moved to Atlanta in the mid-1990s and secured a corporate sales job with Coke’s bottling arm. She later jumped to Nortel Networks, which included a brief move to Denver. In the early 2000s, smarting from a mass layoff from Nortel, Hild returned to Atlanta, once again in search of a job.
“You’ve got the sales, marketing experience and personality,” advised Hild’s sister, who sold real estate in Iowa. “Go sell real estate in Atlanta.”
Hild heeded that advice and became a licensed residential broker, eventually shifting to commercial real estate.
When the real estate market crashed in 2008, Hild’s husband suggested she make a change.
“The first thing that popped in my head, I’m going to culinary school,” she recalled.
She started at Gwinnett Tech in 2010, alongside classmates 10 and 20 years younger, half of whom didn’t graduate.
“On the first day, our director said, ‘If you think this is all Food Network, you might as well pack up and leave. This is hard work. There’s drugs, divorce, burn out, and depression’,” Hild recalled. “It was a wake-up call, but I wanted to be there.”
Upon completing her culinary degree, Hild worked with a personal chef who ran a side business of cookies, granola, soups and more and “saw what was possible.” So, she decided to pursue a shelf-stable pantry product and began experimenting with jam recipes.
“My mom grew strawberries all over our farm,” Hild said. “We never threw anything away. Our cellar was like a rainbow of preserved beets, strawberries, carrots, peaches and green beans.”
In 2014, her friend Bob gave her bags of fresh jalapeño peppers he’d mistakenly grown. She was tinkering with a jam of strawberries from Washington Farms (near Athens) and blueberries grown near Perry. She added Bob’s jalapeños and called it Strawberry Blueberry Jalapeño — SBJ for short.
As friends demanded more SBJ, she started bottling it under a cottage license.
“When someone ordered 40 jars for corporate gifts, I knew I had something. That was the start of my jam business,” Hild said. “It’s very unique, giftable, packaged beautifully and has a story.”
Fig orange black pepper with bowl, pears and crackers is one of many products sold by Regina’s Farm Kitchen, founded by entrepreneur Regina Nekola Hild.
ERIC VALENTIN/VALENTIN INC.
As she built her business, she took more courses for small food artisans and sought advice from friends like closing attorney, Larry Feldman, who also pivoted careers later in life.
“I graduated from law school at age 50 and have been managing my own business ever since,” Feldman said about his law practice. “Sometimes she asks how to approach a problem.”
Feldman is also a customer, giving jams to clients as a gift to celebrate their purchase of a home. One client received her blueberry-lemon jam and ordered five more jars. “They’re not flavors you find every day.”
Many agree. In 2018, her SBJ was the winning preserve at the Good Food Awards in San Francisco and a finalist in the University of Georgia’s 2020 Flavor of Georgia Food Product Contest.
As a solopreneur, Hild has also dealt with plenty of challenges, including securing capital, working with co-packers, covering rising costs, and identifying warehousing space.
She also does her own in-store demos to get to know her customers. Hild attends trade shows to secure more independent shops, as she doesn’t sell on Amazon or in big-box retail stores.
Georgia Gifts & More in Tucker just started carrying her jams.
“We carry a peach vanilla bean, peach habanero and a four-jam gift set,” said shop co-owner Karen Gayle. “Her flavor palette is a little different.”
Raspberry jalapeño and cranberry-orange Meyer lemon are Hild’s newest of nine flavors.
Looking ahead to 2026, she’s focusing on the wholesale side of her business, stepping away from farmers markets.
“We just signed up with US Foods, so hopefully we’ll be working with more chefs, restaurants, resorts, hotel gift shops, country clubs – getting into some of those niche markets,” Hild said.
She also mentors those starting their own artisan business. “So many people helped me along this journey, I always like to pay it back.”