Two years ago, Rachel Lenardson said she wanted to leave her corporate IT job, and get back to her roots in the food service industry. But rather than work for someone else, she wanted to take hold of her own destiny.
Now, she and her husband, Skip Ernst, run Mother Hubbard’s Ladle, a small kitchen run out of a trailer at the end of their driveway on 57 Hubbard Pond Road in New Ipswich, where they make and sell to-go meals, including a selection of soups, and a roting list of meals, cookies, scones, and “Lunchables for Grownups” – an assortment to cheeses, crackers, nuts and fruits.
Lenardson started the business in 2023, and Ernst joined her full-time last month, after losing his job, which was also in the IT field. But neither is a stranger to food service or restaurants — in fact, it’s how they met, when Lenardson hired Ernst to work in the gourmet food shop she was managing in Bangor, Maine, when they were both young adults.
Within weeks of their marriage, they, along with another couple, opened a fine dining restaurant called New Moon Cafe in Bangor before eventually leaving the food industry to join a Florida company to work IT from home in 2002.
“The IT world was great, it paid the bills, but it wasn’t what we wanted to do,” Ernst said.
“I did it for 18 years, and it’s boring. I wanted to get back into this,” Lenardson said, indicating the line of food preparations she is preparing for the coming weekend’s lunch crowd. “I really enjoy it.”
Lenardson said she saw the trailer, with a prep kitchen, on Facebook Marketplace, and decided to make the jump.
“It’s perfect,” she said. “Everything has worked out. I don’t know how or why, but it did, and I’m glad.”
Ernst said Lenardson started with a selection of soups, and based on demand, slowly started to branch out into other meals. Lenardson said she wanted to provide hearty meals that were ready to go or just needed to be heated up. She said she’s tried all the ready-to-eat meals in the grocery stores, and wanted to offer something of better quality.
Lenardson said she’s happier now, being able to experiment with different recipes and control her own business. She said she knew it was going to be hard, and sometimes it is – even physically hard. But, she said, she’s gotten physically stronger, and even dropped weight since starting the business two years ago, and is still enjoying herself.
“It’s nice to be in charge of your destiny, rather than leave it to other people,” Lenardson said. “It’s joyful. I just like the challenge each week, and each week I make something different.”
Mother Hubbard’s Ladle is located at 57 Hubbard Pond Road, and is open for to-go orders on Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The business plans to be closed the last week of August, but will re-open for regular business hours in September. To learn more about them, and for weekly menu options, visit the Mother Hubbard’s Ladle Facebook page.