Turkey eggs and flower petal jam.

Such are two of the Black Bear Family Farms’ specialties that Linda and Ben Carlos of St. Anthony provide during farmers markets and trade shows. The couple recently set up shop during the annual Teton Storytelling and Arts Festival in Rexburg.

The couple noted that their turkey eggs sold like hotcakes during the festival.

“They do sell out. We brought six (cartons) and sold them all,” Linda said. “Some people buy one or two at a time. People don’t like to buy the whole bunch. One regular comes and gets turkey eggs all the time.”

The eggs are richer tasting than chicken eggs, she said.

“Turkey eggs are nice, large eggs” Linda said. “You can devil them and scramble them. You can cook them the same as you do a chicken egg.”

The family’s turkeys produce eggs just once a year, she said.

“They tend to lay in the spring. They don’t lay year round like chickens do,” Linda said.

Once a year, Linda takes some of the turkeys’ eggs and places them under brooding chickens.

“The chickens want to sit, so we just let them sit,” she said. “We have four baby turkey chicks that were hatched by chickens.”

When it comes to the jam, Linda says that’s her husband’s specialty and refers to him as the “jam master.” Ben makes much of his jelly from flower petals. Such a thing isn’t that unusual — just ask the English, he said.

“The British make a lot of flower jelly,” he said.

Ben relies on the lilac bushes located in front of his home to make jams. From there, he boils the flowers in water, lets the mixture set, and it eventually turns into jelly.

The couple made their first flower jelly from a yellow rose.

“It smells nice,” Ben said. “When I made it, it tasted like honey. The rose wasn’t there. I don’t know why it didn’t come through.”

The family switched to other roses that they found provided a greater taste. They also plan to make a jelly from lavender and peonies.

In the meantime, the couple makes other jellies such as chocolate strawberry, chocolate raspberry and blueberry rhubarb.

“Our newest is blueberry rhubarb. It has a huckleberry taste to it,” Ben said.

The couple finds their jam recipes everywhere from Pinterest to old cookbooks.

Ben learned how to make jelly from his mother and from an aunt who lived in Santa Maria, California, near strawberry and apricot fields.

“We would have these mass jam making sessions,” he said. “I always liked doing it. It was fun.”

Married for 35 years, the couple has been running their business for two years. They are parents of six daughters who often help with the business. One daughter makes herbal salve from herbs the family also grows. The salve helps in healing bug bites.

Linda and Ben said they always wanted to have their own business and say that they’ve enjoyed running one.

“We love it. We’ve been doing this for two years now,” Ben said.

In addition to eggs and jelly, they sell produce from their garden.

“We’ve been gardening for years. I had purple peas this year — a beautiful, deep purple pod with pees inside. We had carrots, too,” Ben said.

The couple has even sold zucchini in a community where the joke is, “If you leave your car unlocked, someone will place some zucchini inside of it.” During the storytelling festival, they nearly sold out of the veggie.

When not gardening, the couple also works at traditional jobs. Ben is employed at Walmart where he works in the sporting goods department. Linda works as a claims adjuster for United Health from home.

Originally from Upstate New York, the couple moved to St. Anthony seven years ago to be closer to their daughters who were attending school nearby. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the couple said it was an interesting experience being a Latter-day Saint in New York where so few fellow church members lived.

“They always thought we were weird, but they always respected our faith,” Linda said of neighbors.

While living in New York, the couple ran a florist shop, thus the prelude to Ben’s flower jelly making.

“My husband is very talented with flowers. He really enjoys that,” Linda said.

The couple advertises their business on Instagram and Facebook where they post about their herbs and vegetables like zucchini and tomatoes. The Carloses’ half acre is also home to several fruit trees, strawberry, blackberry, boysenberry and strawberry patches. They also have access to an ample supply of plums, pears and cherries thanks to a generous next-door neighbor, they said.

“They have so much, they just want to get rid of it,” Linda said.

The couple plans to continue selling their wares at the weekly Rexburg Farmer’s Market and at various trade shows. Eventually they’d like to take their goods to Idaho Falls events.

“We’ve been invited to Idaho Falls, but Rexburg is Friday night and Idaho Falls is on Saturday morning,” Linda said. “We had jobs in between. We haven’t made that step to do both yet, but we would like to do that next year.”

For more information on Black Bear Family Farms, visit facebook.com/Black-Bear-Family-Farms.