The holiday spread on this issue’s cover is what the table looks like every year at Tanya Jaynes Boatwright’s house: turkey ham, dressing, macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, black-eyed peas, maple pecan sweet potatoes and collard greens, most of them made from recipes handed down through her family.

“I just decorate it a little differently every year,” she says. “But that’s basically it.”

Boatwright and her husband, Kevin Boatwright, have run BoJaynes Specialty Foods with their family for more than 15 years, and their shop on Keys Ferry Street in McDonough carries the same feeling. It is part natural deli, part gourmet market and, at its heart, a spicery. The deli case rotates daily with sandwiches, grinders, wraps, salads and soups built on chicken salads, turkey, roast beef and turkey ham, with vegan, vegetarian and pescatarian options. The secret to the family recipes? “A lot of love,” she says. “And patience. Once you connect with your food, the love you put in is what you see back.”

But the spices are what she wanted to talk about. “That’s my heart,” she says.

When the family opened their first shop, she pictured a spicery inside a deli. The community wasn’t ready. “I don’t think many people were cooking at home,” she says. “So I took it all out and just used the spices behind the scenes.” As families rediscovered their kitchens, she brought the blends back out, and today they are one of the shop’s biggest draws.

Boatwright blends every one herself in small batches, guided by the instinct she had as a little girl at her mother’s spice cabinet. “I didn’t know what I was doing, but I was mixing,” she laughs. When she told her mother she wanted a deli with spices in it, the response was simple: “I’m not surprised. That’s what you do.”

The line runs from a collard green seasoning to Greek, Mardi Gras and lemon pepper blends, a Middle Eastern za’atar heavy with thyme and sesame, and her own version of garam masala. Her favorites are the collard green, the za’atar and the masala. Every culture cooks with the same spices, she points out; they simply use them differently. Her goal is to take the intimidation out of the jar. “I try to put it all in one can so that you don’t have to stress about the flavor of your food,” she says. That, she believes, is what gets busy families cooking at home, where the good stuff happens.

“When you set the meal, that’s time you are spending with your family,” she says. “That’s where you get the conversations, to know what’s going on with your kids, and touch base on how everyone’s feeling. I love home. I love family.”

Her palate works on instinct. Every dish balances sweet, savory and a little spice, a pattern she followed for years before she went to school to learn more about time-honored culinary methods.

Nearly everything on the cover was seasoned from her own shelves: the holiday blend she makes each year, the collard green seasoning, the all-purpose blend, a four-spice mix in the maple pecan sweet potatoes. With the shop down to just the family, BoJaynes has stepped back from full catering, but Tanya still offers a small holiday menu for pickup each year, so the spread can travel to your table too. Selling the blends online is next on her list. For now, come see the family in person. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

CONTACT DETAILS

BoJaynes Specialty Foods is located at 371 Keys Ferry Street in McDonough. Visit bojaynesspecialtyfoods.com for the deli menu, the full line of hand-blended spices, and current hours, or call 770-914-1154. Follow BoJaynes Specialty Foods on Facebook and on Instagram @bojaynes_specialty_foods.

By Kemble Hildreth