Today we’d like to introduce you to Gayle Boone.
Hi Gayle, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Before Sweet Mae’s filled grocery shelves across the Southeast, it began in a kitchen on Mobile Bay in Fairhope, Alabama — a place where salt air drifts through open windows, family gathers around big tables, and generations of women pass down recipes the way others pass down heirlooms.
For founder Gayle Boone, those early memories are the heart of everything she makes. Her late mother, Betty Mae, cooked with the kind of instinct and love that can’t be taught — the sort of woman who never let anyone leave hungry and whose recipes lived on handwritten cards smudged with butter and years of use. The pimento cheese she made was famous long before Sweet Mae’s existed.
Those kitchen moments — grandmother to mother to daughter — planted the roots of what would someday become a South Carolina-built gourmet food brand.
From Mobile Bay to the Lowcountry
Gayle’s journey brought her to South Carolina as a young woman when she moved to attend the College of Charleston. She had originally been drawn to the city because of Johnson & Wales University, dreaming of culinary school and a life built around food. Even though her path led into corporate medical sales for many years, the pull of the kitchen and the memory of her mother’s recipes never left.
And when she became a mother herself to her daughter, Mae, everything came full circle.
The realization was clear and powerful:
She wanted a life where she could be home with Mae, build something meaningful with her own hands, and create real independence on her terms.
And she wanted to honor the generations of women — especially Betty Mae — who taught her that food is love, legacy, and connection.
Launching Sweet Mae’s
Sweet Mae’s was born in Gayle’s home kitchen, blending her mother’s original recipes with her own creativity. She perfected her four now-signature flavors — Original, Ghost Pepper, Hatch Chile, and Coastal Cheddar “Lowcountry Shrimp Boil.”
With coolers in the back of her SUV, handwritten labels, and her daughter Mae often helping beside her, Gayle started selling at farmers markets across Charleston, Summerville, and the Lowcountry. Word spread immediately. Customers returned week after week, then lined up before she even arrived.
People tasted the difference — real cheese, fresh ingredients, bold flavors, no shortcuts.
What they were really tasting, though, was three generations of Southern women in every bite.
Pickles followed — Caribbean jerk, spicy garlic, Korean-inspired batches — each one a tribute to Gayle’s love of layered, soulful flavors from both her Gulf Coast childhood and her Lowcountry life & her life in the islands of Turks and Caicos.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The success Sweet Mae’s is experiencing today didn’t come from shortcuts or certainty. It came from a woman in her 40s who made a terrifying, faith-filled decision: to walk away from a sixteen-year corporate career — with its steady paycheck, benefits, and structure — so she could be home with her daughter, Mae, homeschool her, and build something that felt true to her soul.
In those early months, Sweet Mae’s wasn’t even a pimento cheese company.
It began with homemade baby food.
Gayle would buy produce from Earth Fare, steam and puree it for baby Mae, and soon other moms began asking for the fresh, clean baby foods she was creating. Earth Fare was the grocery store she trusted most — as a mother, as a cook, and as a woman trying to make the healthiest choices she could. In a very real way, Earth Fare was the place where Sweet Mae’s was born, long before the first container of pimento cheese was ever sold.
But as Mae grew, Gayle realized baby food alone couldn’t sustain a business or a family. So she turned back to the recipes that had been in her family for generations — the pimento cheese her late mother, Betty Mae, made on Mobile Bay in Fairhope, Alabama. She shared it with neighbors, then friends, then her wider community. Word spread fast. People kept saying, “This is the best pimento cheese I’ve ever had.”
And so the second chapter of Sweet Mae’s began.
The Years of Grit That No One Saw
Gayle was juggling everything at once:
early-morning breastfeeding, loading coolers in the dark, driving to farmers markets before sunrise, nursing Mae between customers, rushing back to her commercial kitchen to mix cheese for the next day’s sales, then washing dishes long after Mae was asleep.
Most days, she worked every single day, often from 5:30 a.m. until 10 p.m.
She bought every mixer, refrigerator, triple sink, and cooler herself — secondhand, repaired, repurposed. There were no investors, no safety nets, no team. Every label was printed and applied by her hands.
Her back hurt. Her feet ached.
And still, she kept going.
Farmers markets across Charleston and Summerville became her lifeline. Local neighborhood stores like the Veggie Bin gave her first wholesale chances. Each small win built the next.
The Earth Fare Chapter That Changed Everything
When Gayle finally reached out to Earth Fare about her pimento cheese, she found something she didn’t expect: a company that welcomed her, guided her, and believed in her potential.
They told her exactly what she needed to do.
She worked relentlessly and proved she could do it.
And Earth Fare — the very place where she once shopped to make Mae’s homemade baby food — became the first retailer to open their arms to her as a small, local maker. They gave Sweet Mae’s a real shot. They didn’t just put her on shelves; they gave her direction, encouragement, and the opportunity to grow.
Because of them, Sweet Mae’s was able to move forward.
Because of them, the dream became real.
And Gayle will always be grateful for that.
A Dream Kept Alive by Determination
Even now, there are moments of fear — moments every entrepreneur knows well — but Gayle keeps pressing on. She does it for Mae, for the legacy of her mother Betty Mae, and for the belief that this South Carolina-born brand can continue to touch lives the way those generations before her touched hers.
Sweet Mae’s didn’t start with confidence.
It started with hope, hard work, and a mother determined to build a better life for her child.
And that has made all the difference.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
At my core, I am a chef, creator, and mother who has built a life around food, family, and following my heart. Over the past couple of years, I’ve had the opportunity to be a private chef for families and small private events throughout the Lowcountry, and that hands-on experience has shaped so much of who I am and my confidence of knowing I am doing exactly what I should be doing. Cooking has always been my love language — the way I honor my mother, my childhood on Mobile Bay, and the flavors that connect my past to the life I’m building now.
What truly sets me apart is that I’ve chosen a life that is unconventional and deeply intentional. After sixteen years in corporate America, I made the decision to step away so I could homeschool my daughter, Mae, and build a life with more meaning, flexibility, and joy. Starting over in my 40s wasn’t easy, but it was necessary. It pushed me to trust myself, take risks, and pursue a path that didn’t look like the one I had been on for so long.
I also spend part of my time living in a small, peaceful corner of the Turks & Caicos, where the slower pace and island simplicity inspire me. That rhythm — Charleston, the islands, homeschooling, cooking, creating — has become the heartbeat of my life and the foundation of Sweet Mae’s. It’s allowed me to show Mae a world where women can design their own lives, even if it means starting from scratch.
I’m most proud that I’ve built everything on my own — without investors or a team, just faith, grit, late nights, and the belief that a different kind of life was possible. I’m proud that my daughter is watching me take chances, try new things, learn as I go, and build a business from the ground up.
I want other women, especially mothers, to know that you don’t have to stay on the path you started on. You can change careers at 40. You can homeschool. You can move to an island. You can build something creative, something delicious, something that lights you up — even if it’s not what people expect from you.
That’s what sets me apart:
I’m not afraid to live differently, to follow the whisper of what makes me happy, and to create a life that honors both my daughter and the generations of women who came before me.
And that spirit is woven into every part of Sweet Mae’s.
How do you define success?
To me, success isn’t measured by titles, money, or the size of a business. I define success by how fulfilled and aligned you feel with the life you’re creating. If what you’re building brings you joy, purpose, and peace — that is success.
Success is also about setting meaningful goals for yourself, reaching for your dreams, and being proud of the work it took to get there. It’s knowing, at the end of the day, that you did the very best you could with what you had — that you were resourceful, responsible, and true to yourself throughout the process.
For me, true success means that the people I love are happy, that my heart is full, and that I’ve pursued my dreams without compromising who I am or hurting anyone along the way. When your life feels honest, purposeful, balanced, and rooted in joy — that is the kind of success that lasts.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sweetmaes.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sweetmaespimentocheese
