On Monday, August 13, a new business opened its doors at 290 Main Street Unit G in Niverville. Absolutely Homemade is selling home-cooked meals and baked goods for takeout.

Customers can buy handmade perogies, cabbage rolls, meatballs, and soups, as well as individual- or family-sized meals such as shepherd’s pie, lasagne, casseroles, and chili to take home and heat up. Also available are desserts, primarily fruit pies and cheesecake.

Owner and cook Sandra Wollmann says that opening this business has been a dream of hers for as long as she can remember.

“I wanted to combine two of the things I love,” Wollmann says. “I absolutely love cooking and baking, and I want to help people out.”

Along with her husband, who co-owns the business, and her niece Tamara, who helps with the cooking, Sandra makes everything she sells from scratch. Her goal is to help people who might be too busy to spend much time in the kitchen by doing the work for them.

“I’m very passionate about providing quality home-cooked meals at a very reasonable price,” she says. “I just love helping people, and I believe I was led to do it like this.”

Wollmann learned to cook in her mother’s kitchen and has spent the past 30 years cooking in various locations.

“I have cooked in fly-in fishing lodges, in cafeterias, all over. I’ve had different jobs in between, but it seems like I always drift back into the food industry. I love cooking, what can I say?”

The Landmark resident has plans to expand operations to include more dessert options as well as brown-bag lunches, which customers can order online the night before and pick up the next morning

So far, says Wollmann, business has been good and feedback has been positive.

“At this point, I think the perogies have been the big sellers, and the borscht, too,” she says, adding that she makes several kinds of perogies by hand. After all, she adds, “the frozen ones from the store, they don’t even come close to homemade!”

Although not on the menu, Wollmann also offers gluten-free cabbage rolls and vegan perogies, both of which are made to order and must be requested at least three days in advance. Wollmann says she’s looking into more gluten-free options down the road, but she wants to take things one step at a time.

Absolutely Homemade is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m., and on Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. until noon.