Peggy Harris offers a full-catering menu from her rural Cameron County on a farm-to-market road that still looks like the Rio Grande Valley of citrus groves and sorghum fields.

A mother cow with its young calf munch in a pasture near the garage space-turned-commercial kitchen where Harris has set up her Peggy’s Cakes & More. She said her business has outgrown the compact and efficient kitchen from which she caters weddings, corporate events, special events and sit-down dinners. Harris rarely sits on busy weekends, going from farmers’ markets to celebration events to weddings and baby showers.

During the week, there are meetings and luncheons at area school districts, hospitals and businesses with Harris taking sandwich trays, charcuterie boards, desserts and comfort food to conference rooms and auditoriums. It started out far simpler over a decade ago. Harris’ son is autistic and has many food allergies. She noticed he was often left out of birthday parties and realized there was a need to provide food and treats for those like her son who suffer from food allergies.

It was then she took several cake decorating classes and became a master cake decorator. Harris also began to specialize in gluten-free, sugar free and dye-free desserts. She made old fashioned cakes as well, the ones with real sugar, but found a niche in the gluten-free selections. From there, Harris was off to a new enterprise – the second business of her entrepreneurial life – and it has grown steadily since then, with catering and market stops all over Cameron County.  

“I never meant for it to be a business,” she said. “Now, some days, I’m on my feet over 12 hours a day, but I love it.”

Love Of Baking

Harris grew up in a fishing and shrimping family in Brownsville.

It makes sense in noting her first business was a fish and seafood market in her hometown. It went well for a number of years before Harris and her husband decided to move to a rural life with farming and ranching interests, including the mother and calf living near her kitchen, which are like family pets. 

Farming and ranching are still something the Harris family appreciates, but Peggy’s passion is her cakes, sandwiches, desserts and cookies in taking “my love for baking to the next level,” she says on her company’s website.

The catering menu on the site is extensive. There are casseroles and family style meals that include pepper bacon mango lime shrimp, baked chicken with raspberry chipotle sauce, and beef or chicken lasagna. Sandwich trays feature her signature chicken salad made with chicken breast, grapes, apples and pecans. There are also vegetarian and vegan choices. For dessert, there are cupcakes and cookies of any flavor, chewy soft pretzel balls and her signature scones.  

All of those choices, and many others, keep her busy and her cell phone ringing. Harris is a one woman-baking business, so much so that some weeks her husband pleads with her to turn away orders, which she is reluctant to do.

“It’s everyday crazy,” she said.

New Challenges

Harris’ business is prospering even as challenges related to supply chain issues concern her.

The price of the high-quality flour she uses has more than doubled this year. The same goes for butter. Searching for certain supplies takes time when she doesn’t have much of it to begin with as requests come in. 

“I really need to plan ahead to make sure I have all the ingredients I need,” Harris said. 

The ingredients are there in her state-inspected and certified commercial kitchen. They’re neatly stacked and ready to go, with the next order surely on its way.