In the three years since opening their doors, Hope & Main, Warren's food business incubator, has housed makers creating everything from chimichurri to kimchi, and halvah to rugelach. For a lot of us, sampling at the Meet Your Maker events has been our first taste of some of these flavors. But there's a new maker in town, and they're creating something that needs no introduction.

Stuffies.

The Rhode Island Shellfish company — the husband and wife team of Peter and Jeanine Caswell — has been licensed for six months, so they are experiencing their first holiday rush, selling out of the stuffed quahogs based on his great-grandmothers recipe as quickly as they can produce them. In addition to stuffies, they also make a chowder and a lobster stew, also in great demand throughout the holidays.

"It's all about the quahog," says Peter, who digs his own, with the help of sons Brayden (6) and Jayce (4) whenever he can. When he can't, they use a fresh-off-the-boat supplier out of Narragansett. A commercial tugboat captain, Peter is on the water for two weeks at a time all year long, so when he is home, they produce, with Jeanine working their production schedule around her work as a self-employed hair stylist and the schedules of their two young boys.

Making stuffies can be a bit of a process, but if you are cooking them at home for yourself, you can take some liberties with the recipe. Not so when you are producing them for sale and a consumer's expectation that the stuffie he buys today will taste just like the one he bought and loved last month. Each ingredient is carefully measured, and each 4-ounce stuffie includes over an an ounce of clams, as well as sausage, peppers and onions, herbs and spices. The Caswells are focusing on local markets, simply because USDA regulations require products made for wider distribution, and containing more than 2 percent meat, be created in a USDA-certified kitchen. It's a tough hurdle for a small startup, as the closest shared kitchen certified by USDA is in Maine.

Fortunately, USDA doesn't govern the manufacture of seafood products — that's handled locally, and Peter has nothing but praise for the R.I Department of Health's oversight and responsiveness. "Whenever I have a question for them, I get an answer within the hour," he said.

The Caswells decided to share their stuffies with the rest of us because of the raves they've received over the years at family parties and events like the 4th of July. They make two kinds — spicy and mild — during cooking sessions once or twice a month in which they produce 600-700 stuffies each time. The stuffies are frozen overnight, a step necessary to preserve their shape during packing (in servings of 2, 4, and 6 items) and transport. Their chowder and stew, produced in 5 gallon quantities, is sold fresh, to be used (or frozen) by the consumer within the week.

Like so many other makers, Peter and Jeanine are grateful to Hope & Main for the support they've received there as they launch Rhode Island Shellfish.

"We've found a happy medium here," said Peter. It's not immediately clear if he is referring to their pre-holiday production volume or the work-life balance they've found while working a food start-up into their busy schedules — but it would seem that both ring true.