Sylvia Ballentine-Knight and Fahim Knight took the idiom, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” to heart when financial issues stood between their daughter, Fahsyrah Kumasi Knight, and a summer gymnastics camp. “We immediately saw this as an opportunity that could serve as a teachable moment for [her, by] putting her to work and letting her earn the money,” Sylvia says. They built their daughter a small, mobile cart to sell lemonade in the neighborhood – Fahsyrah’s grandmother Annie Louise Ballentine lent her secret family lemonade recipe to the cause – and the venture succeeded in raising more than $2,000.
But then the people wanted more. A gentleman came around asking for another gallon, explaining that the Knights had a great product on their hands and shouldn’t stop selling it. “It was so well-liked [that we kept] the lemonade stand in operation for the entire summer of 2009,” Sylvia says. “From there, we decided to re-launch Fahsyrah’s Lemonade as a full-fledged lemonade business.
The popularity has not wavered – customers look forward to the ice-cold homemade lemonade at the Durham Farmers’ Market every week, and the stand can also be found at most food truck rodeos. The Knights started bottling their product last year, which can be found at Cocoa Cinnamon and Ideas! Coffee House on East Geer Street. An ideal summertime drink, it strikes a perfect balance – not too sweet and not too tart – and is made through old-fashioned hand squeezing. “You might see lemons, cane sugar, distilled water and a little bit of this and that all over our kitchen countertop,” Sylvia explains, “but the secret to pulling some of the basic ingredients together is off limits.”
