I started making jerky as a snack for myself and my family. We would drive back and forth from Southern California to Needles, Arizona to spend the weekends on the Colorado River. I was getting tired of the snacks at gas stations. Chips, candy, cookies; so I tried some beef jerky. It tasted pretty good, but was crazy expensive! When you are out in the middle of nowhere, the cost of everything goes
up. I decided to take a stab at making my own jerky. As you can imagine, the first few tries were not very successful. I continued trying different recipes and used my family as guinea pigs. Some were good, somewhere bad, some were just okay. If after spending more money than I should have on meat, and a ton of different spices, I gave it up. About a month later while sitting up at the SandBar, my cousin asked me to try again because even through it was not that great, went well with his Coors Light. We got home a couple days later and completely forgot any recipe I had before and just went on my gut thinking what worked well and what didn’t; what was too much and was too little. The ending result was far more than I expected. I happened to bring some to work for people to try and it was a huge hit! Instantly I had a guy offer to buy a pound of jerky and so it began. Another one of my co-workers called it "Gringo Special” because there was no heat what so ever, just amazing flavor. Needless to say the name stuck. What really tipped me off that I had something great was back out on the Colorado River once again. I brought some of my newly made jerky with me and gave some to my family. They were actually fighting over the last pieces! I started small making a medium heat and my buddy said it was nice and had “A Cool Burn” to it and not too hot. I then made one with Habaneros (which still my best seller). I let my son try this one and the first think out of his mouth was “holy Habanero!” that was hot! I started making and selling more just by word of mouth. Over a couple years’ time, I now have it nailed down and I am beginning my dream of being a small family business owner. All the crazy fun names I have for my jerky were not my doing; they were all given names by people who have tried them for the first time. The business is still a huge hobby for me and my 3 kids/business partners ages 15, 12, & 4. I am a single father of 3 and this has helped us become a closer and stronger family because we can create something together. It’s our passion and we love doing it and as a family. My ultimate goal for the business is to one day be in stores all over the country and be able to leave my kids one day with a profitable business they can run and operate and live happily ever after. So try my jerky, tell me what you think, and most importantly, tell your friends!
