Sweet Fire Pepper Jelly Owner Dana Stenzel | The Food Craftsmen ep 30

Sweet Fire Pepper Jelly was a happy accident:

Dana Stenzel of Sweet Fire Pepper Jelly started making a spicy pepper jelly by accident one day. She blames it on her husband. One I consider a "happy accident" (shout out to Bob Ross). Her first foray into using a co-packer she brought her ingredients to the facility. This brought on a chuckle from the packer because she brought enough ingredients to make a five pound batch. A test run for the packer required a minimum of 30 pound batches.

Get 10% off your order of Sweet Fire Pepper Jelly: Click the link to learn more.

Dana quickly learned how to work with her co-packer. She started sourcing her own ingredients from local farmers to make sure the quality was at the standard she needed as well as a price break from the co-packer.

What's Next for Sweet Fire Pepper Jelly?

Next up for Sweet Fire Pepper Jelly is expanding into new product categories including; salad dressings and barbecue sauces.

Takeaways from this episode:

When Looking for a co-packer make sure they are licensed, insured, and can be 3rd party inspected

Develop relationships with key people. Dana developed a relationship with a woman who was a few steps ahead of her, but the mentoring shaved months off of Dana's learning curve.

Look for retailers who may have local foragers or product developers.

If you like this episode you should get The Bite. It's The Food Craftsmen's Newsletter, and you can save 10% on your order of Sweet Fire Pepper Jelly

Important Resources from this episode:

Palm Springs VillageFest

Whole Foods Market Local Vendor Program

Tasting Box By Hatchery.co

Get 10% off your order of Sweet Fire Pepper Jelly

Dana wanted to thank you for listening to The Food Craftsmen by giving you 10% off your order at Sweet Fire Pepper Jelly by entering in the code: FoodCraft at checkout. Tell her thanks for being so awesome.