Historically, we (Sara-Margaret and Chip Cates) have given away our goodies as gifts to family and friends but many people have commented that we should try and sell our special items. We have started this website as an attempt to explore the possibility of marketing our kitchen talents to those beyond our reach of peers.
Our tomatoes, okra and pecans come fresh from my mother's farm in Havana. Most of our recipes are derived from family and friends' cookbooks that we have tweaked. My cooking style was inherited from my Mom (who was an award winning cook at the Shrimp Festival in Gulf Shores twenty five years ago), my love of Southwest and Mediterranean cuisine, Gulf Coast relatives influence and the ladies from First Community and Trinity Presbyterian Churches.
I fell in love with good beef jerky and green chili peppers after spending a summer out in New Mexico in the mid 1990s and have brought this addiction back to the South. I have several people that look forward to my batch of jerky each holiday season.
SMC has an affinity towards boiled peanuts that she shares with some of our close friends (especially a certain golf coach and family from South Carolina) and family members, who insist on a bag every time we produce a batch. Judging from the response of sales on the Quad this football season, it seems to be a marketable product.
Our name and logo come from the two labrador retrievers that we are raising and have become our family. The red momma bird dog (who was the flower girl in our wedding) is Massey Nanson (named from a young Becca Brewbaker's rendition of her big sister's name Mary Lansden.) About fifteen years ago Mary Lansden named a new kitten "Chip" and I told her that I would get her back by naming my next dog after her. I have a photo of Mary Lansden holding a puppy Massey under a "Life is Good" painting that she created and is one of my most cherished positions.
Massey's puppy is our blonde "special" blind and deaf dog named Rowdy. Rowdy is the parasite that we inherited when we bred Massey a couple of years ago because we wouldn't sell her but she has become my gem in the rough. I have learned more about humility and unconditional love from her than any other source in my adult life. She has become the greatest example for my understanding of what the Apostle Paul was communicating in Romans 5:6-8.
