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What started as a family's small Christmas tradition has now morphed into a full-time, family-owned business.
In 1979, Michele Trover and her husband attended a party where she was introduced to some of the best jalapeño cream cheese dip she had ever tasted. She loved the jalapeño jelly used in the dip so much that she convinced the party host to give her the recipe.
Michele started making jars of the jelly to give away to family and friends for Christmas and other holidays. The popularity of her product grew and she received so many requests for the jalapeño preserves that in 1990 she signed on with a distributor and Pepperlane Products was born.
Growth has come steadily to the homegrown business headquartered in Wanship. It now offers 12 varieties of jalapeño jellies that are sold in the Park City and Salt Lake City farmers markets, in grocery stores and to restaurants and chefs. The original Jalapeño Preserves has expanded to include flavors such as Cranpeño, a mix of jalapeño and cranberry; Peppercot, a mix of apricots and jalapeño; and Sweet Heat, which has habanero and jalapeño mixed together. At first, Michele was resistant to the idea of making the jellies hotter, but she received so many requests for an even spicier jelly that she finally added the habanero. Customers have been delighted with the finished product.
The preserves can be used in various creative ways including as a cream cheese condiment sauce, on turkey sandwiches and as a garnish on meat. Rod and Sandra Weese recently joined the Pepperlane team, and Michele says they have been a wonderful asset. The company had gained enough new accounts that she was finding it difficult to keep up with the demand. She plans to continue growing the company without losing any of the quality or consistency her clients are accustomed to.
For Zions Bank, I'm Rob Brough. I'm speaking on business.
