Our Story

THE REASON

Lendora’s Habanero Hot Sauce is a creation that stems from the love of family and the healing process of losing a mom.  Lendora’s was created in Summer of 2019 after the passing of my mom, Lendora Dale.  Mommy was the heart of our family, both immediate and extended.  My life was full of family gatherings that were formed around her love of cooking.  Our home has always been the hub. She had a dream of having her own brand of food products and planned to begin that dream with me in Summer 2019, my first free Summer since pursuing my Ph.D.  Unfortunately, Mommy suffered first a heart attack and then a stroke in Spring 2019 and succumbed to her illnesses in April of that year.  As part of my healing process, I planted fruits and vegetables in my garden.  For some reason, only the peppers and herbs thrived.  My garden was overcome with the colors red, yellow, and orange, my mother’s favorite colors; colors that matched the butterflies and cardinals that visited us during Mommy’s transition period; the colors of the butterflies that stayed around during the butterfly release after her repass.  It was so beautiful, soothing, and yet overwhelming.

I sat surrounded by those colors and just felt peace.  The urge to create hot sauce with those items emerged so I picked them, researched recipes and created my own from the standard ingredients with a couple of my mom’s staples included, and started my first batch with three different versions.  Over the past three years, I have worked to improve the recipe using taste tests and consumer input.