Oh, Brother Where Are We?!?!

Current owners, David Smith and Julie Madison, with former owners, Fred & Sally Smith

Well, it’s been a year.  Exactly a year.  We have gone around the sun once as owners of Alabama Sunshine hot sauce company.  We’ve seen 365 days and nights and what a journey it has been. 

I am reminded of the movie “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” as I think back on our journey.  Although we weren’t prisoners as they were in the movie we were certainly chained together in a sort of journey, an odyssey. Though we might not be in search of a treasure per say, the treasure, in a way was to grasp the knowledge of a small farming business, take it by the reins and guide it to new destinations and heights.  Just as in the movie we have faced many a startlement along the way!  

In farming, you can face many a trial all at once.  Too much water, not enough water, pests, crops that under produce, crops that over produce and you can’t keep up with.  In a busy kitchen, you can boil over a 40-gallon kettle of hot sauce in a hot minute (no pun intended) if you aren’t careful.  Yes, we did it, yes it was a huge startlement and an utter MESS to clean up!  We have laughed at a call from a customer who has bought the same product for over 20 years who states “send me that stuff you always send.” Ummm, WAIT, what stuff? What does it look like? Can you describe the label??  It’s a dance in a way to run a farm, run a business, cook, market and stay in touch with customers.  A journey, I will admit dear friends has reduced me to tears on both the drive TO and FROM work several days.  I have moments of thinking “we’ll never get there.  I’m lost on this journey!” It seems at those moments on your journey that just the right person is sent into your path to guide your way.  We have come up against bigger and better funded campaigns and often felt like the underdog fighting the incumbent.  However, we have stayed the course. 

There is something about a year that makes you reflect.  We can take a deep breath, look back, and say WOW!  We came we journeyed, we learned and we continue to press onward.  It is with great and humble thanks we appreciate all of you have been so supportive and spread the word about Alabama Sunshine.  We thank those who have come along side us to work.  Many hard days without much OR ANY pay and keep coming back to offer help day after day.  SO, we look to the future with great hope.  We have on the horizon a new facility.  Room to grow and expand to 3 bottling lines.  We have new product ideas!  Stay tuned for that……(SUSPENSE ADDS STYLE).  We haven’t yet seen a cow on the top of a cotton house.  Although you never know what you might see around here!  We face the future unafraid of the obstacles in our path.  We have seen things wonderful to tell and more than once proclaimed “who’s the leader of this here outfit?!?!?!”  One thing  we know for certain is we can’t wait to share the future with YOU!!
 
“You seek a great fortune, you three who are now in chains. You will find a fortune, though it will not be the one you seek. But first... first you must travel a long and difficult road, a road fraught with peril. Mm-hmm. You shall see thangs, wonderful to tell. You shall see a... a cow... on the roof of a cotton house, ha. And, oh, so many startlements. I cannot tell you how long this road shall be, but fear not the obstacles in your path, for fate has vouchsafed your reward. Though the road may wind, yea, your hearts grow weary, still shall ye follow them, even unto your salvation.” ~ Blind Seer “Oh brother where art thou”

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