As an undergraduate student at Jersey City State College in Jersey City, NJ, Candy Holmes went to study sessions with her friends and ate big cheeseburgers. Her friends knew that foods with high fat content were not good for Candy’s health, and they introduced her to salsa. This was new to her, but it became enjoyable.

In 1995, Candy and her husband, Tyrone moved from Newark, NJ, to Durham, NC. Candy, then a graduate student at N.C. Central University in Durham, was not known for her cooking expertise. She once said, “If it’s not in a box or frozen. I can’t work it.”

In the summer of 1996, Candy could not find her favorite brand of salsa – Ortega – in North Carolina,so she decided to make her own. Her husband, a lover of extremely hot and spicy foods, quickly became hooked on the chucky, multi-spiced creation they called Candy’s Down Home Country Salsa. This was the beginning of their home based business. The salsa came in three flavors mild, medium and hot. Tyrone felt it was good enough to market – so they did. Samples were given away and survey results supported their desired to market it. Many respondents said the salsa had a slow, powerful kick to it.

The couple sold their product in a variety of ways. The salsa was carried in several local stores in the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill) and in the Henderson, NC area. John McCann, a writer with the Durham Herald-Sun newspaper, was interested in how the salsa came into being, and interviewed Tyrone and Candy at the 1998 Food Expo in Raleigh. The story was published and the salsa became even more popular. Two NC based organizations were very instrumental in helping them get their products produced; NC Department Agriculture (Goodness in NC) and the NC Specialty Food Association which they are still members till this day.

In 1999, the couple chose to cease production of the salsa, due to the lack of demand and very few sales and they then decided to move to Oxford, NC. In the winter of 2004, Tyrone and Candy decided to restart their home based business, this time concentrating on making an all-purpose gourmet sauce that could be used on any dish. The recipe didn’t change much, but the texture did. The new product is called Spice It Up!

In early 2005 the couple introduced a new gourmet hot sauce to the product line. This sauce is extremely hot and recommended only for the brave at heart. In the spring of 2005, Tyrone and Candy introduced four new sauces to the existing line of products. In the near future Holmes Food Products plans to add four chucky salsas, which will come in mild, medium hot and extremely hot and a seafood dip will also be added.