Veronica Zambrano and her wife Ruth started making beef jerky in their own kitchen, looking to recreate the carne seca they grew up eating in Mexico when they could not find a version that captured the same bold, deeply seasoned flavor. What began as a snack for family gatherings became a business in 2020, when the pandemic forced them both to stop working and they put the last of their savings into their first commercial dehydrator. The first batch was terrible, but they kept refining the recipe, and Handcrafted Jerky grew into a small-batch operation built on real ingredients, traditional flavors, and the belief that snacks should taste like food rather than chemicals. Veronica's vision is to grow into a full snack company with their own manufacturing and packaging, with hopes of one day sponsoring sports teams in her community along the way.
