A little history on how I came about creating Gotta Be Penelopes.   I grew up on a farm in a very small town in upstate New York, known as the North Country or Champlain Valley area.  We had a very large garden with just about every vegetable known to man.  I remember saying to my mother that when I grew up, I would never have a large vegetable garden!  It was way too much work!  Well, I’m now eating those words!!
 
I moved to the outskirts of Albany, New York and started my organic garden when I bought my first house.  Started freezing and canning like my mom did. 😊   We moved to Raleigh, North Carolina in 1995 when my children were very young, and I started my gardens again.  Each year my garden would grow a little bigger!  I would always put in extra plants, just in case they died.  I would give away some to friends and neighbors and can/freeze what I could.  One year I had so many habanero peppers and I couldn't figure out what to do with them.   My son asked me if I had ever had hot pepper jelly.  Truthfully, I had never experienced the great flavor of this with cream cheese on a cracker!  It’s a very popular food in the south and I couldn’t believe I had never tried it.