"We met at the Win, Place & Show bar in Ruidoso, New Mexico,” Randy McMillan says of his wife, Carol. “I got to dance with her the last song of the night and she winked at the band and got them to sing one extra song. Now we have five kids and 15 grandkids.”
They also founded Fresh Chile Co., which produces products featuring fresh Hatch chiles—including the red chili sauce Randy grew up making with his family.
“We would make it usually in September when the chilies have started turning red,” he says. “We would go out and pick them as a family at a farm and my dad would know the farmer. We’d pick several gunny sacks.”
When making their first large-scale batch of Red Chile Sauce, Randy and Carol kept the tradition in the family.
“All the kids, they each had a job,” says Carol. “Randy’s youngest daughter has Down syndrome and she’s just amazing. Jenna was standing on a step stool where she could reach the counter, running the pureed sauce through a colander, getting all the seeds and all the skin out. I can still see that in my mind’s eye—that little precious, blonde-headed girl turning that colander.”
