Life & Work with Karen Allen of HOLLY SPRINGS

Today we’d like to introduce you to Karen Allen.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Our family, the Joyaux’s and Allen’s had a tremendous love for food. Recipes were born, written on the backs of envelopes or the cardboard off of a cereal box. My grandfather, Micheal D. Allen was a chef in the Army in WWI, cooking for the troops before they all were sent off to serve their county.

He returned home after the war and after getting treatment for mustard poisoning, he made his career and worked as a chef, and the head chef in many of the largest country clubs in the Chicagoland area and Indiana. My mother learned to cook from him after she married my father, John Allen.

I was blessed to receive my grandmothers’ (Marie Kempf Joyaux) 1950 Chamber Stove. I absolutely love knowing she cooked some of the same recipes I now cook on it. Her stuffed cabbage could be smelled miles down the road as my grandmother, Marie, cooked it in the well of that stove. Walking in her house and smelling that cooking was an icon for me growing up. I don’t know what I loved more, her stuffed cabbage or her stove.

All the recipes of the family have been saved and handed down. Original and just the way they were cooked from the early 1900s to today as our family cherishes each ingredient and the way our grandparents and great-grandparents served them up.

With all these recipes and that old Chambers stove, the KarenKave was born in 2020.

As our grandparents and parents passed away, it became even more important to bring all the goodness they raised us up on and keep them going. I cherish the vintage love in each of these recipes and how they were cooked and wanted to now share that with others who love old recipes, traditions and the simple things in life. Faith, Family and Food.

As part of the KarenKave, LLC, I have recently taken a portion of these wonderful recipes and published a cookbook, called Generations of Recipes, so you can share in making some of the best home cooking in your kitchen. I have also taken on of our families recipes that has been canned for years and have taken it to a new level I believe my parents and grandparents would be so proud of. Our families Chili Sauce, which was canned each Fall to have as a staple during the cold winters in Chicago, is now available to buy in North Carolina and is being used in The Lunenburg Diner in Massachusetts. It’s been officially branded and called the KarenKave Chili Kickstart.

Here is more on my story about family tradition:
Local area network: WRAL TAR HEEL TRAVELER: https://www.wral.com/video/holly-springs-woman-s-kave-fully-of-family-memories/20310435/

See more on this Chili Sauce and my love for family traditions in: https://www.ourstate.com/the-secret-of-the-sauce/

Each year I can over 40 varieties of canned goods and share them amongst our family and friends across the country and enter them into the NC State Fair Competitions.

The KarenKave Chili Kickstart is available at a number of markets and stores across North Carolina. Find a complete list on my website at www. KarenKave.com

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road has not always been smooth. After retiring from the tech industry after 35 years, I found myself with a love for an industry I had no idea about. Learning the rules, regulations, and finding myself through to this point was all about finding the right networks of mentors and leaders in the industry willing to give me a chance and believe in what I was wanting to accomplish. I took classes and got certifications that helped and made more connections. I went to conferences and food shows and met some inspiring people I could learn from. I focused on a mentor that has provided me an opportunity to have fun, be challenged and as she told me, “don’t give up on.”

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a degree in Computer Science and a minor in Statistics. I came to North Carolina in 1984 to take a job with SAS in Cary, NC. I had an amazing career with SAS for over 35 years. My love was for development and technology, alongside with communicating among my co-workers and the love for our work and networking with employees. This communication took me down a new journey in my career at SAS, leading internal communication for most of my career. I was always most proud of being able to build the most dynamic Internal COMM’s team with individuals who were outstanding in their field and were able to make the internal world of SAS rock.

Most proud of: Working on some of the beginnings of the SAS System and coding new technology. Also that Comm’s team…. we brought camaraderie, trust, transparency and an open line of communication to their leadership. So much of this work, along with our leadership within company took SAS to being not only the Best Place to work in the USA, but in the world. I believe what sets me apart from others is that I don’t ever do anything little in life, I like to do it large, have fun and be all I can be.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
Risk, such a risky word and one that I must say, I believe I have always had in me.

I have taken risk in my career with pushing the edge of my teams to the point of “no, we shouldn’t do this, but we can ask for forgiveness later, let’s try it.’ I have said many times along my journey of life, I would love to have my own business, I would love to own a shop, a restaurant etc. IT’s RISKY!! Especially with so many unknowns that can happen.

In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. This scares me! I don’t like bad things to happen to anyone, including myself. So risk becomes a balancing factor in many decisions I make or how I want to carry out something to make a gain in life and what is the human value to me.

However, if you don’t take risks in life and playing it safe 100% and avoiding risks, it could lead me to missed opportunities and stagnation in various aspects of life. When individuals consistently choose the safe and familiar path, they often miss out on opportunities for personal growth and self-discovery.

I knew I was taking a huge risk of getting into an industry I had absolutely no knowledge about. NONE. I needed to network, ask a lot of questions, find a good mentor and push myself beyond my normal limits to make it work.
If I didn’t like these risk and the work it was going to take to either possibly succeed or fail, then don’t even get started.

Believe in yourself, even if means taking the risk and failing. Place yourself among people to support you, that inspire you and are happy for you and give it your all.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.Karenkave.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karenkavenc
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KarenKaveNC
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@VintageCookingKarenKave
• Other: https://www.ourstate.com/the-secret-of-the-sauce/