A Zesty Legacy

Lela Gerald’s father, Jack Bellows, is a quintessential jack-of-all-trades: racecar driver, deep-sea fisherman, woodworker, and, perhaps most notably, self-proclaimed pepper jelly connoisseur. After nearly 50 years of tinkering with his signature jelly recipe and gifting it to loved ones at Christmastime, Jacko—as his grandchildren know him—gave Lela his blessing to commercialize his take on a Southern pantry staple.

“If you have a jar of pepper jelly, you have a party,” says Lela, who walked away from her marketing career in 2012 to establish Jacko’s Pepper Jelly, the premiere product offering of her small business, Sweet Lela’s