This is the headquarters, production, warehousing and distribution facility of a truly homegrown business that is on the verge of outgrowing its humble confines. The “them” to whom Crawford referred are her two granddaughters, 17-year-old Molly Crawford and her 14-year-old sister, Claire. Suzanne has been raising the sisters for 14 years, since their parents died in a car accident when Molly was 3 years old and Claire only 11 months.
The family matriarch knew she would need some extra income to provide for the girls, and after it was suggested at a church function that she should offer her fresh-made salsas for sale, a business was born. That was in 2001. By 2005, Yah’s Best Products was a full-blown operation, a true family business that includes not only Crawford’s granddaughters, but her own daughter, Paige Key, and even Paige’s husband, Gregg. Paige’s own children, Jason and Emma, are “official tasters.”
Suzanne runs the home operation, and Paige oversees the Raleigh office, mostly through the State Farmer’s Market, which is a seven-days-per-week presence. Yah’s Best products are available in more than a dozen locations in three states, most recently premiering on the shelves in the new Huntersville Earth Fare store.
All this from fresh, organic produce grown in Suzanne’s back yard — most of what remains of what was once a sprawling McCord family farm at the turn of the 20th century, next door to where she herself grew up — and specially selected herbs and vegetables she can’t grow in the winter.
Molly was recently promoted to the position of operations manager of the company, and she responded by saving it thousands of dollars by convincing Suzanne to change from glass jars to plastic containers for the salsa. They are less expensive, easier to store, cheaper to ship and more convenient for customers. Yah’s Best salsas can be frozen, but not in the glass jars.
“She’s already been offered the position of chairman of the board,” Suzanne says. But first, the SouthLake Christian Academy senior must complete college. “In five years, this is hers,” she adds.
Claire is the company’s public relations specialist, often accompanying Suzanne to the Charlotte Regional Farmer’s Market on Saturdays and while making other special appearances. She was on hand last Sunday as Yah’s Best salsas were featured during a product sampling at Earth Fare. “She never meets a stranger,” Suzanne says of Claire.
The company was unwittingly named by Molly. She couldn’t pronounce “grandmother” when she was very young, instead calling Suzanne “Yah Yah.” Ever since, she has been known as Yah, and her 70-some products, including 15 varieties of salsas, as the company name would imply, represent her best work.
Or does it? Suzanne McCord Crawford’s best collection of ingredients may well be her recipe for the lives of her granddaughters, the future chairman of the board and chief public relations executive. If only that could be put in a jar and made readily available as an example for the rest of us to follow.
The home and the future she provided for Molly and Claire Crawford are surely Yah’s best work.
