Moving Mountains

The Lena Produce Patty Story

“Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.”
Gilda Radner

My name is Carolena – Lena, for short. The greatest highlight of the Lena Produce Patty story is that it confirmed for me that persistence and love can move mountains. Doctor Caldwell Esselstyn’s lectures on reversing cardio vascular disease, inspired my husband to follow a 100% plant based diet. Out of love, and to ensure success, I joined him. We switched overnight.
     Utilizing skills learned from my mother Gertrude, my friend Dorothy and from Chef Xavier Bauser, I moved mountains creating a multitude of original heart healthy vegan recipes that turned our lives around – including a recipe for a delicious and truly heart healthy 100% plant based patty – with out resorting to the use of fats and oils, fillers or damaging protein concentrates. Identifying the exact ingredients and factors that could hold a patty together, without traditional binders, took six years. 
     Convinced that this patty was exceptional, my husband encouraged me to do a tasting during my son’s art exhibition at Black Bird Wine shop. He contacted the wine shop owner and set it all up. That’s mountain moving love.
     Despite feeling ill prepared, the patties were wildly popular. “And the rest”, as they say, “is history.” My husband had moved a mountain for me (one of many), the least I could do was to pursue the path. 
     Setting my planning brain aside, I ignored the fact that I did not have all the answers. There is both power and magic in not knowing, what is happening next or where one is going. So, I put one foot in front of the other and before I knew it, Lena’s Produce Patties was moving mountains.

“These patties are a great pick-me-up at work when I feel like a need some protein”.

Margaret Linn, Singer