When people ask me, "Vince, what made you start VP Jerky?" I usually begin with a story that I considered to be the proverbial final straw. If you are willing to stick around for a few moments and continue reading, I'll be more than happy to tell you the unabridged version. But if you want the shortened version you can skip ahead to "The Final Straw." Well, after some research online, we found a recipe that sounded good. We spent the weekend making this first batch, and boy was it a learning experience. The first run consisted of a piece of eye round sliced by hand, then cut into strips. Once the weekend was over, the meat had been in the marinade for a day and it was ready to be put on the dehydrator. Of course, since every piece was a different thickness, this task also became very tedious. Every piece had to be inspected. Some were overcooked, some needed more time, but once we were finished we had something that we were proud of. It didn't resemble the jerky I had in the past that still haunts me—this was actually quite good! That week I brought 1 pound of jerky separated in smaller zip lock bags to school. Everyone loved it. They told me I had to bring in more, and that they would even purchase it from me! I went home that day and told my mom the great news—you could see the fear in her eyes when I told her we need to make more.