Dell Cove Spices & More Co

Connecting & Creating Memories, One Bowl of Popcorn at a Time

When people ask us how we started our family business, we point to the recession and the collapse of the newspaper journalism industry.

It was early 2010. Patricia was a national correspondent and her newspaper's parent company had filed for bankruptcy, moving her job from the Midwest to Los Angeles. She and David were newly married, and they assumed that David (a CAD designer for an engineering company) would be able to find work fairly easily in California.

They were wrong.

Months passed. They longed to be together. So they started to cook at the same time - three time zones away from one another - and talk on the phone or over Skype. Cooking became their date night, a way to could connect, create memories and share stories of what happened during our day. Often, they would pop some popcorn (from their family's farm) and mix up a small batch of our favorite spice recipes to sprinkle on top.

Money was tight. But Patricia's parents had raised her to believe that you don't have to be rich to eat well. So for holidays and special occasions, they gifted loved ones edible luxuries made from scratch. The biggest hit was always our popcorn and popcorn seasoning gift sets, with toppings  mixed by hand and kernels grown on their family's and friends' farms.

One friend suggested we start selling these online. Maybe, she said, it could help offset the cost of the cross-country flights. David and Patricia set up an online store and named our company after the street where they last lived together: Dell Cove.

Over time, their sales grew - and Dell Cove® helped the couple reunite back in the Midwest, where they continued to grow their popcorn company today. In September of 2012, David quit his day job at an engineering firm and runs the business full time. Patricia is a journalist by day - and helps David in the evenings and weekends.

Today, Dell Cove Spices & More Co.® is a small family run business, an insured and licensed S Corp. that works out of certified commercial kitchens, and is a registered FDA facility. Our products are gluten-free, nut-free - and many are sugar-free and vegan friendly. (We never use artificial flavorings or preservatives.) Our popcorn kernels are grown on small family farm operations that use sustainable farming practices - including our own!

In January 2021, we moved Dell Cove® to northeastern Indiana. We are thrilled to be in our new home in New Haven, Indiana - just outside of Fort Wayne - closer to family and surrounded by rolling farmland. (Fun fact: Did you know that Indiana's official state snack is popcorn?)