Melissa Yerxa grew up in one of the premier duck hunting regions of the Pacific Flyway-  the Northern Sacramento Valley town of Colusa, California.

Her earliest memories include sipping from a travel mug of hot chocolate on cold, foggy, winter mornings as she rode with her Dad to Colusa Shooting, the Duck Club he belongs to. She also fondly recalls impromptu dinner parties with close family friends feasting on barbequed duck marinated in her father’s “secret sauce”.

While earning her degree in Agribusiness at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Melissa researched and developed a business plan to market and nationally distribute a line of hunter-oriented food products. Between 2004 and 2005, the plan and concept won several business plan competitions which provided the start-up funding for Local Legends.

Melissa now lives near Houston, Texas and loves introducing her friends to the flavors of the outdoors.