Do you remember a tasty homemade dish that your loving, caring mother or grandmother made?
Basic ingredients for this salsa success story is a mother/grandmother who knows how to cook and how to blend, tomatoes, and a family of willing workers.
The product is an all-natural salsa called “Momma Salsa.”
The Momma Salsa adventure all started with Mom and Pop Hufman (Karen and Chester of rural Augusta) along with their children and grandchildren in spring of 2006.
“We planned to have a tomato garden where the grandchildren could work for the summer and earn money. Well at first we were only to have 500 plants, “ said Chester, “but ended up with 7,000 tomato plants.”
It took the better part of six months from start to finish for that season.
After selling at all the farmer markets they could find, selling at the road side stand, and making calls letting people know they had tomatoes to give away, and there was still an overflow.
Mom Hufman went to work, along with the grandchildren, trying to make the perfect salsa blend.
The grandchildren tested each batch till they said, “This is it Grandma, This is the one.”
Response to the blend of tomatoes, bell peppers, sugar, spices, and vinegar was so tremendous that, in early 2007, Momma Salsa became a one-product specialty business.
Momma Salsa is one of the few commercially made salsa that is all natural with no preservatives.
It’s an all natural salsa that’s being purchased by an ever-growing clientele. Originally geared toward the local community, the market has expanded to include a much larger geographic area, in addition to a very broad consumer response.
“We are selling quality and product-uniqueness in a market segment filled with competition. Our approach is to take our product image up-market because of our rich heritage and uncompromising view of product quality,” adds Chester.
The focus has enabled the Hufmans to view the voids in the market, and add product to our line that will fill it. They have researched and reviewed other ethnic food item organizations, tracking their successes and positioning themselves similar growth pattern.
Momma Salsa is building a reputation for being a high quality and strong value product filled with a unique flavor.
The Hufmans serve customers just as if they were a part of the family - and that is their unique approach to marketing their products. You are not just a customer; not just a consumer; you are special; you are family.
Karen Hufman, a grandmother many times over, is a wonderful cook. Momma Salsa is just one of her homemade salsa masterpieces.
Many different salsa recipes have been tried in the past but this all natural homemade salsa is a "hands down" the favorite among the Hufmans and their customers.
We believe you will open a jar of Momma Salsa homemade salsa and then not be able to stop eating it. You just can’t stop eating this Salsa.
Fresh salsa ingredients - tomatoes, fresh red onions, peppers, jalapenos, and a host of other Salsa spices, with no preservatives, makes Momma Salsa homemade salsa unforgettable.
The salsa is processed at the highest level to ensure the quality of each ingredient in every jar.
The Hufman family prays for every salsa customer to not only enjoy its homemade salsa, but to be blessed for being a Momma Salsa customer.
That blessing translates into a guarantee on Momma Salsa that has no conditions.
This salsa is available at Augusta Home Center, Cooper Drug, Inc., (Yes. a hardware and drug store because it is vacuum packed and will stay fresh until opened. Refrigerate after opening, if you have some left) as well as Dillons stores in Augusta, Andover, and Wichita. Jars are also available at the Rose Hill AppleMarket, Green Acres, Whole Foods and Food For Thought in Wichita, Valley Feed & Grain, and Kovac’s Affiliated Super Foods in St. Joseph, Mo.
There are three varieties - Mild, Hot, and Skinny. The latter is made with stevia which makes it safe for diabetics, hypoglycemics, and good for dieters.
Stevia is a 100 percent natural, zero calorie sweetener which is becoming more popular nationally with health food products.
Augusta-area sons and daughters-in-law (Rocky and Stacey, Roy and Kari) and their children are involved in the business as well as daughter Ruthann and son-in-law Curtis Duning and their family in St. Joesph, Mo.
Pop Hufman is the “go-for” and deliveryman for the Momma Salsa and he’s always looking for new market sites.
He once sent a case to a relative in Scotland and now suggests Momma Salsa can be considered an international company.
"My family loves Momma Salsa. We literally go through it by the case. I use it in all my mexican and crockpot cooking and for just dipping with chips. We love the ‘sweet,’ extraordinary flavor and highly recommend it to our family and friends,” says Debbie Sharp of Augusta.
Get the chips. The Hufman clan will furnish the salsa.
Augusta, Kan. —
