The dream began 25 years ago. The reality only happened in the last two years.
But, for fresh salsa lovers, the wait was worth it.
Two years ago, Rick and Peggy Wright, 30-year Katy residents, quit their jobs
and jumped heart and soul into their own business
—Wrights of Texas Fresh Salsa. They introduced their product at the Round Top
Antique Festival in April 2007. In 2008, they entered the Houston Hot Sauce
Festival and came away with second place ribbons in the Red Sauce and Habanero
divisions.
Wrights of Texas Fresh Salsa was developed from an old San Antonio home-style
family recipe. Peggy, who grew up in San Antonio, had been making the salsa for
years for parties, Christmas gifts, family gatherings and other festive
occasions.
“Our friends and family have enjoyed it for more than 25 years,” Peggy said. “Everyone who has tried it kept saying ‘This sauce is great! Y’all should market this!’”
After much thought and encouragement, the Wrights decided to make their salsa
available to the public.
“We have always talked about doing the salsa,” Peggy said. “Since we are now empty nesters, we thought it was a good time to go for it.” The Wrights’ children, Kyle and Aubrey, graduates of Taylor High School and Texas Tech
University, were there to support them, along with other friends and family
members. Jeff and Susan Smith, owners of Hasta la Pasta, are neighbors. They
offered the Wrights the use of a small kitchen in the restaurant and use of
refrigerated storage facilities to prepare and store their product.
“We financed the business ourselves,” Rick said. “We didn’t borrow money; we have no debt. And, we were making a profit in the first six
months.
”
The Wrights make two products—a red sauce and a green sauce, available in mild, medium, and hot habanero. It
can be purchased in 16-ounce jars at all five Houston area Whole Foods Markets
and at Hubble and Hudson in The Woodlands. It
’s also available on line in 16-ounce and 32-ounce sizes. The Wrights’ plan is to stay small and local. Their market is Texas, primarily the Houston
area. But, they do ship orders across the country.
“Our salsa is refrigerated from the time we make it until it reaches the buyer,
and we don
’t make it until it’s ordered,” Rick said. “We cold ship fresh to the buyer’s door in a reusable foam chest to ensure the highest quality when it arrives.”
The salsa is made from all raw ingredients. It is not cooked and contains no
preservatives.
“We use the best ingredients we can find. Everything is visually inspected and
hand done; garlic is hand squeezed,
” Peggy said. “We use a Number One Roma tomato, which adds bulk and keeps the product from
being too liquidy.
” The product has a projected refrigerator life of 21 days for the green salsa
and 28 days for the red.
The Wrights do everything together—purchase the produce, make the salsa, market the product, put labels on the jars
and distribute and demonstrate the product. Rick checks the stores twice a week
to see what needs to be replaced.
“Going into business with your spouse is interesting,” Peggy said, “but I always kind of knew that we could do it.” The Wrights have been together since they met as students at Texas Christian
University more than 30 years ago.
Originally, they only made red salsa. They added the green salsa this past
summer during the tomato scare.
“We pulled our red product from the markets, just to be safe, even though the
tomatoes we used were not affected by the recall,
” Rick said. While the red salsa was off the market, Peggy created the green
recipe using avocados instead of tomatoes, and now the green medium is their
best seller.
Rick says sales have quadrupled over this time last year, and each week’s sales are above the previous week’s. Once people discover the fresh taste, they can’t get enough of it. One family in Sugar Land buys a case a week—each family member has their own favorite variety. The Wrights purchase jars by
the pallet
—2,880 at a time. They are already looking into opening their own facility
because the kitchen at Hasta la Pasta will soon be too small to accommodate the
increasing demand for the product.
Rick and Peggy usually have one helper in the kitchen on production days, but
are beginning to need more. They manufacture the salsa on Wednesday and
distribute on Thursday and Friday. On Fridays and Saturdays, they are in the
stores doing tastings. Peggy loves meeting the customers. She hands over each
jar with a smile bigger than Texas and says,
“I made this just for you.” Peggy, who got her love of food from her mother, says she envisions who will be
using the salsa while she is preparing it.
“A lot of love goes into each jar.”
The closest Whole Foods Market to Katy is at Westheimer and Wilcrest. The salsa
is in the dairy section there. In larger stores, Wrights of Texas Fresh Salsa
is usually found in a small refrigerated case near the rest of the salsas.
New recipes are in the works, but in the meantime Peggy suggested several ways
to use the red salsa: as a dip for egg tacos, mixed with rice or as a spicy
cocktail sauce for shrimp and crab. The green salsa is great with fish tacos,
chicken or white fish.
Either variety can be used as a spread for tuna sandwiches or to add zest to
tomato soup.
“Think outside the box,” Peggy says, and remember, she “made this just for you.”
