About Epic Valley Salsa
WOW! Where to begin? Back in the ski season of 1998/99 Corey Folks and I were working at a legendary restaurant in Mt. Crested Butte, Colorado. When we took over that winter running the kitchen from our friend and former chef Mikey Larson, we kept his amazing salsa recipe but started to expand on it. The first thing that we did was add some fresh garlic and a lot of it. I was the manager but Corey was in charge of the salsa and changed things everyday and we would sit down and eat salsa and consider more ways to improve on it. Finally one day, the spoon came out of the salsa and the recipe was finished.
We noticed every night how many guests of the restaurant were inquiring about buying the salsa. Well after work every night, over a few too many shift drinks, we discussed the possibility of bottling the salsa. It is my recipe, no it is mine, no it is Mikey’s, could be heard nightly from the end of the bar. Well the ski season ended and I went off to guide whitewater rafts on the Arkansas River, just over the hill in Buena Vista, Colorado. Upon returning to C.B. in the fall, Corey had the blueprint laid out for the next few years. He had spent the summer learning about the legalities of taking the salsa from the kitchen to the marketplace and wanted a partner. Mikey was not interested but I was young and dumb so signed on board.
That winter we enrolled into the school of Hard Knocks and started bottling Epic Valley Salsa. The name came from our love of the Epic Gunnison Valley that we were living in. We first made it after hours at a friends restaurant and then eventually rented our own commercial kitchen. We could make 5.5 cases at a time and when we had around 20 cases made up and it was time to hit the road. Off to neighboring mountain towns to peddle some salsa to the local markets. Things were going good but how do we make money when you can only make a case or two at a time?
That is when we found out about the world of co-packers. Companies that offset their cost of expensive facilities and equipment by packaging recipes for other companies. In stepped Jeff and Theresa of RE Foods makers of Religious Experience Hot Sauce. They took our recipe and bottled it to a "T". Things were looking up. Not having to do our own productions, I continued to go back to the Arkansas River and guide rafts while talking many of the companies into serving Epic Valley Salsa at lunch, which to this day is still the best marketing.
The ski season of 2000/2001, I moved to Breckenridge, Colorado to try and expand Epic Valley to the front range and Summit County areas. My efforts worked, but for two ski bums with unreliable, old, beater cars, distribution was a nightmare. There were times when Corey actually borrowed a 1980 Subaru wagon and put 100 cases into it. Fortunately, one day while at RE Foods, Corey met Ray Gooch, the owner of a new distribution Company on the Western Slope spreading the flavors of Colorado. WooH! What a relief. Not as much driving, and breaking down, to do. Things looked like the might start picking up. However, the business never started to flourish and spirits sank.
To make things easier, Corey and Sean both made Salida, Colorado, in the Heart of the Rocky Mountains, their homes in the winter of 2004. It was more centrally located than Crested Butte, and the Arkansas River has always been our best customer so the move made sense. Around that time RE Foods stopped co-packing and we were left with finding a kitchen to rent.
So we were back to the long hours of making salsa by hand at the Chaffee County Fairgrounds. We purchased a 40 ghallon steam kettle and a 30 quart cuisinart, and could now make 100 cases in a long, hard working 18 hour shift, but we endured until we found a new co-packer.
Currently, Fountain Valley Foods in Trinidad, Colorado produces Epic Valley Salsa for me. Corey decided to leave the business back in 2006. Now, 2011, I think I might be giving up and Epic Valley Salsa will be closed after this year, unless someone comes around who wants to try and revamp it. I am sure Corey would agree with me that the Grateful Dead said it best, "What A Long Strange Trip It Has Been."
It is official, Epic Valley Salsa will be changing hands. Tim Markel will be purchasing Epic Valley and will start to make salsa again in the very new future. Feel free to contact him with any questions that you may have and thank you all for your loyal support.
TIM MARKEL (970) 531-1740 tim.markel@hotmail.com
Thank you all for choosing Epic Valley. . Please leave comments, feedback and recipe ideas that I will publish on the site.
“Salsa” Sean Sorrin