The origins of Heavenly Fire Salsa go back many years to when when founder, Mark Anderson began taking home economic classes while in Junior High School. Possessed of a love of cooking and a desire to be a pastry chef, Mark continued to take home economic classes throughout his secondary education, learning the ins and outs of working in a kitchen. Years later, having spent the entire 1980s and half of the 1990s in California where he developed a fondness for latin foods, Mark had moved back to Oregon and after having received his first college degree at Oregon Institute of Technology, was attending university in Ashland, Oregon, pursuing his BA in history and decided to make some salsa while home visiting his family back in Klamath Falls during his summer break from college. In what can be best described as an inspired moment, Mark decided to make a salsa unlike anything else on the market so he purchased fresh ingredients and set to work on his first batch of salsa. Taking some salsa back to college after the weekend, Mark shared his new invention with his close friend Daniel (who happened to be from Guadalajara, Mexico) and the two of them devoured the salsa with unrestrained enthusiasm (of course it didn't hurt that they washed it down with ice cold Tecatés)!
Over the next several years, Mark continued to make salsa occasionally, making batches while pursuing his graduate studies at Montana and Colorado. On one occasion, he made a batch and gave a bottle to his former MA advisor at a national history conference they attended. His former professor informed him that out of all of the five star restaurants he'd eaten across the country, it was THE BEST salsa he'd ever eaten. Time passed and opportunities to make more salsa came and went. Though it had been years since he'd made salsa, Mark had the recipe ingrained in his memory, and in 2015, decided to start making salsa again and after demoing it at a local foods festival, made the decision to take it professional and founded Heavenly Fire Salsa.
As often happens, circumstances develop that drive us to make changes, and after years of living in denial, having endured 10 years as a meth addict and then upon leaving drugs behind, gained massive weight when he exchanged drugs for sugar, in 2019, Mark finally came to terms with his gender identity crisis and came out as a transgender person who is now undergoing gender reassignment and emerging as Selena Khoury. Now in her fourth year Selena attends four farmers markets throughout the Southern Oregon area and has her salsa in two dozen retail outlets in this area. Selena has received shelf-stable certification from the Oregon Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. She ships Heavenly Fire to salsa lovers across the United States and will eventually make her salsa available globally!. So, if you're a fan of great salsa, get ready, Selena is bringing Heavenly Fire Salsa to you... soon!
Our mission here at Heavenly Fire Salsa is two fold. We want to bring our artisan crafted premium salsa to folks who love great food all across the country and even around the world. But we also want to make a difference in the lives of folks everywhere and that’s why we’ve decided that we want to make sure that as you bring Heavenly Fire Salsa into your homes and making it part of your traditions, you’re doing so knowing that we are a company that cares about you and your communities. So, as we grow as a business, it is our goal to contribute and give back to the individuals, families, and communities who have opened their arms and their hearts to us and made us part of their lives too.