He was a giant man, went to Ferndale High School, emerged into life full of positivity and generosity. And gave us Garden Fresh Salsa. Jack Aronson passed away on Tuesday and the loss was felt throughout the salsa world. Jack and his wife Annette concocted their aptly named sauce fresh from the kitchen of their restaurant Clubhouse BBQ in Ferndale and quicky surpassed everything else on the menu to become the number one selling fresh salsa in the nation. Garden Fresh was the first salsa to introduce my taste buds to the incredible synchronicity of mango and cilantro in salsa...it was a mind blower. When it came to Garden Fresh, I liked the backstory, but sometimes you like a product's story and not so much the product itself. I loved Garden Fresh Salsa's so much, I truly think that chips were just getting in the way. As a salsa concoctor myself, I've been critical of the commercial brands that seem sometimes nothing more than mushy tomatoes with onion and too much cumin. But Garden Fresh was unique. And deserved the world recognition it gained, thanks to Jim Hiller of Hiller's markets who put it on the shelves of his grocery stores. Even though the incredible wholesomeness of that hometown product was taken over by the soup giant Campbells and then to a Quebec company, in the tradition of pouring out a forty for a departed comrade, I'll spill some for Jack. RIP Jack Aronson. And thank you for so many years of deliciousness. There will never be another.
Trudi's Salsa Photo: Trudi Daniels