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Latino savvy builds two salsa stores By John Darling ASHLAND � Now that they have the family pepper farm, the Web site, the Latino savvy and two salsa stores, Pedro and Marcela Amaya have all the pieces in place to become the hot sauce barons of Southern Oregon. Their stores, called The Salsa Place, opened in 1998 in Grants Pass and in March in Ashland�s Plaza Mall. They market Marcela�s salsas, hot sauces, hot vegetables and seasonings, plus more than 500 other hot sauce brands. BUSINESS CARD Store: The Salsa Place Address: Plaza Mall, 40 N. Main St., Ashland OR 97520; and 208 N.W. Sixth St., Grants Pass OR 97526 Hours: 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday Phone: 541-472-8772 Owner-operators: Pedro and Marcela Amaya Web Site: www.salsaplace.com "The Ashland store is moving better than Grants Pass because of the tourists," said Marcela. "I was surprised. And now with tourists going home, the locals have really started to check us out." From her own family recipes, Marcela is selling Green Tomatillo Sauce, Marcela�s Red Organic Extra Hot Salsa, Pure Powdered Chipotle, Dill Garlic Pickles, Curtido Aneho (canned, aged peppers and vegetables, such as cauliflower, onions and carrots) and Pedro�s "Call For Help," a very hot, powdered seasoning of habanero peppers, garlic, onion, cumin and black pepper. The salsas and sauces are all organic and come in mild, medium, hot and extra hot, depending on how many peppers are put in, Marcela said. Prices range from $2.95 to $5.95. The Salsa Place is the only hot sauce shop in the region offering its own brand, she added. The Amayas are no strangers to spicy foods. Pedro came to America from Colombia and Marcela from El Salvador. They met in Los Angeles and, when they had their first child 11 years ago, knew they had to find better schools and a "better way of life." Pedro, a lighting technician in the movie industry, discovered Southern Oregon on trips to Portland during filming of "Drug Store Cowboy." Pedro had begun collecting hot sauces in his travels and got the idea for a salsa store. They started a pepper farm near Glendale in southern Douglas County, specializing in chili diablo trees, then set up their first store in Grants Pass, next to Old Town Cafe, where Marcela began making her salsas and hot sauces. Their sons, Juan Carlos, 11, and Lucas, 4, help out on the farm. "There�s an awesome interest," said LaDonna Williams, who clerks in the Ashland store. "It�s phenomenal. Some people have to eat hot sauce daily. A local gardener comes in all the time saying she won�t eat her zucchini without it." Hot sauce and salsa are increasingly popular on chips, enchiladas, rice, potatoes or scrambled eggs, Pedro said. It�s also finding uses as a pesticide in gardens, as a termite repellent on lumber and as an immune booster when people start getting sick, he added. Pedro even has a friend who poured it in a hole a dog was digging in the yard. The digging stopped. The Salsa Place offers all the famous hot sauce brands and caters to the public�s love of bizarre labels and humorous or naughty hot sauce names. You�ll find Ring of Fire, Batch #114 Jamaican, Brain Damage, Smack My Ass and Call Me Sally, Pure Hell, Pyromania, Viper Venom, Spontaneous Combustion, Death Rain and one called You Can�t Handle This Hot Sauce. On the top shelf are the incredibly dangerous hot sauces, rated at 10 on the 1-to-10 scale, that require the buyer to be 18 and sign a legal waiver which notes that it�s "potentially dangerous if misused" and should be diluted, kept away from eyes and not consumed by the elderly, children or people with heart conditions. These include Mad Dog, Da� Bomb, Blair�s Sudden Death and the infamous Dave�s Insanity Sauce, said to be the hottest in the world. "I�m gonna make some hotter than that next year," said Marcela. "It�s no problem to do it. You just get the pepper and spices and make the pepper juice extract more concentrated. I just haven�t had the time this year." The desire for hotter-than-hot sauces is a "challenge" pursued more by Anglos than Latinos, Pedro said. "I like it very hot myself, but it has to have flavor. If it�s too hot, your mouth and tongue just get numb, and you can�t taste it. It�s not pleasant to burn your mouth to that level." Women tend to value flavor in salsas and hot sauces, while it�s the men who go for the hotness. "They go directly to the hottest shelf. They�re saying I can do it hotter than you. Women go more for the flavor." Men? They just have to be men. 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