Habanero Joe’s Exceptional Salsa is made LOCALLY at The Fractured Prune in Downtown Lancaster, PA.  This is where we make our delicious, spicy, veggie goodness.  We personally pick all the produce and cut it – FRESH – BY HAND, in 32 pound batches, and package it up in our trademark “bangin’ deli container.”

So, how does a couple in Lancaster’s “Southern End” get into making, and then actually start producing the best salsa known to man?

Well, the story goes like this:

I’m Joe.  I like salsa.  Cristene is my best friend in the world.  She’s amazing.  We’re madly in love.   People tell this to us everywhere we go;  meaning, complete strangers regularly feel the need to approach us and say how happy they see we are.  It’s quite possibly the most wonderful compliment we receive.

Cristene and I are also avid football fans.  Every Sunday during football season, we’re watching the game.  Every week, during the business season, we’re watching for trades, signings and updates.  We watch pre-season, training camp, the draft… yeah, we’re nuts like that.

Anyway, a little over a year ago, we got hooked on a mango-peach salsa.  It was delicious; and we found we were eating it A LOT.  A quick budget analysis of our spending told us that we were spending over $20 / week on the stuff, and almost half of it was during the game!

We figured that there has to be a cheaper way.  I mean, how hard can salsa BE to make, anyway?  So, we went online and got a recipe.  It was pretty good.  Fresh salsa has a crunchy texture that is just unbeatable.  Now…  it didn’t taste quite as good as the other that we were having – but it was surprisingly close…

So, we started playing with the recipe… a little more lime here… and little less beans there… add this ingredient, take that out altogether… and over the course of six months, TA-DAA!!!  Perfection, or so we thought anyway; and at a fraction of the cost!

Our friends and families liked our salsa too.  We took it to church for our covered dish, and the old ladies said they loved it, and we should sell it.  We took it to movie night with our friend Sean and his wife, and it complimented his home made guacamole PERFECTLY.  Our mom said we should consider selling it.  Thanks mom.  Mom’s are so good at making you feel good about what you do.  She’s so nice to us.  We took it to “guys night” with our diving buddies and Bunk loved it.  He still does, actually, and it makes us feel GREAT, because Bunk doesn’t eat vegetables.  EVER.

It was at  guys night that it actually started sinking in that we might want to sell this.

Bunk was eating salsa, and he told our friend Chris that he doesn’t like vegetables, but he LOVES our salsa.  Chris, who admitted later that he wasn’t really interested in trying our salsa because it looked different than the other stuff you see in the store, gave it a shot and fell in love with it immediately as well.

“I have to sell this in my store.”

While on the ride home that night, we got to thinking… “why not?”  The rest is history…  :-)

And the name?  Well,

The guys in the kitchen started calling me Habanero Joe one day early in the production of our salsa.  It kind of stuck.  I told Cristene what the guys said, to which she replied, “Wait, if you’re Habanero Joe, what does that make me?”

Thus the title, “haban-heiress” was bestowed upon the better half of our little venture.

And so it was…  LOL

Anyway, as you can see, our catch-phrase rings true with us;

Our salsa was born of necessity, is rooted in love, and it strives to satisfy the salsa addict in you.

…Because that’s how it really happened.  We hope you enjoy our salsa as much as we enjoy making it for you!   ALWAYS feel free to write us and give us your feedback!