Ardell Salsa, a Bainbridge-based organic salsa company by Ross Eide, will spice up the sauce section of all six of Washington’s Town & Country grocery stores starting October 17, two of which are in Kitsap County.

This marks a major expansion for the homegrown company, Eide explained, which owes its warm early reception to the BI community — though the peppers help.

Eide isn’t a trained culinary professional. The Ardell recipe is just a remixed version of one his mom used to make for his family in the 1990s that he started making for his own kids at home and for snack time at Bethany Lutheran Preschool, he said. The salsa is named after his mom.

“The beauty of our salsa is, it’s not a lot of ingredients. It’s just tomatoes, cilantro, green onions, salt and pepper, and the various peppers for different heat levels. And since we don’t have a lot of ingredients, we can focus on the quality of it,” said Eide. “We like more heat than my mom, so we’ve added the jalapeño first, and then habanero. We also have a couple different varieties that are ready to go to market, but we’re just initially going in with the mild, medium and hot.”

Different types of peppers create more complex flavors, Eide explained. If sales go well, the company may add a blend with serrano peppers, which have a “bright” spice that is more intense than a jalapeño, or two varieties of “fire” heat level salsas.

One of the “fire” blends uses ghost peppers for a high heat that is still flavorful, and one uses Carolina Reaper peppers for an extreme heat that Eide calls “shut-up fire.”

“The reason it is called that is, every time we do a tasting, or we’re offering samples at a farmer’s market, there’s always one guy — and it’s always a guy — that’s like, ‘That’s not hot enough, that’s not hot enough.’ So we wanted to make a variety that was so hot that it would just shut him up, you know,” said Eide.

The original blend was a hit with friends, fellow parents, kids, neighbors and more, Eide recalled, and some encouraged him to start selling it. It took some effort — a food handler’s license, finding space in a commercial kitchen — but when he started handing out samples to places like Bay Hay & Feed and Jiffy Mart in Rolling Bay, the business started taking hold.

“Bainbridge, and also Kitsap County as a whole, really supports its own. When [the markets] found out that we were made here on Bainbridge Island, they were like, ‘Oh, yeah, this is great, we would love to support you,’” said Eide. “My first summer, we did the Bainbridge Farmer’s Market, and once I told people that we sold in Bay Hay & Feed, it was like I was accepted more. Bay Hay is kind of the tastemaker on the island: once I got their approval, then everyone’s like, ‘Well, this must be a good product.’”

Ardell Salsa is the only fresh salsa that BH&F carries, and one of two salsas total, said store co-owner Devin Groman. Ardell fit right in with the rest of the wares sold in the feed store’s grocery department, which focuses on locally made, grown or crafted goods like jams and cheeses, she said.

“People prefer local goods, especially for gift-giving,” Groman said. “People really love them. They’ve been a great addition.”

Making local connections also gave Eide’s business its big break.

One day, while tabling at the Poulsbo Farmer’s Market, a couple approached the Ardell Salsa stand and tried a few samples. Impressed, they struck up a conversation with Eide, who shared that he was in talks to apply for Ardell Salsa to be carried by Town & Country.

“I ended up selling to the CEO of Town & Country [Ryan Ritter], and he became a fan — and more importantly, I think his wife became a fan,” Eide said.

Rob Foley, food services category manager at T&C, who worked with Eide to get Ardell on the shelves, confirmed that the encounter spurred Ardell’s partnership with the grocer.

“True story — as a leader, Ryan allows us as category managers to ultimately make the decisions on product that comes into the market, and he has an eye for quality. His prompting led to samples being sent and got us along the road to the partnership we have established,” Foley said.

Scaling up to distribution at all six Town & Country stores will be a much bigger lift than stocking a few shelves at a local shop, but the opportunity to break into markets in Seattle is worth the effort, Eide explained. The company has to buy more supplies — including produce, packaging and transportation containers — and organize distribution schedules, as well as hire its first employees.

T&C has been very helpful, Eide said, and he’s confident that the product will see success.

“Quite frankly, I’m kind of in over my head, but when you’re in over your head, there’s no place to go but up, so we’re just going to take it week by week,” said Eide.