That Salsa Lady is a Milwaukee entrepreneurial success story. Angela Moragne’s product flies off farmers market tables and store shelves. But Moragne says success is not all about money.
Moragne was just getting plants in the ground when WUWM's Susan Bence popped by at That Hood Ranch. That's what she calls her sprawling home off West Capitol Drive on Milwaukee's north side.
This is not a manicured food-growing operation. A couple of peach trees are getting a start next to a makeshift greenhouse fashioned of salvaged windows.
“It’s a prime example of stuff doesn’t have to be cute, it just has to work well,” she says.
Moragne’s 1/3 acre lot allows ample space to grow the necessary peppers, herbs and of course specialty tomatoes. “Our tomato plants get over six feet tall,” resulting in up to 300 pounds of fresh salsa, Moragne shares.
Moragne believes in supporting fellow local entrepreneurs, including Hanna Alibi of Kaleidoscope Gardens. She nurtures dozens of varieties of starter plants 10 miles south, including nearly every plant taking root in Moragne’s garden.
“I talk to her early season and say, ‘Hey, I need specialty crops,'” Moragne says.
When it comes to production, That Salsa Lady mixes up batches after hours in a pay-what-you-can vegan café in Milwaukee’s Sherman Park neighborhood.
READ Pay-What-You-Can Vegan Cafe in Milwaukee's Sherman Park Neighborhood Thriving Despite Pandemic
“Tricklebee Café. We love working with people that are on the same mission as us. They love us and we love them,” Moragne says.
But the salsa, like Moragne’s story, is about to thicken. It turns out, she didn’t always love farming. “No, I didn’t even like plants, I killed them all,” she admits.
The Milwaukee native's professional expertise is in employee relations. She worked in Atlanta, Georgia, for years but was drawn back to her hometown. Moragne decided if she really loved Milwaukee, she needed to come back and help things change. She figured she'd land a good job and pitch in. But Moragne's move came with challenges. "I lost my job. I had no money," she says.
Moragne remembers a forsaken garden out her apartment window — a salsa garden with tomato, onion, cilantro and jalapeno plants hungry for attention.
“I said, 'OK, let’s make salsa,'” she says.
That sort of made sense since Moragne's daughter, Stevey Pitts, is a masterful salsa concocter. It's Pitts, I find mixing up a batch at Tricklebee Café.
Pitts, now 32 years old, slips in between jobs — one is outside the home and the other is raising her three young sons.
“I’m pretty much done here,” Pitts announces. She chopped a heap of rich red tomatoes. “The garlic has already been put in. And then we do red onions and then peppers."
This is the classic urban garden salsa.
Depending on the season, Pitts concocts peach salsa, sometimes pineapple salsa. “In the fall we make a sweet pepper salsa, without tomatoes. It’s good as gazpacho, or soup. For thanksgiving we put it in our dressing.” Pitts adds, “It is so good!”
After speedily chopping a mound of cilantro, Pitts mixes the salsa by hand, flinging a bit of salt in at the end.
Over the last decade, That Salsa Lady has grown. Outpost Natural Foods is a regular customer and Moragne is a popular farmers market vendor. But she quickly says, "I cannot emphasize enough to people that it's not all about money."
At farmers markets, Moragne uses tip money to cover for someone who can’t afford her salsa.
And at that Hood Ranch, Moragne grows way more than salsa ingredients, inviting neighbors to help themselves.
She remembers a couple of neighbor boys who stopped by. One was guessing he saw tomatoes growing in Moragne’s front yard. The other didn’t believe him.
“I said it is a tomato. He’s like, 'Tomatoes come out of here’? I said, 'Yeah I grew ‘em'. He tasted one and said, ‘It really is a tomato!'' Moragne recalls with a laugh.
Moragne, an entrepreneur at heart, says she has a couple of projects up her sleeve — neither salsa nor garden related. But Moragne doesn’t intend to completely close her urban farming chapter.
"There's some city land that I want that I actually grew up on. My first memory I had on that land. I can still have the farming experience without all the work," she adds. "And it's in the hood, you know, it's in 53210."
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