FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. — Competing for a blue ribbon at the Minnesota State Fair is a longstanding tradition, and after trying for 12 years, a St. Paul man finally took home the top prize for his salsa recipe.
Gerry Heroff's family found out he won on the first day of the fair. His daughter says his recipes are known to be spicy.
"They're just fresh-tasting because they grow a lot of the peppers and vegetables themselves in the garden," Rebecca Heroff said. "Then they get the rest from the St. Paul farmer's market."
Gerry's wife, Marilyn, says the recipe calls for six or seven peppers. But this time around, Gerry used a new one - the Hungarian black pepper that has the family convinced is what helped him win.
"This year he told me, if I don't win this year, the judges are crazy," said Rebecca. "We were all at the house and I went online and his name was there with the number one, so we were very excited."
Except where there's excitement, there's also sadness. Just a week prior, on August 18th, Gerry died. Rebecca said it was a sudden death and that her family is grateful something as simple as salsa can bring them all together to remember a man who will be known for so much more.
"He was a standup comedian at one point, he was Santa Claus, he just loved people," said Rebecca. "We miss him, but we know he’s here."
Gerry's artistic legacy will live on longer than the fair. He was also a painter and his work will be on display at the Schmidt Fall Art Crawl in October and at the Claddagh Coffee Cafe in December.
Watch more local news:
Watch the latest local news from the Twin Cities in our YouTube playlist: