About Us

My Grandma Bish made her homemade catsup from fresh tomatoes and onions grown in her Pennsylvania garden. Using the tomatoes left over after she had canned the juice, sauce, and whole tomatoes, she would bottle the catsup in returnable soda bottles (Pepsi, 7-Up, and RC) and cap them with her own bottle capper. Each year my family would receive one or two cartons of twelve bottles each at the end of the canning season.

As kids, my brothers and I loved our grandma's catsup and had to ration it to make it last the whole year. I frequently scolded them (and my mom, who used it in a variety of recipes) for "wasting" it, and would even hide a bottle or two in our basement utility room to keep some in reserve.

At about age 10, having nearly been weaned on Grandma's catsup, I informed her that someday I was going to manufacture it for all of America to enjoy. Then, as at other times when I reminded her of my dream, she just laughed and smiled at me with a skeptical but loving grin.

Several years before her death in 1997, my Grandma Bish stopped making catsup. My mom, having had to smell tomatoes stewing all night long as a girl, and who used to sneak off to a café to have hot dogs with Heinz ketchup on them, refused to make it for me except on rare occasions.

"Mom"

	A few years ago my wife Sue, having received a basket of overripe tomatoes from a friend, succumbed to my pleas to try her hand at making it. Her first attempt was remarkably good, despite the fact that neither of us knew how much a peck of tomatoes - the amount specified in Grandma's recipe - was.
"Our First Batch"

Sue suggested that making Grandma's catsup could be simplified if the labor-intensive and time-consuming process of stewing the tomatoes could be replaced by using tomato puree. The purchase of tomato puree and some slight adjustment to the recipe resulted in a sudden and abundant supply of Grandma's catsup and the revival of an old, childhood dream.

With the increased ease of making it and the encouragement of friends and family, Sue and I began to realize our dream of manufacturing Grandma's catsup. In March 2002, Henry's Sauce & Condiment Company was registered as a legal food manufacturer and on July 20th, we filled our first bottle of Henry's Grandma's Catsup.

"On The Shelves"

Besides being a great homestyle cook and a loving grandmother, my Grandma Bish was a committed Christian woman. I believe that her prayers and the simple, sweet life that she and my grandpa demonstrated to me were greatly responsible for my eventual salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Not only is it a life's accomplishment to manufacture my grandma's catsup, it is a joy to honor her memory and the God who makes it possible with each bottle we produce. As a company we have adopted the Biblical verse, Mark 9:23, as our motto, which God has proven to us time after time: "All things are possible for him who believes."

As others enjoy Grandma's Catsup I hope they are encouraged in knowing that they share the wonderful blessing and heritage that God provided me through Grandma Bish. It is my hope that they will like it as much as I always have. After all, I can say from experience that…kids (of all ages) love Grandma's Catsup!

          
Matt and Sue Henry