(Photos by Kris Todd) Ethan Batschelet, left, and Tyler Steinkamp offer samples of their freshly-processed BatschStein Salsa, which is tagged as a "fine home-made salsa." [Order this photo]

Iowa's "fine home-made" BatschStein Salsa is now a limited liability corporation.

Company founders Ethan Batschelet, 18, and Tyler Steinkamp, 18, began making their Clay County-based concoction when they amassed an extra-bountiful harvest of vegetables in 2006. Today's fine-tuned BatschStein Salsa recipe comes in mild, medium, hot and "super nova" varieties. The duo estimate they've prepared 600 pint jars of salsa between this spring and late summer.

Garden space utilized by the two young men to grow ingredients for the salsa has also grown over the past two years. In addition to plots in Steinkamp's backyard and on Batschelet's farm, the two planted another garden this spring in Larry and Chris Beck's backyard in Spencer.

Batschelet and Steinkamp, who made their latest batch of salsa Friday at the Hy-Noon Kiwanis stand on the Clay County fairgrounds, received help from friends Aaron Bossow, Jacque Ginger and Michael Barnett. The salsa-making delegation made 191 jars -- 68 of the mild and 123 pints of the medium-flavored BatschStein Salsa.

Since a "Clay County teens tantalize taste buds with BatschStein Salsa" article appeared in the May 29 edition of the Daily Reporter, the two have witnessed their business and customer list grow.

"Del Brockshus (of Del's Garden Center in Spencer) gave us $500 and is starting all of our tomatoes and peppers for us for free, and giving us all the onion sets that we want. He also offered us an acre of irrigated land to use," Steinkamp said.

Batschelet and Steinkamp have also worked toward getting a business license this summer. They've sent samples of their salsa in for screening, applied for a business license and used a lawyer to get a limited liability corporation set up.

"We're just about finished with the legal process," Batschelet said. "We hired a lawyer and he got us our tax papers. We formed BatschStein L.L.C., a limited liability corporation. ... We've also started the official record-keeping process and begun taking inventory. So now we're geared up for big orders and can tell people exactly how much we can let them order."

The pair also spent Aug. 18 - 23 in Hawaii, where they attended an acidified foods control course. While there, they took and passed 16 examinations. Batschelet and Steinkamp are now awaiting their mailed certificate, which will deem them as licensed pressure cooker operators. The two young men, who are now able to sell BatschStein Salsa in a farmers market setting, will also be allowed to sell their product at the 2008 Clay County Fair with this new certification.

Batschelet is set to outline their company's start, as well as answer questions and offer samples during a 10 a.m. speech on Friday, Sept. 12 in the 4-H Auditorium. Pints of BatschStein Salsa will also be available for purchase at the Hy-Noon Kiwanis building on the fairgrounds.

Following the Sept. 6 - 14 Clay County Fair, the two young men expect a state inspector to review their plants. They'll then send their new proposed BatschStein Salsa label, along with bar codes and nutrition information, for state approval.

"At college, I'm going to work with the business program. They're going to help me out with looking into some new labeling ideas and some new marketing ideas," Steinkamp, who began classes at South Dakota State University on Tuesday, said.

"We never thought this would work," Batschelet admitted. "But when they said, 'Either you give up now or you get everything done the way the state wants it,' we did it the way the state wanted, and it kind of blew up to where it's even bigger now than when we did the previous newspaper article. Our list (of customers) has gotten longer and we've got a lot of stores that are looking into selling it now."

"Hy-Vee has approached us. Fareway, we order all our vegetables through them on the off-season; right now, we grow them all. So they're probably going to get our first choice if they want it. And Quik Spot in Everly, the gas station there, offered to put it in their stores as well," Steinkamp added.

While the two have agreed to relocate their salsa-making equipment in the Hy-Noon Kiwanis' approved kitchen once the 2008 fair concludes, they'll make another large batch of salsa with locally-grown ingredients and then halt further production during the winter months.

Batschelet, a Clay Central/Everly senior, said he also plans to attend a college in South Dakota. During next school year, he and Steinkamp intend to return to Clay County in order to make batches of salsa and supply area stores with it.

The two company founders are also discussing expanding into other things besides salsa, as well as eventually entering the organic market.

"Hopefully we'll be able to get approved for organic products, which would be really nice, because then we could be in the organic section of grocery stores," Batschelet said.

"But that's going to take a lot of work because it takes three years to certify land organic," Steinkamp added. "And then we have to grow everything organic."