JASON FISCHBACH 0:00
This is a podcast about new crops. You’re gonna love it. Join us on The Cutting Edge, a podcast in search of new crops for Wisconsin.

Eric Rygg 0:10
The weather conditions here are just about ideal for growing horseradish. You get into more southern regions and a lot of the energy is going into these big beautiful green leaves which we actually do nothing with. We’re interested in big, bulky hearty roots, and the cold winter is actually beneficial for horseradish. We have a saying, “you have to keep horseradish cold to keep it hot.”

Steffen Mirsky 0:51
Welcome to another episode of The Cutting Edge, a podcast in search of new crops for Wisconsin. I’m Steffen Mirsky, Outreach Specialist for emerging crops with UW-Madison Extension. In today’s episode, I’ll be interviewing Eric Rygg, President of Silver Springs Foods, a subsidiary of Huntsinger Farms, the world’s largest grower and processor of horseradish, located in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Similar to a recent episode about Chippewa Valley Bean, we’ll explore how Silver Springs broke the mold to grow a unique crop in Wisconsin, and successfully scaled to the point where it is today. So thanks for joining me, Eric. Let’s just start by you introducing yourself and a little bit more detail and describing your role at Silver Springs.

Eric Rygg 1:38
Sure, thanks for having me. Appreciate being here. My name is Eric Rygg, and I am the President of Silver Spring Foods and Huntsinger Farms. Our claim to fame is we are the world’s largest grower and processor of horseradish. Now it’s important to to note that we include both growing and processing. So, we’re totally vertically integrated in horseradish. Hard to say whether we’re the largest grower alone, or whether we’re the largest processor alone, but there is no one from our understanding that’s doing both the growing and the processing at the scale that we’re doing it, so it’s a safe claim that we can make.

Steffen Mirsky 2:17
Great. So I’m really fascinated by the history of the company. And I believe you’re fourth generation. Can you just in a nutshell, give the history of the company. And you know why the family decided to grow horseradish of all crops.

Eric Rygg 2:33
Yes, it’s a great story. So so my great grandfather, his name was Ellis Huntsinger. He was the founder of our company. Started in 1929. So this is the end of the 1920s. We’re kind of getting near the Great Depression. He was a door to door lightning rod salesman here in Eau Claire. And apparently, you know, there’s only so many lightning rods you can sell. You don’t have a lot of repeat customers. So he ended up falling back on farming to feed his family and generate some income. And he grew what most people were growing at the time: corn, strawberries, melons. Horseradish was also something that that he decided to grow. Perhaps it was his German heritage. Huntsinger hails from Germany. And he went along just fine with the farming. What he found, though, was you know, for most of the other crops, you’d have to harvest and sell in kind of a farmers market situation, whereas with the horseradish, he was able to harvest in the spring and the fall and keep in cold storage and sell during the winter months. So it it had an economic impact for him. It was a way to augment his income during the winter months. And that’s where he really started to flourish. Another thing that happened, that he discovered is, you know, Eau Claire, where he started growing horseradish, and these other crops were near the 45th parallel about halfway from the equator to the North Pole. And the weather conditions here are just about ideal for growing horseradish. So that was kind of by luck. You get into more southern regions, and a lot of the energy is going into these big beautiful green leaves which we actually do nothing with. We’re interested in big, bulky, hearty roots. And so the cold weather, the cold winter is actually beneficial for horseradish. We have a saying you have to keep horseradish cold to keep it hot. And so the long winter is actually natural refrigeration for us. And we like to say that it kind of bulks up for the winter. You know, those big bulky roots. So we had a natural advantage here with the great soil, with the perfect weather and horseradish really flourished for him and that’s really how we got our start growing a horseradish company.

Steffen Mirsky 4:59
Yeah, that’s really interesting. And we’ll get into the lifecycle of horseradish and how you grow it in just a few minutes, but I’m really interested in how you grew the market in the early days. Was there, I know there are a lot of German immigrants in Wisconsin. Were there just people out there who are demanding this stuff? Or how did he find a place to sell all this horseradish?

Eric Rygg 5:24
So very humble beginnings. He started grinding horseradish in his basement and bottling it there and then selling it door to door. It was literally door to door. He was a door to door lightning rod salesman so he took the model and applied it to horseradish. I think back in the days, you’d have a milkman and you know, Eau Claire, you had a horseradish person too, that could get you fresh horseradish. One thing to know about horseradish, is it’s not like wine. it doesn’t get better with age. So it’s the hottest the day that you grind it and every day after that, it loses a little bit of its heat. So, you know, having a great product and fresh, you know, with the delivery service was one way that he was able to grow his product and gain a reputation for not just these other crops that he was growing, but also the horseradish. And from there, you know, demand grew from Eau Claire, then to become more regional, then to become more in the state. And as the company progressed, and as he gained more capacity, he was able to expand into new markets.

Steffen Mirsky 6:31
Okay, so yeah, so can we jump ahead, and talk about the structure and the business model of the company today? So just, you know, where are the crops grown? What is the total acreage under production? How many growers do you contract with versus how much of the crop do you grow at the farm there? Yeah, those kinds of things.

Eric Rygg 6:53
So, so yeah, let me talk a little bit about historically growing horseradish, that led to our current state. So it was important to learn, and this was with Ellis and then also my grandfather after him, that growing horseradish in the same field, year after year is really problematic. You know, there’s a lot of research right now on crop rotation and the benefits of crop rotation, and what can happen. Well, originally, we grew horseradish in the same field, because we didn’t have all the acres to support a rotation at that time. So as demand grew, and as they expanded into more states and became national, he needed to generate more horseradish or look at yields. And what was happening over time is his yields were actually diminishing over time, more susceptible to disease, you know, not doing that rotation. So, they changed their model, and went to a five to seven year crop rotation for horseradish. So not quite like ginseng in Wisconsin, where it’s grown in a field once and you can never grow it in that field. Again, we have five to seven years, it’s a long rotation, where we’re growing corn and soybeans and oats and alfalfa, rye. We’ve tried a variety of different rotation crops. And it’s so beneficial for, you know, nitrogen fixing and erosion protection and, you know, unlocking in developing those nutrients in the soil that the horseradish really likes. And I think a big factor was disease prevention, something called verticillium wilt that that attacks potatoes, that makes these brown black rings inside the potato, it also attacks horseradish, and we want a nice, white quality fleshy root without those black rings in there. So this crop rotation really helped us prevent or eliminate some of that verticillium wilt risk which affected yield and discoloration of the horseradish. So we needed to expand our acreage to support all the horseradish that we have. Today, we’re growing about 900 acres to 1000 acres of horseradish per year. So we need about 5000 to 7000 acres really to support that. We’re doing rotation, so we’ll do you know, one to 2000 acres of corn. And we’ll do one to 2000 acres of soybeans and then we’ll do you know that 900 acres to 1000 acres of horseradish so that we can be sustainable, and continue to be good stewards of the land, really focus on high quality horseradish, where we’re producing on our own fields, on our own production, about six to 7 million pounds of horseradish per year. So it’s about five to six tons to the acre, is kind of what the yield is. And for a while we were growing about 90% of what we were processing in the factory. And couple years ago, 2018-2019, we had a really big winter. We always play a game of chicken with the winter in the fall, you know, the longer we wait to harvest, the bigger our yields are going to be. If we wait too long, the ground freezes or it’s too wet, and we can’t move our harvest equipment through the fields. So when’s the right time to start? Well, it came really early that year, the winter, it was a big winter, and it thawed out really late. So we ended up being about 2 million pounds short of horseradish. It was kind of a global phenomenon that year. In the past, when we’ve had a bad year in Wisconsin, we’ve been able to buy from other growers around the world. That year, unfortunately, everybody had a lot of trouble. And so it put us in a kind of a difficult spot that year, where we didn’t have enough horseradish to meet all of our customers demands. So, as we’re preparing, and as the weather patterns are changing, and they’re a little more erratic, and we’re not exactly sure, but in the past couple years, the weather patterns have not been all that stable. And we’re concerned about it. So we’ve diversified, we’re only growing about now 70% of what our processing needs are and we’re buying now by contract with farmers and other areas in more southern climates. Just in case we have another bad year, winter-wise, we’re able to offset and acquire some roots from some other growers and establish those relationships. So Collinsville, Illinois is a big growing region, they serve most of our competitors, they’re arent’ very many of us, horseradish processors, but we have very good relations with them, and long term relationships with them. And being farmers ourselves, I think we have a little more understanding of what they’re going through and how the cycle works, what their rotation looks like, and, you know, be able to share information back and forth. So we can, again, make sure that we’re getting enough horseradish to cover our our customers needs because at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.

Steffen Mirsky 12:17
Yeah. So you said you supply about 70% of the product that you process? Where’s that grown? Where are you contracting farmers?

Eric Rygg 12:28
So we actually control the process ourself. We are growing it on our own fields that we’ve acquired over the last 90 years With equipment that we have modified, You can’t go to John Deere and get a horseradish planter or a horseradish harvester. So these are inventions of our own making, taking other models, breaking them apart and setting them up to be useful for horseradish, and with our own farm crew. And so it’s a lot of overhead to manage. And really the purpose of Huntsinger Farm is to grow the highest quality horseradish at the lowest possible cost. And we’ve really looked at this model and say, well, maybe we just focus on the horseradish part and not worry about the rotation, we can contract that out, someone else can grow the corn, the soybeans. What I’ve decided is that we may lose too much control. It’s really important that we are preparing the soil for horseradish. So if we are, you know, growing corn and soybeans and other crops, we can manage exactly what we’re putting on the field, how we’re managing it, whereas if it’s another farmer, they may not follow the same protocol, or they may not be having the same restrictions that we would because of the horseradish. And we just can’t take the risk of something, you know, being left in the soil or, you know, taking some of that nutrient bank that we’ve taken so many years to develop that’s really good for horseradish. We can’t risk getting that impairment. So we’ve decided to control the whole process so we can control the quality and really focus on that plant health and get those yields that we’re looking for and really understand you know, the dynamics of horseradish and what makes it hot and what are those good characteristics that we’re looking for from a consumer standpoint, and, you know, managing the farm ourselves allows us to do that. Then we augment with 30% from other farmers. Those we do contract with are primarily out of Collinsville, Illinois and there’s a variety of different farmers that down there that we work with and they’re they’re bringing in some different varieties of horseradish so that what we are able to do is do a root blend when we get to the factory so that we have a consistent flavor coming to the consumer. So some roots are a little hotter, some are a little more bitter, some have some nice white characteristics. So what we can do, which is a little unique is a root blend and have a consistent finished product coming out for consumers.

Steffen Mirsky 15:16
Interesting. Okay. Can you take us through the lifecycle of horseradish? So I know it’s a perennial, but how long is it actually in the ground for before you harvest it and what precedes the crop?

Eric Rygg 15:32
Yeah, so we’ll start with, we have to harvest our horseradish in order to generate our own seed stock. So what we do is in the fall, we will go out there with our with our modified potato harvester. It’s a blade that goes underneath the soil, we cut the tops off the roots, we rake them to the side because we don’t do anything with the leaves, the blade goes under the soil and picks up the horseradish shoots under the ground and tries to knock off as much soil as possible, because we don’t want to haul that back to the factory. Then it goes into cold storage, but before it goes into cold storage, we run it across the beltline. So a lot of labor there. Looking at the horseradish, taking any foreign material out. But then they’re also saving pieces of the horseradish root itself. So what we call the sets. They’re offshoots from the mother root. And we’re looking for chunks of horseradish that are about six to eight inches long, about as thick as your thumb, and we’ll save by hand, you know, again, running across your beltline, cutting these individual seedstock off the mother root, and put them in set boxes, to then go back out in the field and plant that. So then those pieces of horseradish, so that kind of like a potato, you can cut a potato apart, and plant that, and then they’ll grow into a whole new potato, so no different for horseradish, you take these pieces off and plant them in the field. And then they grow into another mother root with the crown and seedstock. So it’s kind of self perpetuating. So when the horseradish goes on the ground, after we’re able to save the seed stock, you know, if we plant in the fall, then we’ll generally leave it in the ground, it means that one, at least one winter have a nice cold winter to bulk up. So generally, we leave it in the ground for 12 months before it’s worth harvesting to get enough bulk. We have left it in the ground up to 18 months, and it’s also very high quality, we do generate a little more heat within the horseradish roots themselves when they’re in the ground a little bit longer. We’ve left them into the ground up to two years, 24 months, but then the horseradish itself starts to become more susceptible to other problems. The root structure changes a little bit, it has more susceptibility to crown rot and other things from just being in the ground for that long before we’re able to pull it out of the ground and put it into cold storage. So generally, I would say we try to harvest the root, either that next fall or the next spring, you know, 12 to 18 months, and we have two cycles. So we will have a harvest and planting cycle in the fall. And then we’ll come back in the spring and do another harvest and planting cycle in the spring. And we’re always fighting the weather here in Wisconsin. When is it going to freeze? When is it going to be too wet for us to harvest in the fall? And then in the spring, when is the ground going to thaw? You know, we’ve harvested as early as the end of March. Hard to believe this year, because we got quite a bit of snow on the ground still. So our average is usually middle of April, but it’s been as late as May 10th. And the later it goes then the longer we need to wait to harvest it again. So it’s a pretty vicious cycle. So for us to diversify and buy that 30% from other farmers is is actually strategically, you know, it diversifies our portfolio. But those roots are harvested actually in November, December, January, February and March, the months that we can’t even touch our fields, and they’re able to get delivered to the factory during the time that that we’re kind of shut out because of the winter here.

Steffen Mirsky 19:23
So one thing that I know about horseradish is that once you grow it in a field, it’s really difficult to get rid of because any root that you leave behind in the ground will just come right back up. So how do you you actually terminate the crop? Do you do not get plants that will come up after harvest?

Eric Rygg 19:45
Yeah, so that’s where the rotation comes in. You’re right. If you’re growing horseradish in your own garden, we recommend you keep it separate from everything else because it will take it over. Grow it in a wheelbarrow or grow it in a separate area. Because it’ll, it’ll be like mint and it’ll it’ll take everything over. You can’t get rid of it. For commercial production, they’re able to take care of it. And what they what they do is, is the crop coming in after horseradish is always corn. You’ll have some volunteer horseradish coming up after that, that next year, but most of the time, we try to get all the roots out of the ground. And then next year, we grow corn so that you know, when we’re coming in with the combine if there’s little horseradish leaves in the bottom is not too big of an issue. So the corn can kind of dominate the nutrients and grow a little bit faster and kind of smother out the horseradish that next year. So we usually do two seasons of corn before, then we get into soybeans, and then try maybe something else, alfalfa or rye or oats to complete the cycle before we get back into horseradish, and kind of prep the soil.

Steffen Mirsky 21:05
Okay, yeah, you kind of touched on this and I’m really curious to know more, is that there’s actually different varieties of horseradish, and they have different flavor profiles. So can you just talk a little bit more about that? What variety do you grow? And what are the differences in the varieties out there?

Eric Rygg 21:25
Yeah, if you think of it like like most agricultural crops, you know, grapes are the most prevalent where you have different varieties of grapes that produce different flavor wines. Well, horseradish, we have a variety of horseradish that you can grow, and depending on where it’s grown, you’re going to have some different flavor dynamics. Most consumers aren’t going to really be able to pick up the differences, but we’ve been doing this for so long that we can actually taste and qualify some different flavor characteristics. So what we grow, grows well up here, and we generally grow one variety. It’s called Big Top Western. And we went through a process of trial and error with other varieties of horseradish. This is back in the Huntsinger and Bartooj days in partnership with the University of Wisconsin. They did a lot of trials to see what was the best variety, and Big Top Western is really what they landed on. It grows well in this climate, it’s got a little bit of a thicker skin, it doesn’t have as much bulk as some of the other varieties, but it’s got a really nice flavor and heat profile. There’s almost a sweetness to the roots we grow here in Wisconsin, and I think potatoes here are also just maybe a little sweeter than potatoes that have had grown in other areas. So that might be something with the soil, maybe it’s the variety. Some of the different varieties in Illinois, tend to be bigger roots themselves, and they’ll have a lot of heat. You know the heat is something they really focus on and the yield. But with the heat comes some bitterness. So when we do a root bland, you know, we do, you know, maybe 30% of the roots from from Illinois and then we’ll do you know, 70% of the sweet root from from Wisconsin. It has a nice flavor profile when we have the finished product. And it’s got that nice white hot product but a little bit of sweetness and pleasantness which is surprising to say for a horseradish product. But I think that unique horseradish root gives us a little bit of a differentiation compared to our competitors who don’t, none of them use horseradish grown in Wisconsin because we consume all the roots that we grow here. So they’re only buying from these other other regions. There’s a place in California, from Northern California, their roots are really fibrous and even more bitter than the roots from Illinois. So we generally don’t use those roots in our in our blends. In years past if we’ve had shortages, you know we’ll buy from a variety of other farmers, but generally we haven’t utilized their root in quite a few years.

Steffen Mirsky 24:21
Interesting. Okay, so you you harvest the horseradish in the fall, hopefully just before the ground starts to freeze, what happens after that? What are the what are the post harvesting processing techniques that you do there at the facility?

Eric Rygg 24:38
Yeah, so all of our roots, wherever it’s harvested from, will come back to our underground storage facility. So it gets hauled back there via you know, dump trailer so there’s a harvester going in the field. And then along next to it we’re going to have a semi dump trailer that the horseradish roots fly into, that gets hauled back to our central underground storage goes across the belt line, as I mentioned before, if we’re saving seed stock, we do that until we’re done. Otherwise, it’ll go across the belt line just to take any foreign material that the guys see before it goes into cold storage. You have to keep horseradish cold to keep it hot. We never freeze the roots. So these underground coolers that we have hold about 2 million pounds of horseradish per cooler. We’ve got two of them. So it’s about 4 million pounds. And it will stay in there at 100% humidity. There’s a sprinkler system in there because we want to keep that bulk of the horseradish and keep it nice and crispy. And it’s stored in there between 35 and 38 degrees. So we again, never freeze it. But we never tried to keep it above 40 degrees either. And it will sit in the cooler until we’re ready to send it back through our system to go through a cleaning process. And an inspection process goes through X ray that goes through magnets trying to catch anything that may have come in from the field, one for consumer safety, but also for our equipment. When we’re grinding it, we don’t want to send anything through that might wreck our grinding equipment, or bottling equipment up here. And obviously, you don’t want any foreign material in the finished good either. So so we’ll rotate the two coolers twice a year. So we’ll have that fall harvest, load up the cooler, and then we’re grinding it all winter long. Our big peak time for horseradish is usually the holiday season. So November for Thanksgiving, and then you’ve got Christmas and then you’ve got New Year’s and then you’ve got Passover. So kind of all those months are really the prime time for horseradish and horseradish grinding. And then we come back in the spring. Usually our coolers are pretty bare, you know by that time. And then hopefully we have enough to get us through until the spring harvest in March, April or May. And then we’ll fill it back up again. Same process, grind it all summer, it stays in the cold storage until we’re ready for the fall harvest again.

Steffen Mirsky 27:16
Okay, so let’s dive into your markets a little bit more. Is your product just sold domestically? Or do you do any export markets?

Eric Rygg 27:26
We do a little bit of export. In the past, we’ve shipped our product to South Africa. They use it for kind of a pharmaceutical purpose. There’s something called horseradish peroxidase that they were extracting. We sold finished goods to Japan, to Europe, we’ve we’ve shipped a little bit to Canada, but I’d say 98% of our business is domestic US market. We are the leader, the number one brand and retail horseradish. So that would be in supermarkets. And we’re in just about every supermarket in the US. So wherever it is that you shop in Madison, we definitely have our products there on the shelf. And then into the Walmart’s into Target into Publix, you name it, we’re making it. And it’s either under one of our brands that we own and acquired ourselves or we’ll do quite a bit of private label business. So sometimes the retail customer will want their own brand. So it can be our formula with their label on it. And in other cases that we will develop a recipe or utilize someone’s recipe for a big food company and do a cold pack for them. And then they’ll be able to sell it cocktail sauce comes to mind. We do quite a bit of those, and then they’ll bring them to market themselves. Another segment of our business is industrial. So we’re pretty large in the industrial sector. Think about a 400 pound drum of horseradish, or a 35 pound pail of horseradish. And those are sold to big food companies that are utilizing horseradish as a raw material, raw ingredient in one of their sauces or formulas. So those those guys are generally using it for cocktail sauce or they’re mixing into salad dressing. We sell to some, quite a few Bloody Mary companies that are utilizing Bloody Mary mix. Pub cheese. There’s some cheese companies that will do a horseradish pub cheese. So a variety of different applications on the industrial side. And then we do a little bit of food service as well. So we’ll make gallons of horseradish or quarts of horseradish and that will be served to restaurants and restaurant distributors or cruise ships if they’re doing like a cocktail sauce bar. All you can eat shrimp, something like that. We do quite a bit of that. So, retail food service and industrial are kind of the main segments of our market in the US. Probably our our strongest item number one seller is our regular prepared Silver Spring horseradish. It’s sold in every Walmart in the US, you know, retail size eight ounce glass jar refrigerated section. We’ll sell that generally to the dairy buyer. As I said, you have to keep horseradish cold to keep it hot, so we partnered with dairy distributors or we’ll go into the dairy department to keep it in a cold place in the grocery store. So it’s in cold channel all the way through life from the harvest and the cold storage, we’ll grind it, we’ll bottle it, we’ll put it in the refrigerator. It’ll ship out on a refrigerated truck and it’ll live in a refrigerated shelf before the consumer gets it and then the consumer is going to be able to use prepared horseradish in a variety of different ways. You know the main uses for horseradish are gonna be you know, prime rib or Bloody Marys or to make sauces like cocktail sauce. But then a lot of people like to mix it you know, have fun with it, mix it with mashed potatoes, mix it with applesauce, make a salad dressing out of it, add a little bit to a soup or a stew to give it a little pop. So people can use it as a condiment, or they can use it as an ingredient. And we have this core demographic for horseradish. We actually did a study 10 years ago, trying to figure out who is the horseradish consumer and the study told us it was mainly 55 years and older. So we did the same study 10 years later. And you know, pretty similar results. They were just now 65 years and older. So same group, they’re just 10 years older. So one of our challenges as a company is how do we engage a younger audience? How do we engage millennials and make something like horseradish exciting again, and so we’ve gotten into you know, some events marketing. We were the official horseradish of Lambo, served wherever Bloody Marys are served, trying to get into the tailgating scene and the brunch scene. Utilizing social media is a great way to engage a younger audience, influencers, so, you know, people that can, you know, get a hold of our product and use it and show different, you know, different recipes, different ways to use it. And just bring some awareness to this to this great product because, you know, it packs a lot of punch. There’s a lot of heat and flavor without, you know, the sugar or cholesterol or fat. So, you know, among condiments is one of the best that you can, you can use. And it’s certainly kind of like a thrill ride, you know, it gives you that heat, like a roller coaster, and then then it goes dissipates. So it’s quite a bit different than some of the other heats that are out there.

Steffen Mirsky 32:56
That’s a really interesting study. And I wonder, I wonder why that is? Do you have any ideas?

Eric Rygg 33:01
I think yeah, as as we get older, our taste buds become a little desensitized. So I think horseradish with this strong kick is more interesting as a way to you know, bring excitement and flavor to food and that’s that’s really our mission and purpose as a condiments company, is to make food taste better, not the same or worse. So So we’d like to say give it zing with Silver Spring. That’s one reason and I think it’s just an awareness of kind of how you can use it or incorporate horseradish in a variety of different ways. So you know, with more cooking expertise, I think as we get older we develop more skills and can incorporate more ingredients like horseradish into our our meal to give it a little more interest and excitement.

Steffen Mirsky 33:55
So I’m curious, you mentioned that there are other producers of horseradish out there and horseradish products. I’m wondering how you set yourself apart from competitors. Like what what makes your product unique and better than the others? What kind of strategies are you using?

Eric Rygg 34:13
Yeah, great question. I think it starts with having a great quality product. With being vertically integrated in horseradish, it allows us to control the quality and really understand what’s going on with the root itself and deliver a consistent product. Some of our competitors do a blend with horseradish and parsnips and we do 100% horseradish, so actually, the name Silver Spring was used to to really connote that purity of the product. There is a spring on the site of our farm operation called the silver spring. And where it was Huntsinger Farms is the farming operation, Silver Spring Foods is the brand and the manufacturing company. I think when Ellis launched his brand horseradish, he wanted to connote that purity that he’s using 100% horseradish in his product versus kind of a root blend. Another thing that we’ve done recently is, I was really curious about the chemistry of horseradish, you know, what goes on with the root itself. And why is one root hotter than the next and those flavor dynamics that we talked about earlier? So we commissioned a study to look at the chemistry of horseradish and really understand what was going on with the heat. And what we discovered is, is the horseradish itself isn’t hot when you put it in your mouth. But as soon as you start chewing on the root, or in our case, by grinding it, it releases this enzymatic reaction. There’s something called glucosinilate, it’s stored in the roots themselves. And this activity on the root cells will convert that into something called allyl isothiocyanate. It’s a mouthful, but that’s essentially the compound that goes up into your nose and makes your eyes water. The more of that that’s there, the more tears that come to your eye, the more peppy it is. And so we were able to really dig into this and study it. And there is a way to measure different peppers. So there’s Scoville units that measure, you know, the difference between a jalapeno and a habanero. And you know, how many Scoville units is one versus the other? And what’s the consumer experience going to be? So we endeavor to make our own heat index for horseradish through this study. And so we can measure different roots, we can measure different finished goods, we have a method. We developed a method to determine the difference in heat and how much zing there is. And we launched our own heat index for horseradish, and we call it the zing factor, which is totally novel to our category. No one else has a zing factor, but we have the research to back it up. And we are just putting it on the packaging now. And we have a variety of different products that we’ve brought to market in the horseradish space that hit different segments for consumers, whether you like a little more mild zing, that’s a zing factor of one. And that would be like our cranberry horseradish, it’s only about 12% horseradish in there. So I like to call that beginner horseradish, and then you can graduate, you know, work your way up to a zing factor of five, that’s our hottest product. And that really will bring a tear to your eye. So something like that, I think gives us a differentiating point in the market. The purity as I mentioned, in this process of understanding the heat dynamics of horseradish, one of the challenges the industry faces is this, this heat loss over time. So what we were able to do is graph that heat loss. So the day that we make it, it has a certain level of heat. And then what does it look like in a month, two months, three months, six months at the end of the shelf life and how much heat lost did we have? Is there a way we can flatten that curve, so that the consumer has a more consistent experience with our product from the beginning to the end of his shelf life? So through some processing techniques, through some trials and tribulations, and this method have been able to measure and taste, we have been able to flatten that curve and have less loss,a flatter curve. So from the beginning to the end of the product shelf life is more consistent. And therefore consumers can can trust our brands more as they’re buying it. And when we’re talking to commercial customers, we understand the heat dynamics of the product and we can create a product for them that meets their their zing factor preference, you know. What is it that they want their product to do? And what do they want that to do over time. So I think that’s created a differentiating point for us that gives us a nice competitive advantage in the long haul.

Steffen Mirsky 39:01
I love that that name zing factor, I think that’s really catchy. So you said you mix it with cranberries. And I thought I read on your website that some of your products contain dairy and that somehow, I don’t know, improves the flavor. I just I think those flavor combinations with other iconic Wisconsin ingredients are really cool.

Eric Rygg 39:23
Yeah, so I think you’re referring to our cream style horseradish. And that was an invention and discovery really an early days by my grandfather and great grandfather almost by accident. So they spilled I think the story goes they spilled some Wisconsin dairy cream into the prepared horseradish somehow. Maybe it was coffee creamer whatever it is that they’re using that got into the product. They put it into the refrigerator, forgot about it for a month or two, saw there again pulled it out and it was as white as could be which is a characteristic that consumers are looking for. It’ll get darker as it ages. So it stayed whiter longer than their regular product. And then they tried it and they discovered that, oh my gosh, this has its heat it didn’t lose his heat. So they invented cream style horseradish at the time by mixing Wisconsin cream with the prepared horseradish. And there is and they didn’t know it, we have the research now is to understand why it works. But they, you know, just empirically, oh wow, this is hotter longer, they added another month of shelf life, which allowed them then to expand our market into markets outside of Wisconsin, and really helped us become more of a national brand and, and move into more markets outside of our region. Now we know why – it’s this allyl isothiocyanate. When this this compound that makes horseradish hot reacts with water in a way that breaks it down. So we generate all this heat, it’s the plants defense mechanism is telling you, “don’t eat me,” releasing all this stuff. But as we mix it into the prepared horseradish with water, it’s reacting with the water and it’s breaking down. So what the oil and the cream does, or the fat, is it coats this, this compound, and it doesn’t let it react with the water and break down so it’s kind of preserved in there until you’re ready to put it on your your prime rib. Cranberry horseradish is is a product that was invented on our dinner table again, growing up in the horseradish industry. We have horseradish on the table all the time. So you can imagine Thanksgiving time with our family. We have a fresh horseradish on the plate and then we make our own cranberry sauce and or the two then kind of sometimes commingle when they’re on the plate, and we’re like, wow, this is amazing with the turkey. Let’s let’s commercialize it. Let’s let’s bring it to market and see how it goes. And it’s still one of our family favorites. Today. I like to put it over a block of cream cheese around the holidays is very bright and vibrant, and serve with crackers. Recently, I’ve been mixing it with cottage cheese and serving it with ruffles. Potato chips is a nice a nice snack. But it gets a little bit of that earthy, horseradish heat. And then kind of the tart, sweet cranberry with the cheese is kind of a Wisconsin match made in heaven.

Steffen Mirsky 42:28
That’s great. Okay, so getting back to your markets. I’m curious how the market for your products has trended in the last few years. How did COVID affect it? You mentioned that supply he had some supply issues a few years ago because of the weather. How has demand for your product been?

Eric Rygg 42:47
Demand absolutely exploded. For our products, all of our products that we make here in during the COVID times we stayed open, you know food manufacturing supermarket stayed open as people had to stay home and restaurants closed. You know, that was our primary market was was retail. So everybody’s cooking three meals a day at home and going to the grocery store. And there was more of a need for all retail food products. We had 30,40,50, 60% growth for horseradish and mustard and different things. One of the reasons I think for that is, you know, if you’re having the same meal all the time, how do you make it interesting and different? And that’s really where we can come in. You know, if you haven’t the same turkey sandwich every day. You know, here’s a nice way to bring some excitement and flavor to that kind of standard sandwich. And more people were looking at health, you know, horseradish and mustards are very, you know, healthy for you. So, I think that was another factor that that helped us. And we’re coming off with some of those peaks. Now, as we as more things have opened up and more restaurants have opened up. But as the economy is, is turned and people are being more price conscious, there’s a role for us to play there. If you’re buying a cheaper cut of meat, you know, you can use horseradish to tenderize it or to add flavor to it. You know, there’s a there’s a use for our condiments that are fairly inexpensive to be able to add flavor to a variety different proteins.

Steffen Mirsky 44:22
All right, well, as we wrap up here, I just want to ask one final question. And that is, what’s the future of Silver Springs look like? Where do you see opportunities and challenges in the next few years?

Eric Rygg 44:34
Yeah, great, great question. I would say for me coming into this role. I’m the first family member who’s taken over as president since my mother had it in 1973. We’ve had outside management. So it’s been great for me to have this opportunity. It’s pretty rare to get to the fourth generation and over 90 years and really focusing on that quality and service. So my goal for the company is really to leave it in better shape for the next generation that when I found it. I talked about for my four pillars, my four ways that I plan to do that. And number one, I want to be a great place to work for employees, really focusing on culture. We launched our Huntsinger Way, which is a series of 30 fundamentals that talk about the behaviors that are critical to our success, giving employees opportunities for growth and development. Number two is solve problems for customers, you know, big little, that’s the essence of any business really, but we’ve got to keep focused on that. Because our customers are what keep us in business. Number three is make a difference. That’s one of our fundamentals but it’s one of my pillars too. The more successful we are the more we can give back and weave our brand into the fabric of the community and it allows us to host Wisconsin Farm Technology Days. To say yes to that was a big economic impact, a great thing for the agricultural industry. And a chance for me to meet other producers in our area like Chippewa Valley Bean and Superior Fresh and Marieke Gouda, and Ferguson’s Orchard, just amazing specialty crops here. And then, last but not least, make the world a tastier place. No roast beef sandwich left behind. So our mission is really to make food taste better. And so everything we make, I hold up through that prism to make sure that we’re adding flavor and not just making a bland product. So if we do those four things, well, I think we’ll be around for another 90 years. We have our eye on sustainability as well. We’ve had more customers asking about the energy that we’re using our carbon footprint. We’ve just gone through our scope one and scope two carbon footprinting exercise for the factory. I think it’s inherent in being a family business and being able to make longer term decisions, generational decisions. So investments now that our good 5-10 years allowed us to invest in a solar array that generates about 18% of the energy we use on the farm to keep the horseradish cold. The rotation for the horseradish, it’s an eye of being good steward of the land, preventing erosion. You know, cover cropping, what can we do to use less fertilizers, fewer passes. We just invested in new new farming facilities in the center of our fields so we can be more efficient. We have a wash water retention pond, we use a lot of water when we’re washing the horseradish before it comes up to the factory. So what can we do to preserve some of that? Well, we built this this huge water retention to save that water and then pump that back out into the field for irrigation. So I think that’s that’s going to help us continue to be successful.

Steffen Mirsky 48:03
Well, thank you so much, Eric. I really appreciate you making the time to talk to me and I’m really excited to pick up a bottle of horseradish that my nearest supermarket. I don’t know if I’ll go for a zing factor of five but I do like some heat so maybe three or four. But thanks again and just wish you the best of luck.

Eric Rygg 48:25
Thank you very much happy to be here. We do have strong roots and Wisconsin here and give it zing with Silver Spring.

JASON FISCHBACH 49:00
Brought to you by the University of Wisconsin Madison Division of Extension.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai