...Donna Knopf, proprietor of Vegetas in Tempe, says she started her nine-year-old firm because she saw a need for grain-based, meatless sausages. The company evolved over the years and added salsa-making to the enterprise. A variety of Vegetas salsas, including Smoky Chipotle and Avocado Tomatillo, are sold fresh and without preservatives at all A.J.’s Fine Foods stores, at Whole Foods Market in Tempe and at Wild Oats outlets.

A former Chicago resident and an interior designer, Knopf laughingly says, “If someone had told me in 1976, when I got off the plane in Phoenix, that I’d be making salsa for a living, I’d have laughed.” Now, she tells people to use salsa with everything. “Get a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket, some of our salsa, and some soft tortillas, and it’s delicious eating.” (Or, try her fresh tamales and gourmet tortilla chips, other food
products she has added to her line. The vegetarian sausages she started out with now account for just I percent of her business.) ...