The Rogue Valley in Southern Oregon is well known for its pears, but it also used to produce delicious catsup.
An early pickle and vinegar producer from Portland, Frank L. Knight, had heard that the best catsup tomatoes were grown in the Rogue River Valley, so he opened a packing plant in Medford in 1916. It was so close to the fields that tomatoes were processed within hours of their picking.
Large kettles steamed and cooked the washed tomatoes with onions, garlic and spices. The final product went to Portland for bottling. By 1925, the Medford plant produced 35 tons of tomatoes a day, enough for 2,750 gallons of catsup. In 1936 the expanded and modernized Medford plant began bottling the catsup in Medford.
The Rogue River Catsup brand soon captured 75 per cent of the Portland market and was distributed to parts of Washington, Idaho and California. Knight even copyrighted the name “Rogue River” for any tomato-based product.
Rogue River Catsup was a great success for 25 years, but by 1942 the packing company was no longer listed in local directories, and Medford’s catsup days became only a memory.
Sources: Alley, William. "Rogue River Catsup." Southern Oregon Heritage Today, vol. 4, no. 11, Nov. 2002, p. 5.
