HERBAL DRESSING: AREA'S NEWS ENTREPRENEURS HAVE PRODUCT ON THE MARKET

Crossfire Enterprises Inc., a family-owned Cape Girardeau business, features "Jeanne's Country Herb Product."

For years, Jeanne Heise delighted friends with gifts of home herb vinegar from her kitchen.

Now, hundreds of gallons of gift vinegar and experiments later, Heise's product has gone public, as Jeanne's Country Herb Products.

"It's more of a salad dressing now," said Heise.

"Although a salad dressing, the product can be used in a variety of ways," said Heise.

"It can be used on salads, as dip for chips or fish, or to marinate beef, pork, or chicken before grilling," says Heise, a Cape Girardeau school nurse who has been experimenting with herb dressings the past two years.

Heise, and her husband, David, recently turned their creative food talents into a business that provides the "Heise dressings" to a number of retail outlets throughout the immediate Southeast Missouri area.

"We experimented a lot," said Jeanne Heise, who has grown herbs a number of years. "It took almost two years to create this special taste."

The end results for the area's newest entrepreneurs is Jeanne's Country Herb Product, a dressing bottled in a 12.3-ounce glass container, manufactured by King's Food, of Belleville, Ill.

The mixture contains tarragon herbs, a dash of red wine and bits of other herb snips.

The Heises also have gallon-sized containers of the dressing, which is sold to restaurants.

"The smaller bottles are for retailers," said Heise.

A number of specialty shops and wineries carry the retail item, including Judith Anne's, Ye Olde House and The Wine Cellar in downtown Cape Girardeau.

"I've always raised herbs," said Heise. "A couple of years ago, I came up with a herbal vinegar for a salad dressing."

"I was making it at home almost every night," she said. "We shared it with our friends, and some wanted to buy it."

The product "was pretty good," she said. "It was great on salad."

As more requests for her product came in, the Heises began looking around for a bottler.

King's Food filled the bill, and Crossfire Enterprises Inc., a family-owned business was born, resulting in "Jeanne's Country Herb Product."

The first order, of 50 cases was ready in March.

"I gave them (King's) my `little recipe,' said Heise. "They had to increase it to a `big recipe,'" but it all worked out.

"King's Food has been great," said Heise. "We spent a lot of time at Belleville tasting."

Although the bottling takes place at Belleville -- every ingredient must be measured by scales and listed on the label -- the Heises are doing their own distributing.

"We recently vacationed in Branson, where we introduced our dressing," said Heise. "We're always looking for new markets."

"Many of the state's wineries sell our product," said Heise, including River Ridge at Commerce. Other wineries with the product include Montelle Winery, Mount Pleasant Winery and August Winner, all of Augusta, Mo.

Other outlets for the dressing include Toni's Flower House in Cape Girardeau; High Street Station and Tractors Restaurant in Jackson; and the Show Me Shop at Ste. Genevieve.

The dressing is the first of many products by Crossfire Enterprises, said Heise.

"We're in the process of developing some new products and hope to have them ready for the market in the near future."

Heise's husband, who works in master control at KFVS-12 Television station, designed the label for the product, which features a log-cabin in the background.

"The 18-foot square cabin was found in a nearby area, dismantled and moved to the Heise property.

Heise dismantled the cabin, board by board, numbering them for remantling. It was completed in 1985, with David doing most of the work.

The Heises used the cabin as "our home away from home," she said.

Growing of herbs in the United States has increased over the past decade.

"It doesn't take much space," said Heise. "We have a few small spaces where we grow herbs -- tarragon, chives, thyme, basil and few other herb plants.

Some people may grow herbs on their balconies or on windowsills, in small containers.

Botanically speaking, the word herb is derived from the Latin word "herba," which means grass or green crops. In ordinary language it refers to a host of plants whose leaves, flowers, roots, bark and other parts are used for flavor, fragrance, medicine, cosmetics and dyes.