{"id":52066,"date":"2020-08-19T18:19:11","date_gmt":"2020-08-20T00:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/former-ignacio-science-teacher-makes-salsa-to-send-students-to-space-camp\/"},"modified":"2020-08-20T00:19:11","modified_gmt":"2020-08-20T00:19:11","slug":"former-ignacio-science-teacher-makes-salsa-to-send-students-to-space-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/former-ignacio-science-teacher-makes-salsa-to-send-students-to-space-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Ignacio science teacher makes salsa to send students to Space Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=30f70710-7120-44e4-97ba-160b93699c2a&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" alt=\"Danny Jacques, a former middle school science teacher in Ignacio, is selling dehydrated \u201cSpace Salsa,\u201d with a goal of raising money to send students to Space Camp, something he has done throughout his career. The salsa has made it into the atmosphere \u2013 aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress no less \u2013 but Jacques also hopes to get the salsa into orbit in the not-too-distant future.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Danny Jacques, a former middle school science teacher in Ignacio, is selling dehydrated \u201cSpace Salsa,\u201d with a goal of raising money to send students to Space Camp, something he has done throughout his career. The salsa has made it into the atmosphere \u2013 aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress no less \u2013 but Jacques also hopes to get the salsa into orbit in the not-too-distant future.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Courtesy of Danny Jacques<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>As of yet, Danny Jacques hasn\u2019t been to outer space.<\/p>\n<p>Growing up on a ranch in Ignacio, he was fascinated by space exploration and wanted to be an astronaut. But not knowing how to accomplish that dream, he pursued the next best thing: teaching science at Ignacio Junior High School for three decades. During that time, he\u2019s done his best to equip students with the skills they would need to get to space, taking kids from the area to Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, for 27 consecutive years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne year, I got to stop and visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacecamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Space Camp<\/a> on a family trip. We stopped down there and visited and looked at the rockets, and I go, \u2018This place is cool. I gotta bring kids here. This is the coolest,\u2019\u201d Jacques said.<\/p>\n<p>And so he did. So far, he has taken 542 students to the educational camp at NASA\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center, earning Jacques a place in the Space Camp Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n<p>Now retired from teaching, Jacques is using another tool to send youngsters to Space Camp: salsa.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fIy-vU6XMy0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>He experimented with making salsas for years, he said, finally arriving on a recipe that became his go-to food item to bring to parties and gatherings. At a pool party during a Space Camp Hall of Fame reunion, he asked Fort Collins High School teacher-turned-astronaut Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, who launched in the space shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station in 2010, if astronauts would enjoy his salsa on the ISS. She replied affirmatively, setting Jacques\u2019 mind in motion about how to use his salsa as a way to raise money for Space Camp scholarships.<\/p>\n<p>Just over two years later, Jacques finally launched the product on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Danny\u2019s Rocket Ranch Space Salsa, which Jacques makes himself on his ranch in Ignacio, is a dehydrated food \u00e0 la Astronaut Ice Cream. It has a lot of ingredients you\u2019d find in normal salsas, including diced tomatoes, Hatch green chiles, garlic and lime juice \u2013 albeit the dry versions.<\/p>\n<p>To prepare the salsa, you tear open the pouch in which it comes, add 1\u00bc cups of water and reseal it for 20 minutes. The resulting salsa is thick and will stick to foods \u2013 it was designed to actually work in a weightless environment, but it would be practical for backpackers and the like as well.<\/p>\n<p>The salsa differs from his traditional, wet salsa recipe, which doesn\u2019t taste the same when made dry. His current recipe, \u201cMartian Spicy Original,\u201d was the result of many rounds of experimentation. A second \u201cMartian Hot\u201d salsa is on the horizon, with a margarita mix potentially farther down the road. In addition to chips, he said it\u2019s great on breakfast burritos, and when made with slightly more water, it works as a taco seasoning.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=02743929-a344-499e-af43-4670ca35ed51&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" alt=\"Danny&amp;#x2019;s Rocket Ranch Space Salsa sells for $6.49 and is available online at &lt;a href=&amp;quot;https:\/\/www.dannysrocketranch.com\/&amp;quot;&gt;dannysrocketranch.com&lt;\/a&gt;; in Ignacio at Farmers Fresh Market, Pinon Liquors and Walker&amp;#x2019;s Do It Best; and at the U.S. Space &amp; Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Danny&amp;#x2019;s Rocket Ranch Space Salsa sells for $6.49 and is available online at &lt;a href=&amp;quot;https:\/\/www.dannysrocketranch.com\/&amp;quot;&gt;dannysrocketranch.com&lt;\/a&gt;; in Ignacio at Farmers Fresh Market, Pinon Liquors and Walker&amp;#x2019;s Do It Best; and at the U.S. Space &amp; Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Courtesy of Danny Jacques<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>The salsa sells for $6.49 and is available online at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dannysrocketranch.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">dannysrocketranch.com<\/a>; in Ignacio at Farmers Fresh Market, Pinon Liquors and Walker\u2019s Do It Best; and at the U.S. Space &amp; Rocket Center in Huntsville. He is currently looking into getting it into stores in Durango.<\/p>\n<p>As soon as the salsa begins turning a profit, Jacques plans to donate 10% to the U.S. Space &amp; Rocket Center Education Foundation for Space Camp scholarships.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy big payout is when I see someone that I work with walking on Mars. That\u2019s gonna be a big day for me,\u201d he said. \u201cAs a teacher, you should inspire kids \u2013 have them reach for that brass ring. Kids out here, you\u2019re out in the middle of the reservation and growing up, it\u2019s like, you hear about these things and read about them, see them on TV, but you don\u2019t know how to get there. And so I feel like I can open the door.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jacques said he may return to teaching one day. But over the next year, as he continues making salsa, one of his goals is to get it onto the space station \u2013 a goal that isn\u2019t out of the realm of possibility. Jacques knows the right people to talk to, and spicy food is often in high demand in orbit. Microgravity tends to dull astronauts\u2019 sense of taste, creating a need for bold items, such as pesto, sriracha sauce and wasabi.<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\"><a href=\"mailto:ngonzales@durangoherald.com\">ngonzales@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Entrepreneur wants to send product into orbit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[438,13,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-52066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-food","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52066"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=52066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}