And the sofi™ Gold Award goes to… Dill Pickle Ketchup! 

Brownwood Farm’s Dill Pickle Ketchup with Bourbon has been named the 2023 sofi™ Gold Product Award Winner in the Condiments, Dressings and Marinades category. The Specialty Food Association’s (SFA) sofi™ Awards—which have been bestowed annually since 1972—are a top honor in the $175 billion specialty food industry.

The 2023 sofi™ Awards recognized a Gold Winner and a New Product Winner in each of 53 specialty food and beverage product categories. Nearly 2,000 products from domestic andternational makers were entered into the 2023 competition.

“We are honored that our Brownwood Farms Dill Pickle Ketchup has won a sofi™ Gold Product Award,” says Jonathan Milo Leal, owner of Milo’s Whole World Gourmet, the parent company of Brownwood Farms. “As entrepreneurs, we want to know that we are creating the best possible product for our customers, and this Award is one of the ultimate stamps of approval.”

Brownwood Farms’ Dill Pickle Ketchup can be purchased online at brownwoodfarms.com or at many stores locally and internationally. Locate a store near you by completing the contact form with your ZIP code.

Brownwood Farms’ Dill Pickle Ketchup will now compete against other category winners for the 2023 sofi™ Gold Product of the Year Award, which will be selected and announced at the Summer Fancy Food Show, June 25-27 in New York City. The Summer Fancy Food Show is the largest B2B-only specialty food industry event in North America.

“The sofi™ Awards recognize the best, most innovative products in the Specialty Food Industry and the creative, passionate people who make them,” said SFA President Bill Lynch. “Winning a sofi™ Award can open doors to new markets and expanded business opportunities for the winners, which is central to the SFA’s work on behalf of its member makers and manufacturers.”

The sofi™ Awards competition is open to product qualified SFA members in good standing. Gold and New Award Winners in each category are featured in the sofi™ Spotlight Pavilion at the Summer and Winter Fancy Food Shows. Winning a sofi™ Award creates added exposure for products with food buyers from top names in supermarkets, specialty retailers, foodservice, distributors, and the media.

Mexican Roots Grow Deep in Southeast Ohio

Friends of Milo’s WWG,

While this company I founded in 2003 here in the rolling hills of southeast Ohio has grown and blossomed, not many know about my family’s deep roots in Mexico. With a last name like Leal (“loyal” in Spanish), the bloodline is one we’re very proud of. In fact, Milo is a family name going back to an ancestor in the 1800s, the details of which have been lost to time. My grandfather, father, and nephew all share this name with me.

Cinco de Mayo commemorates a May 5, 1962 victorious battle of indigenous outnumbered Mexican soldiers over the better armed and larger numbers of French. This is not Independence Day, as many assume, but was rather a symbolic victory that started events leading to France’s withdrawal. And it came soon after Benito Juárez, who was a lawyer and member of the Indigenous Zapotec tribe, was elected president of Mexico. Read more here

My grandparents spent many years among the Zapotec people, translating the Bible into Zapotec, and my dad spent much of his childhood there. My parents also worked there for a few years while I was a child, Some fun photos pulled from the family vault are below.

Cinco is Mayo is a time to celebrate the strength of indigenous Mexican culture. At Milo’s WWG, we are proud of that heritage and celebrate diversity.

Here we see my grandmother Mary Leal wearing a Zapotec dress.


And here I am as an 8 year old, on a rock in Yatzachi.