I wanted your first note of the year to come from the hot sauce part of your life. Happy New Year! I hope you’re in good health and I’m counting on 2022 being a great year ahead.

I’m here to share a recent conversation I had, which is now on the Craft Hot Sauce Podcast. Sometimes when I write this newsletter or market a hot sauce, it’s not my most natural channel of communication. The podcast has grown to be my favorite way of connecting with the wider craft hot sauce community and sharing those experiences with you. 

Hope you’re enjoying your week as we ease into the winter months. In the past couple of newsletters I’ve described the hustle and bustle of the chili pepper harvest season. I feel like the mania that built up during summer peaked a couple weeks ago at the NYC Hot Sauce Expo.

The event was everything we hoped for with lots of engagement with hot sauce enthusiasts and makers. We gave out more samples of Craic Sauce over a two day period than ever before, receiving lots of positive feedback, especially with our Brian Boru’s Curry sauce.  

We’re kicking the October Craft Hot Sauce newsletter off with some sounds, images, and the hum of harvest season!

Check out what has been a pretty accurate representation of a day in the life for me and the craic crew this harvest season.

It's been a physical and mental grind of late, but we're learning every hour, making quality hot sauce, and feeling fortunate to be around peppers, farms and people excited for flavor and hot sauce!

Happy Harvest Season! There is so much excitement and growth with hot sauce and chili peppers this time of year. Have you been trying anything new or exciting of late? I’m always interested in hearing about cool peppers or favorite recipes that crop up! Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks of what I've been making and picking!

While talking to customers about potential uses of hot sauces, I realized that we had strongly opinionated theories about how to properly craft your own hot sauce collection that I needed to share with you!

Chief among those opinions is the idea that you need to have a diverse range of hot sauces for every purpose, consisting of your most used everyday hot sauces, unique hot sauces, and sauces to fill in the gaps of heat and flavor.

Tim Myers of Hot Heads, is self-described as a go-doer. We talk through early lessons growing peppers, how to scale a farm and hot sauce operation simultaneously, and the breakdown of some unique hot sauces like their chocolate reaper mole sauce.

First up, I'm excited to share an amazing conversation I had with Debra Sandler, founder of Bazodee. Debra has an inspiring story - born in Venezuela and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, she came to the US for college and found a passion for business and marketing. Now her focus is on sharing the flavors of Trinidadian kitchens by launching Bazodee.

I’ve noticed that my curated online feed has been filled with spring foraging. In 2016, I interviewed Tim Paulman of Paulman Acre on our podcast who talked about foraging morel mushrooms that he used in a special limited edition hot sauce. So naturally whenever I learn about new foods I think: how would this ingredient work in a hot sauce?

Hi there, We got some big news! Craft Hot Sauce is shifting its focus to craft wine! Over the years, we've burned off most of our taste buds, tried all the hot sauces worth trying, and are now moving onto something more sophisticated. Vino 🍷 Our first review, Barefoot Wine's Cabernet Sauvignon, 2019.

Our newsletter this month brings together a diverse set of interests and unique journeys, that all connect with a passion for local food and hot sauce.

We start at Kitchen Garden Farm, in Western Mass. If you're interested in learning more about farming, going down the path that people say is impossible, and learning about building community and a crew, tune in to this episode of the Craft Hot Sauce Podcast!

Earlier this morning, I dove into some spreadsheets planning out my first pepper plot. A couple weeks ago at my winter farmers market, I met Max, a recently retired individual who has been gardening for 30 years and started farming small plots in the town over from me.