Sarah Marshall, a born and raised Oregonian, creates an array of handmade hot sauces that reflect her deep connection to her home. Sarah and her husband Dirk have been making and selling spicy sauces in Portland, Oregon since 2011. Hear their story on the Craft Hot Sauce Podcast.

My first memories with hot sauces really came from eating amazing food growing up in the cultural melting pot of Southern California. Whether it was finding a homemade sambal or sriracha from the Mongolian BBQ or Ramen Joint, to eating a hoard of $.59 street tacos from the taqueria with their buffet of fresh salsas, peppers and heat grabbed me at a young age. I would say a ton of my influences come from emulating that fresh homemade feel into sauces that aren’t just for one particular dish, but can be used with any recipe, any time.

I (Deja) came to love hot sauce while growing up in Southern California, eating house made hot sauce from a little hole in the wall Mexican food restaurant in high school.  It was only a drive- thru but it had the best burritos and the hot sauce that I have ever had. This was the inspiration for our Morita sauce. My true love of cooking with chilies began when I became the executive chef at a boutique Thai and Indonesian fusion restaurant in Manhattan Beach California where I worked with two wonderful Thai ladies

Our hot sauce journey was long in the making. The Geverd family had been playing with hot sauce recipes for a few years with the idea of someday producing commercially. The stars aligned when the family bought an old German farmhouse that came with a sizable acreage that had been used for conventional ag. Around the same time Cheyne Geverd made a decision to pivot his career from doing geological work for oil companies overseas to being a farmer. He took seasonal jobs with local produce farms to learn the skills, and at one of these farms met Fiona Palumbo, his eventual partner, whose background also included cooking and (very small scale) hot sauce making.

We are still a tiny company with a small warehouse on one side of town and separate office space on the other. Will, Rose & I spend almost every weekend from April 1st through the end of November on the road, trying to build brand identity.

My passion for hot sauce came from my passion for cooking and entertaining. My team & I love to eat and love spicy food even more! What started out as a table sauce for a dinner party turned into a growing business specializing in bold & unique flavor profiles.

It all got started in 2014 when I started my first garden in my backyard. I had always liked peppers and wanted to try something different. So I looked around the internet and found the Carolina Reaper Peppers from Puckerbutt Pepper Company and I was hooked!

Town Farm Gardens was started by Laurie and Ron Starcher as a small farm in Brookfield, MA. They soon discovered that there was much more demand for pickled and canned products made from their produce than the produce itself.

My husband and I have been chileheads for years. After purchasing a few sauces that we didn't care for, I decided to try making my own. I had graduated culinary school at the age of 43 after being a stay at home mom for years and knew I didn't want to work 90 hours in a hot kitchen.

We started the company in the fall of 2015, using the base for our recipes from Woody Clamlube, our partner out in California. We met Woody at a wedding about four years ago, when he was introducing everyone at the reception to his homemade sauce.

I have always loved to cook and enjoy experimenting with different kinds of sauces. When I wanted to add some heat, I realized most commercial hot sauces didn't accentuate the natural taste of the food. I made it my mission to develop the perfect hot sauces and Taylor's Ultimate was born in early 2014.

It all started in 2009 when I was trying to make the perfect hot wings with something other than Frank’s Red Hot. After countless trips to my local hot sauce store, my obsession with wings changed to hot sauce.